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I have recently seen the new Bollywood hit movie, The Three Idiots. Plot, characters, humour, scenery – as well as a window into what ‘doing life’ in India involves. It is the total package. I loved it (despite a dubious bit here and there!). But the director does two things which every movie director seems…
READ MORENow … where was I? Ah yes, we had invited Bill Bryson to New Zealand and I had said to him, “Here is the route, Bill – now you find and write the story”. The North Island has been covered and now we turn our attention to the supreme challenge: the South Island. Why such…
READ MORESome of the most probing insights into the (ir)relevance of the church in society come from missionaries returning home after years away in distant – and very different – lands. While they think they are way out of touch, I have learned to listen to the startling things they have to say. It happened last…
READ MOREJohn Stott’s 51st – and final – book has been published. Mark Meynell, a current member of the All Soul’s staff and a fine preacher (and blogger!) himself, has written a wonderful review of The Radical Disciple here. [By the way, “Uncle John” is the loving and respectful way in which those who know him…
READ MOREI feel sad. One year after the inauguration I feel sad that Obama now finds himself in such a pickle. You don’t have to be a Fox TV political analyst to know that when a Kennedy seat goes Republican within months of a Kennedy death, something seismic is happening. Obama is in big trouble. I…
READ MOREIf I was Bill Bryson I’d come to New Zealand and write a book about my travels. As my own favourite past-time is planning itineraries around NZ, I am happy to say to Bill, “Here is the route, Bill – now you find and write the story”. I’d give him three parameters:(a) No more than…
READ MORELooking down my ‘labels’ to the right, I see that “cricket” is coming last in terms of number. We can’t have that, can we?! With so much cricket on around the world at the moment, here are my (prw) cricket rankings. These rankings come as I stand outside myself and watch who I support as…
READ MOREIt took me awhile to get a hang of the direction in which Mark Noll was heading in his latest book, The New Shape of World Christianity (IVP, 2009). I know the guy is an elite historian but every now and then he seemed to be going down the same path as Jerry Falwell did…
READ MOREI went to see Sherlock Holmes (the movie, not the person). Yet another dark movie. Not only is so much of it filmed at night, or in the shadows, or with the lights out – but creative energy is poured far more into portraying evil than good. There has been a string of movies like…
READ MOREI like this word “noughty”. It keeps popping up as a description of the years from 2000-2009. I had to use it in a post! So here are my top ten unforgettable moments from the Noughties (roughly in chronological order): #1 standing at a gravesideThis had always been our dream. Travelling up and around and…
READ MOREAbout Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.