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For those of you interested in the ministry of preaching… There is a spirited discussion going on in the pages of the magazine of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand at the moment. David Allis – with a breadth of experience in church and mission life in NZ and overseas – contributed an article in…
READ MOREI’ve just entered a new chapter in my life. I have started teaching ‘spirituality’ in our BAppTheol curriculum at Carey Baptist College. It’s going to take me a few years to feel confident with the material – but, hey, you gotta start somewhere! On the first day we did an exercise where students put 30…
READ MOREWhile I was overseas I was stunned to hear more than one person tell me that when it comes to missionaries raising their financial support, New Zealand is gaining a reputation for being very slow – the slowest of them all. I wonder if this is true. Are we becoming stingy? Are we growing less…
READ MOREI am on my way home from ten days in this region speaking at the annual conference of a ‘company’ with its ‘workers’ gathered together from throughout the area. Sorry – I have to be a bit vague for security reasons. Here are a few observations… a churchWhile the church is not a building one…
READ MOREI confess that I am struggling with why seeing New Zealand as a Christian nation in past, present, and future is such a big deal. Under the threat of today’s new-religions and ‘no-religion’s (as is so popular in our census forms), it smacks of Christianity trying to preserve some sort of home-field advantage in the…
READ MOREAs I anticipate watching an advance screening (tonight) of the Wilberforce movie – Amazing Grace – I thought this might be an opportune time to share my first and last efforts in song-writing. It goes like this: Innocuous Grace, how dull the sound that saved a nice guy like me. nice chatting Paul [later ……
READ MORERecently I visited the Blue Penguin Colony in Oamaru. Having been ushered through the Visitor Centre 50 of us gathered in a little grandstand to wait and to watch – and to listen to an expert tell us about the blue penguin. She knew her stuff! She described what the blue penguin looked like and…
READ MOREI rise from the malaise that has engulfed me after NZ’s dismal final week at the cricket World Cup to offer just one more ‘first eleven’.One of the more complicated roles in the church today is ‘leading worship’. It is tough! I have a lot of empathy for worship-leaders … In fact I have a…
READ MOREI took my parents to see Miss Potter at the Lido in Auckland. As we walked through the doors into their intimate little cinema on the ground floor I saw a sight I will never ever forget. The front row is lined with these luxurious laz-e-boy chairs. Leaning all the way back in them with…
READ MOREIt was sitting on the shelf of a bookshop at Melbourne airport. Everthing seemed to catch my eye. ‘New York Times bestseller’. The title – and more importantly, as often seems the case these days, the subtitle – ‘Letter to a Christian Nation: a challenge to faith.’ There was even an endorsement from today’s most…
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.