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Like many of you, I am always ready to engage with new insights on leadership. This book draws on “the great wayfinding tradition of the Polynesian navigators” (xiii). Most of you live far from Polynesia, so please stick with me through unfamiliar surroundings! It will be worth it… Drawing near to it There is a…
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With the focus of my work remaining overseas, I have needed to find ways to re-engage with life here in New Zealand. Thirty years ago, I developed a course at Laidlaw College, The Gospel in a Post-Christian Society—and so, when Greg Liston asked me to assist with a new course at Laidlaw covering similar terrain (Ngākau…
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The paper was bright orange. The printing was faded, originating in pre-photocopier, Gestetner days. There were two sheets. I still have them, somewhere in those boxes two metres from me… As a young pastor these sheets of paper captivated me. Developed by what was called the Association of Church Missionary Committees (ACMC), they described a…
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The last time I was in the Blue Mountains, in 2011, a funeral was on my mind. My father had died in Auckland on a Wednesday. The funeral was set for the following Monday. And I faced the dilemma of whether to fulfil a commitment to speak at a mission conference in Katoomba from Friday…
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Ethiopia and its people have such a long history with God. Whether it be all those references to Cush and Nubia in the Old Testament, or the visit of the Queen of Sheba to the court of King Solomon, or that story of Philip with the Ethiopian (a favourite, reminding us that the gospel reached…
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There can be no doubt about what is on Vince Bantu’s mind with his book, A Multitude of All Peoples. It is sitting there, blunt and bald, in the opening two sentences of his Introduction: “Christianity is and always has been a global religion. For this reason, it is important never to think of…
READ MOREEarly in 2020 Myanmar was hit by a double-strike: first the coup, then the covid. And now, through 2022, and still living with so many restraints, the preaching movement seems to be making up for lost time. As I went through the reports and the facebook updates, I counted six training seminars already this year —…
READ MOREGoodness me, what is happening to me? Two posts in a row focused on music? That is waaay beyond my expertise and comfort level. But today is the eleventh anniversary of my father’s death. He was a polished concert pianist, as a teenager — and then a bit of a perfectionist about it all when I…
READ MOREOne thing life has shown me is that ‘post-romantic’ works better as a descriptor for music, than it does for marriage. While I have little background, and less ability, in music [NB: I find it hard to clap and sing at the same time], my soul seems to recognise a post-romantic composer when it hears…
READ MOREI’ve been working on my Introduction to Preaching course at Carey Baptist College (Auckland) in this coming semester. It will be my 33rd consecutive year of teaching preaching at the seminary/college level. It is hard to believe — and to keep me evolving I like to add something fresh each time… This year it is topical…
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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.