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In twenty minutes a young friend of mine flies out of New Zealand for what we tend to call the ‘great Kiwi OE’ – the Overseas Experience. It is kinda like a Rite of Passage. It is a great idea. We kinda know that down here in the Antipodes we are far from much of…
READ MOREA little further on preaching … I appreciated that website offered by Sean (on the “Windy Place” posting) and those comments by Kim Fabricius. In it he returns to what I find to be the most ‘frequently asked question’ I hear on the subject of preaching: ‘what about powerpoint?’ Fabricius writes the following:“Technically, Richard Lischer…
READ MOREOne of our staff members was speaking in our Community Worship time and made this statement (and then he helped me track down the actual quotation): “There are many churches these days that instead of reaching the unchurched are unchurching the churched.” [Michael Horton, A Better Way (Baker, 2002) 211] What dya reckon? nice chatting…
READ MOREI’ve just completed an essay for my DMin in which I explored the spirituality that comes to us ‘off the screen’ – from what we sing in church. I took a pretty representative Baptist church in NZ and worked through its playlist of songs [and threw in the playlist from the Billy Graham Crusades (1959…
READ MOREI went to a funeral yesterday. These can be sad events, particularly when you are a close friend or family member and you feel the death has been an untimely one. I don’t want to minimise the grief at a funeral in this posting. But in the last six months I have been to three…
READ MOREI’d love to see every devotee of the 40 Days of Purpose resource move on to a 40 Days of Pluralism resource (which does not yet exist, as far as I know!). This is the P-word where the biggest challenge lies for followers of Jesus today. Pluralism considers that there are multiple roads up the…
READ MOREThe Bible is a remarkable book. Written by dozens of authors. Utilising heaps of different genre(narrative, letters, proverbs…). And the writing takes place over hundreds of years. So diverse!BUT the story from Genesis to Revelation is just the one story. It is God’s story. It is God’s way of making sense of the world. It…
READ MOREThe most profound truths come to us in tension. From big theological issues like the transcendence and immanence of God to the everyday issues that come with living for him – like the blog I posted previously on the internally-focused church (alongside the externally focused church). I find people struggle with truths-in-tension. It feels like…
READ MOREI can tend to avoid speaking in youth and young adult settings. I am not loaded with funny material. I cannot dredge up dramatic stories from a sinful past that holds people spellbound. I do not think well on my feet and tend to need my notes (although I am working on that one!). I…
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.