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The 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 MOREThere’s plenty of chat about consumerism today, isn’t there? I have just finished Duncan MacLaren’s Mission Implausible (Paternoster, 2004) and towards the end he identifies various characteristics of a society driven by consumption: (a) The primacy of individual choice(the path to personal freedom – a long, long way from obligation, duty or loyalty)(b) The expectation…
READ MOREHaving read Bono on Bono – and to give you something on which to reflect as you wait for the delayed U2 concerts (in NZ anyway!) – here is my countdown of a ‘first eleven’ bytes from the book: #11 on hypocrisyAs you get older your idea of the good guys and the bad guys…
READ MOREI’ve just finished reading another book from within the Emerging Church movement (this time it is Doug Pagitt’s Preaching Re-imagined). I like opening myself up to what they write. I enjoy the challenge of reflecting on things from another angle. I find myself responding in much the same way as I have done in the…
READ MOREI notice that a seminar has passed through called ‘The Externally-Focused Church’?Really?! Externally-focused… I don’t mind the ‘external’ word as it reminds us that the Great Commission is critical and that mission is at the very core of God’s being and purpose in the world. But that word ‘focus’ makes me very nervous. Is the…
READ MOREOnce upon a time there was this little community living in a village called Clapham. Just south of London. A rich guy called Thornton kinda funded their life together (not to mention his 34-bedroomed housed where many of them lived). A few of them – Sharp, Clarkson, Macaulay -were set aside as researchers, gathering evidence.…
READ MOREHere goes … let cyberspacian conversation begin! But where to begin? Maybe with something that is uppermost on my mind! I have a different kind of background. Sometimes I introduce myself as a 30:30:30:10 person: 30% Indian (as that is where I spent all my childhood); 30% Kiwi (as I am a New Zealander); 30%…
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.