About

[Last updated 2022-12-05]

Hi. I’m Allen Browne, and I want to understand Jesus better.

If Jesus had an About page, he would identify himself as “son of man.” His activity was “kingdom of God.” The son of man establishing the kingdom of God? Is that how you describe Jesus? It shocked me to realize I didn’t understand Jesus in the terms he used to describe himself. That is now the pursuit of my life, and the reason for this blog.

Currently I work with Riverview Church in Perth Western Australia in a teaching role. Over the last 20 years, I’ve served as lecturer, Academic Dean, and Principal of Riverview Colleges, and lectured at other colleges in Perth. I’ve created content for discipleship programmes, and the content for Bibleview (a daily-reading app for iOS and Android. that takes you through the Bible in 2 years).

Before that, I pastored a couple of churches, and worked in cross-denominational Christian radio. I’ve always been a geek, even running a small software business for a while — developing small databases, offering training, providing tips on Microsoft Access, and co-authoring a book titled Essential Access 95. My wife Robyn and I have four children and four grandchildren.

I have a 5-year Bachelor of Theology (Ozark Christian College), and a Graduate Diploma of Theology (Australian College of Theology), as well as a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAE40116). But it was N. T. Wright who convinced me I needed to understand Jesus in his historical setting, from a first-century Jewish perspective. Tom’s earlier books —The New Testament and the People of God and Jesus and the Victory of God — provided the framework for the questions I’m asking about how Jesus understood the kingdom.

For a more detailed list of influences, see bibliography.

So, I plan to spend the rest of my life expanding my appreciation of who Jesus is and why he made the kingdom of God was the centre of everything. Join me in seeking the kingdom.