Barry & Paula Davis

Barry & Paula Davis

Barry and Paula Davis live in Sydney, Australia, have been married for over four decades and have two adult children who live with their families nearby. Barry worked as a chartered accountant in private practice. He also has a theology degree and was involved in pastoring and church planting. In recent years his vocation has centred on developing relational tools for men as they explore their inner worlds. Paula is a clinical counsellor, supervisor and lecturer in counselling. Her doctoral thesis emerged from working with traumatised couples in post-war developing countries, exploring the transferability of Western developed psychological trauma concepts to collective societies. She has been a guest lecturer in higher education in Uganda, India and Sri Lanka. Together, Barry and Paula have been designing relational tools for married couples since the late 1980s and have conducted marriage workshops in Australia, East Africa, Sri Lanka, India and Europe. However, they believe they are an ordinary couple living through the highs and lows of married life. They wear the label “passionate about relationships” as a badge of honour and are enthusiastic about sharing their journey because they believe their story offers hope to others. Barry and Paula are acutely sensitive to unfairness and injustice in all societies. They possess an unshakeable desire to keep pushing the boundaries of learning to love well and to share that learning with others. Nevertheless, they enjoy lingering over a good coffee and can be found utterly absorbed in fun activities in the great outdoors. Challenge and risk attract them and they have had a go at skydiving, great white shark cage-diving, walking with African lions and zip-lining across a magnificent gorge.

Back Where It All Began: The Garden Echoes Still

There is a quiet mystery in marriage, where joy and sorrow mingle, and our deepest desires are laid bare. We come with our hands full of hope and leave with hearts shaped by grace. In the ordinary moments of pain and tenderness, God invites us to see each other anew, not as fixers or saviours, but as fellow pilgrims learning how to love.

In His Image Too: Wrestling with Role, Calling, and Design

In a world that often defines manhood by external achievements or rigid societal expectations, the true calling of men can feel elusive. This article explores the profound question of what it truly means to be made in God’s image, not just as a reflection of power or dominance, but as an invitation to engage in vulnerability, responsibility, and spiritual authenticity. It calls men to wrestle with their identity, seeking to redefine roles and purpose not from the world’s standards, but through the deep well of divine calling.

Not a Checklist but a Flame: The Brave Woman of Valour

To deepen my understanding of complementarianism and egalitarianism, I turn to Proverbs 31. As I revisit Proverbs 31:10-31, I begin to see it through a fresh lens. This passage, often upheld as a blueprint for the "ideal woman," introduces the eshet chayil, translated as the "wife of noble character" or, more vibrantly, the "woman of valour."

She, Layered in Light and Struggle

From the moment of creation, women have been seen through varying cultural and theological filters, often simplified into roles that either elevate or confine. But the true story of womanhood is layered, woven with threads of strength, vulnerability, triumph, and challenge.