Chalmers' Blog

Ministry, Resolutions and our journey to heaven

There are plenty of books out there on ministry, on the day to day of Christian life, on how to live for the glory of Jesus and works on the lives of people of the past, here are just a few that have come across my desk lately. My two favourites from this list are ‘Beautiful Feet’ and ‘Following Jesus in an age of quitters’. However, most of them are worth reading and I’m sure there will be something of interest to you in each book mentioned below. I’ve purposefully kept the reviews shorter to give you just a feel for the books.

Saturday Snippets (March 23)

As well as reading a lot of books, I also read a ton of articles every week. Here are some of the articles that I’ve read recently and have found interesting, helpful, challenging and encouraging. I hope that they will be the same for you, my dear readers…

Saturday Snippets (March 16)

Just Show Up

We live in a world where big achievements are celebrated. People flock to those who do great and noticeable things. It’s come to the point where some people feel insignificant and useless unless they’re out ‘changing the world’. But that isn’t only a problem out there in the world, it’s a problem in the church too. Christians put leaders on a pedestal and honour them more than others depending on the size of their church, their platform and their influence in the wider Christian community. We are a fickle people who flock to the newest and shiniest thing.

However, in most cases the biggest change, the most life changing change for your everyday Christian, isn’t in the groundbreaking or in the spectacular. The most lasting and impactful change in many Christian’s lives is a result of the ordinary faithfulness of the Lord’s people.

Saturday Snippets (March 9)

Saturday Snippets (March 2)

Saturday Snippets (February 24)

The purpose of a Sunday service

What is the purpose of a church service? If you ask a church of 50 people, you will probably get 50 different answers. People focus on the things that they are naturally drawn towards, for some that may be the singing, for others the fellowship and for others it may be worshipping God. There is a big percentage of churches today that feel they need to walk away from a church service feeling encouraged. That isn’t a bad thing, but if it’s the only thing you want, then it’s a problem. Christians aren’t Duracell bunnies who go to church on a Sunday are ‘re-charged’ to then go and live in the world for another week. Thinking of church, or faith, that way means we minimise the everyday impact of the gospel in our lives and we are in danger of thinking that we are only in this world to muddle through rather than see it as the place God has put us for His purposes.

‘Mental illness’, Romans, revival and church controversies

One of the benefits of reviewing books is that I have titles come across my desk on a whole host of topics, one of the difficulties is to know how to present them to you in a helpful way. Some of the books I read are more devotional in nature and some are more academic. Devotional doesn’t always mean good and academic doesn’t always mean boring! Today I’d like to highlight five books to you that I’ve read recently, they are all on completely different topics, but I think that they are all very helpful for different reasons and will benefit those who decide to pick them up and read.