Chalmers' Blog

Saturday Snippets (July 1)

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…

A plea for partnership beyond the surface

Over the last few weeks and months I’ve been thinking a lot about partnership, particularly partnership and what that looks like among churches. Often you’ll hear Pastors speak about partnership and how different churches work together for the good of the gospel. Sometimes those partnerships look like joint services, joint evangelistic endeavours or sharing resources about a particular topic or issue in society. All of those things are great and most certainly have their place!

Saturday Snippets (June 24)

You will be hated, just make sure it’s for the right reasons…

The Christian world is a funny place, especially as you view the Christian world online and how Christians interact with each other and with non-Christians. The thing that I find fascinating is that there are two sides (extremes, although that word seems a bit, well… extreme), on the one hand there are Christians who don’t seem to understand why the world is so against the Christian faith and on the other there are Christians who seem to love the fact that they’re being ‘persecuted’. Neither of these positions is helpful. The first doesn’t seem to understand the reality of what Jesus says in John 15:18-25, that Christians will be hated and face hostility. The second doesn’t quite understand that the only reason the world should hate us is because of Christ.

Life with Jesus, what does that look like?

Someone becoming a Christian is a wonderful miracle! God, by His Spirit, has brought someone who was dead in their sins and trespasses to be alive in Christ that is great news! But what next? I’ve often heard people say that when they became Christians they were given a Bible and just told to follow Jesus. That’s good advice, but it’s lacking in substance, because a new Christian has no idea what that actually means! We need to focus on following Jesus’ command, to go and make disciples not just converts. We need to disciple people, walk with them in their faith, be examples to them of what it means to follow Jesus and help them grow in their love for the Lord, His Word, His people and the lost. But how?

Saturday Snippets (June 17)

Saturday Snippets (June 10)

Saturday Snippets (June 3)

Saturday Snippets (May 27)

How you treat the ‘least’ and the little matters!

Churches are meant to be welcoming places, places where people of all walks of life can enter the building and be welcomed with a smile and a sincere appreciation that they have walked in. One of the key things that churches seem proud of is them being known as a ‘welcoming church’. Which is great, but that welcome goes beyond the first person they meet at the door.