Chalmers' Blog

Slaves to time

In the majority of cases when people spend time with their family they’re not keeping an eye on the clock. When we’re doing things that we enjoy we’re not making sure that we’re keeping to a strict end time so that we can leave. When we’re in the coming of family and when we’re doing things that we enjoy, we let time go by without much thought. But in a lot of UK church contexts that isn’t the case.

Conspiracy theories, culture, chemistry and rest

Every year there are thousands upon thousands of books published, even in the Christian world there are so many books out there. Different publishers, different authors and different topics, so it’s no wonder that many Christians feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material and don’t know what book to read next. That’s why this blog was created, to review books to give you a feel for whether it’s something you feel is the best investment of your time, money and energy. The goal of reading, of certain books at least, should be to push you towards Jesus, to know him and love him more. Here are a few smaller reviews for you of some materials I’ve read recently.

Saturday Snippets (January 14)

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…

The benefit of being on site

One of the helpful things about some churches, not all, is that they have their own space. A church premises will most likely be used for church services and other activities throughout the week. This week I started a new job as Pastor of a new church and I’ve loved the benefit of being on site.

Kid’s corner

One of the benefits of getting books from publishers and authors to review is that I often get my hands on some really good children’s books! Most of them tell stories from the Bible, or about faithful Christians, all designed to point children from an early age to see the goodness of the gospel and how great Jesus is. I’d like to highlight a few more for you today. Some of the following books are for wee wee ones aged 2-4, some are for older children 9-11 and I’ve even thrown in a family devotional for you for good measure.

Saturday Snippets (January 7)

Belong, Gather and Welcome

The church is a wonderful place, a mixed bag of people from all different walks of life and backgrounds, from different countries and different social classes and yet all bound together by their faith in Jesus Christ. In 2021 Tony Merida wrote a great book Love Your Church (see my review here) now the Good Book Company have put together a series of books called love your church, and it’s really good! Let me tell you about it. Three brief comments that goes for each of these books;

Each chapter ends with great actions points that help you see what it practically means to apply the teaching of the book.
Each book has a discussion guide to help you work through it in small groups.
Each book is great! I highly recommend you buy a copy of each, and of Tony’s first book that I mentioned above.

Saturday Snippets (December 31)

Most viewed posts of 2022

It’s that time of the year where people start posting reviews of the year. Most people post what they’ve read that year, what they’ve found helpful, etc. This year I’ve read less than I have for a long time (averaging at 1.73 books per week), mostly because I’ve been writing my own book and life has been busy (this blog is my hobby not my job). Most bloggers also post a yearly review of sorts with their most viewed posts of the year, so here goes. I’ve also included the top countries where my blog has been viewed 🙂

Jesus through the eyes of women, marriage, friendship, counselling and mental health issues

One of the blessings of being a book reviewer is that I am often sent really good and helpful books to read. One of the issues of being a book reviewer is that I don’t always have the time to write in-depth reviews on each book. Therefore, every once in a while I write posts with multiple shorter reviews on a whole host of different topics. Here’s another post for you all on topics like marriage, women in the Bible, legal issues in the counselling environment and how to live with a psychiatric diagnosis.