Chalmers' Blog

Complementarity Must Be Divorced From Culture

Complementary, a word or school of thought that can split a room I’m in two. An understanding that can lead (in the extreme) one Christian to doubt the faith of another. Complementarity, a view of the two sexes that is hated by many people, including Christians.

I’m not going to lie, I am a complementarian. If you’ve read this blog a bit you’ll already know that. However, I have a lot of problems with some of the ways complementarity is expressed. Here’s one of those for you today…

Caring for the Souls of Children: A Biblical Counselor’s Manual

Pastoring and counselling people is tough! It’s hard to know what to say at times and it’s hard to know when to listen and when to speak. Counsellors are a huge blessing to the church and with their professional expertise they can be a great help. Many pastors are learning on the job as they go, pulling on different resources and helpful tips to help us along the way. One of the hardest ages to care for pastorally, in my opinion, is children. Here is a resource that will help with that. Whether you’re a pastor, a parent, a teacher, a friend or a family member, this book will be a great resource to have on your shelf.

Saturday Snippets (September 12)

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 Chair That Remains Empty

In 2017 I went on an intensive 3 day suicide intervention course. I thought it would be a great tool for ministry in the future. What I didn’t anticipate was that not even a full month would go by before I had to put that training into practice. I walked into a room with 20 other ‘clergy’ and lay members of church. Upon arrival we had to anonymously fill out a form explaining our own history with mental illness and suicide. 18/20 in the room Continue reading “The Chair That Remains Empty”

DoubtLess: Because Faith Is Hard

One of the things I really enjoy about my job is that I get to spend a lot of my time in 1-1s with people. I spend hours reading the Bible with, praying with and discussing some of the difficult questions people have about the Christian faith. Too often I’ve seen Christians worry that their questions will be thought of as doubts and a lack of faith. This is a great book touching on that very topic…

Saturday Snippets (September 5)

A Problem With ‘Quiet-Times’

If you’ve spent any time in Christian circles you’ve probably heard all the lingo. Quiet-times, spending time, personal devotions and so on, they all describe the same thing; personal time spent in God’s Word and prayer. Everyone will have different practices, use different materials and do it at different times of the day. But I think that there is a problem with our training on quiet-times, whether that’s intentional training or not.

Stop Taking Sides

I received a free copy of this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review. This has not clouded my judgment 🙂

There are some things in the Bible that make us scratch our heads. Sometimes things can seem to be opposites, for examples love and wrath, and yet when we search Scripture we find that they aren’t opposites. Instead, they are two things, two truths that we must hold in tension. How is it possible for Christians to hold the tension between theological truths? Let me introduce you to a book…

Saturday Snippets (August 29)

Endorsements, do we really need them?

Over the years of my current reading pattern I’ve realised my approach to books has changed. One of those changes is the role that endorsements play. At the beginning I would first look at who endorses a book before I’d decide to read it. Now I only ever read the endorsements after I’ve finished the book. But why write a whole blog on this very niche topic? Because for buying and readers endorsements can be very important. But I’d like to take a few minutes to point out that they shouldn’t be the deciding factor of whether you read/buy a book. Continue reading “Endorsements, do we really need them?”