Chalmers' Blog

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?”

Why Is My Teenager Feeling Like This?: A Guide for Helping Teens through Anxiety and Depression

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

An estimated six million American teens presently have some kind of anxiety disorder. In 2011, 11 percent of teen girls had a major depressive episode int he past year. Let that sink in. But do not think that this problem is confined to the USA. Anxiety and depression amongst teens is on the rise. Parents and pastors need to be equipped to walk with teenagers and help them in any and every way we can. To that end, I’d like to tell you about a super helpful book that can help!

Saturday Snippets (August 22)

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…

What’s In A Bio?

It’s good to have Rachel doing a guest post today talking about the nature of biographical details mentioned in book endorsements. I will be following up this post with my own thoughts on book endorsements next week. Here are Rachel’s thoughts…

Not Forsaken

Abuse is horrible, but sadly it is a very real problem in churches, Christian homes and Christian families. We have a responsibility to care for people, that will mean being aware of the dangers and signs of abuse. Here’s a book that will help you start to think through what abuse can look like in a Christian home and how easy it is to hide. Please, know that this is a real danger and something we must be aware of and actively speak out against.

Tough Issues, True Hope

Christian ethics is a topic that I’m not sure many Christians read up on much, but it is a topic that every Christian engages with on an almost daily basis. How should Christians respond to abortion, divorce, bioethics, trans-humanism, suicide, etc? These are big issues that every Christian probably has an opinion on, but where do we base our convictions?

Luke Davis has given himself the impossible job of presenting a concise journey through Christian ethics in just 238 pages. An impossible task, that he does a really good job at…

Saturday Snippets (August 15)

Bumps, Babies and the Gospel

There are thousands, if not millions, of books about parenting out there today. There are thousands of books on parenting from a Christian perspective too. Although I am not a parent, I have read a good number of the parenting books from a Christian perspective. But I’d like to tell you about this one ‘Bumps, Babies and the Gospel’ because it’s something different, something that I haven’t read before.

Saturday Snippets (August 8)

The Makings of a Dull Sermon

A sermon expounds the Word of God, helps us understand the Bible, reminds us of the gospel and calls non-Christians to repent and believe. There are more elements to a sermon, but even from that very short (and oversimplified) list a sermon should never be dull!

You would think it is impossible to preach a dull sermon because, as preachers, we are talking about God’s Word, but we all would probably say that we’ve preached a boring sermon at least once. Last week I published an article about communication and how preachers and authors need to be faithful to the Bible, but not dull. A friend challenged me to write a follow up article talking about what exactly makes a dull sermon. Here goes…