Challies Dot Com F.A.Q.

I am…

• Christian - I affirm that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour.
• Protestant - I affirm the five “solas” of the Reformation.
• Reformed - I affirm the principles known as Calvinism.
• Evangelical - I believe the gospel (which is the original and truest meaning of “evangelical”).
• Fundamentalist - I believe in “a return to fundamental principles and a strong or rigid adherence to these principles.”
• Conservative - I am generally traditional and restrained in my beliefs and cautious towards change, especially when it seems to be change just for the sake of change.
• Liberal - I am not limited to traditional views. I find much beauty in traditional Protestantism, but realize that in some areas traditions are not Scriptural. Where that is the case I am open to change and improvement.

It’s quite simple, I assure you. CHALL-eez. Just like that. There is no trick to it. It’s not CHALL-is, it’s not Charles and it sure isn’t Chall-EES. Just pronounce it the way it looks like it should be pronounced and don’t overthink it.

My email address is tim at challies dot com. Of course you really have to use the @ sign, etc, but if I put the address out here I’d get even more spam than I already get.

This started as a site where I posted pictures of my children for the benefit of my family. Eventually I began to write and post articles here. That evolved into the site as you see it today. I have not gotten around to changing to a new domain name, though there is one I have my eye on and may change to in the near future.

Challies is a surname with a long and mysterious past. It seems that no one is really sure of the name’s history. What we do know is that it is French in origin and at some point some Challies’ left France for Scotland, presumably as Huguenots. They then, trying to blend in with the local population, changed the name to Mac A’ Challies and became part of the MacDonald clan. I only wish I were making that up. There are now very few Challies left in the world. It seems the remaining concentrations are in Canada, New Zealand and the United States. The ones I am related to live almost entirely in Canada or in Georgia. My uncle also reports meeting an elderly Challies gentleman in a small town in France, though I do not believe he is a direct relation.

I try to update every day. I generally post around noon EST. Once or twice a week I have a “lazy” day where I post nothing more than an interesting link or a “blog of the week.” Most days, though, I try to write something at least moderately interesting.

I am a Web designer by trade. Though I graduated from McMaster University with a degree in history I quickly found that there was not much work for an aspiring but not-very-motivated historian. I worked my way into the computer world and after being laid off one time too many I started Websonix. So now I spend my days sitting in my basement creating Web pages.