Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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Christians have a unique relationship with money. We maintain a healthy desire to have it, but at the same time we maintain a respectful fear of it. We believe that money equips us to do all kinds of good deeds, but also believe that the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. We work hard to earn it and then work hard to give it away. All the while we know that money has a …
A short time ago I compared certain evangelical churches to a meatless, cheeseless, crustless pizza. Just like removing too many elements of a pizza will call into doubt whether something still qualifies as pizza at all, removing too many elements of worship should call into doubt whether something still qualifies as a worship service. A service devoid of prayer, congregational singing, sacraments, and the public reading of Scripture may be a service in name only. The main point of that …
You might be tired of hearing it, but that doesn’t make it any less true—these have been difficult days for pastors. And I think you need to hear as well that there are more difficult days ahead. That being the case, for the sake of your pastor and the sake of your church, he needs you to be praying for him right now and in the weeks and months to come. Pastors, like everyone else, had their lives and routines …
It’s the kind of memory that will scar a child. I had been recruited by some family friends to put in a day’s work on their property and along the way had worked up quite an appetite. Late in the day, with my stomach growling, they told me they would be making their world-famous pizza for dinner. That sounded like just the thing. But when they finally brought out this “pizza” I quickly observed that it had no crust, no …
One of the most difficult and most counter-cultural things Jesus calls us to do is to love our enemies—to do unto others as we could have them do to us (Luke 6:31). We are to treat others in the way we would wish to be treated, for the mark of true love is that it is selfless—it acts not first for the good of self but for the good of the other. To make sure we understand what this true …
There was that time I flew to Houston for an afternoon. A few years ago a conference had wanted me to deliver a single keynote address and nothing more, so they suggested I fly down in the morning, speak in the afternoon, and head home in the evening. It ended up being quite a day—I spoke at a conference 1,500 miles from my home, but woke up and went to sleep in my own bed. I’m sure I didn’t appreciate …
The early promise of social media is that it would help us make friends. But as it has matured, it seems better suited to help us make enemies. Long gone are the happy days when it was all about connecting with others around shared interests. Today it seems to major in beating down others others over differences. If our social media world has given us new ways of making friends, it has also given us new ways of making enemies. …
This week the blog is sponsored by Getty Music. The team at Getty Music would like to remind you that summer registration for the Sing! Conference ends Aug 6, and if you use the code CHALLIES you can get 20% off! The Getty Music SING! Conference began in 2017 with a vision to equip believers, families, and churches to cultivate deep theology, timeless artistry, and vibrant congregational singing. For 3 years, we enjoyed gathering each fall in a city known …
Social media was still in its infancy when it showed me a death for the first time. All these years later the details remain vivid in my mind. A colleague said, “Tim, check this out.” He turned his screen toward me to show a blindfolded man kneeling before his captors. They spoke a few words in a language I did not understand, then reached toward him. A knife flashed, a throat was slit, blood spilled. I almost threw up. Late …
Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility is one of the bestselling books of 2020 and one of the resources most commonly recommended to those who are concerned with issues of race, racism, and racial reconciliation. In a previous article I attempted to summarize the book as a kind of narrative that explains what the world should be like, tells what the world is actually like, prescribes actions we ought to take to improve the world, and describes the future we can imagine …