About Tim Challies
The internet is unique in that a person can write every day and yet remain completely anonymous. People may read what another person writes on a daily basis, yet not know the first thing about him. I've never enjoyed that aspect of it, so allow me to introduce myself.
If you've gotten to this site you already know one thing about me, and that's my last name. Tack on the first name of Tim, and suddenly I'm not so anonymous anymore.
You still want to know more? How about this, my "official" biography from my forthcoming book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment: Tim Challies is a leading evangelical blogger and editor of Discerning Reader (www.discerningreader.com), a site dedicated to discerning reviews of books that are of interest to Christians. A self-employed web designer, Tim lives in the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario with his wife and three children.
Still looking for more? Try this then:
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 doctrines of grace - principles known to some as Calvinism.
- Evangelical - I believe the gospel (which is the original and truest meaning of "evangelical").
- Conservative - I am generally traditional and restrained in my beliefs and cautious towards change, especially when it seems to be change merely for the sake of change.
- Unfinished - Though I find great beauty in traditional Protestantism, I realize that in some areas traditions may not be fully Scriptural. Where that is the case I am eager to change as the Spirit convicts me through the Word.
Other Questions:
- How Is "Challies" pronounced?
- How Do I Get In Touch With You?
- Why Challies.com?
- What Is a Challies?
- Will You Review My Book?
- What Do You Do?
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. CHALL-eez. It's that easy.
All that info is here. If you write me I'll almost definitely write back.
This started as a site where I posted pictures of my children for the benefit of my family. Eventually I began to write articles and post them here, also for the benefit of my family. But then other people began showing up and reading them and before I knew it, I had a blog. The site has since evolved into what you see today. I have not gotten around to changing to a new domain name and at this point I suppose I never will.
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 a group of 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. As far as I know, my son is the sole male heir to the Challies name in this part of the world.
Maybe. While I generally prefer to receive books from publishers, I do accept some books directly from authors. Feel free to contact me and I'll let you know if I am interested in reviewing your book.
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 a home office creating Web pages. And writing. I can hardly think of a better life.
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