Blog Spotlight: Tim Challies of Challies.com

Tim Challies operates one of the largest and most popular Christian discussion blogs on the web, Challies.com. It's not at all unusual for one of Tim's posts to receive dozens of comments. This post on the Ted Haggard scandal received over a hundred comments. The blog's popularity has launched it onto Blogebrity's list of C blogs.

According to the "About Me/FAQ" on Tim's site, Challies.com, Tim's site started as a place where he posted pictures of his kids so his family could see them. Originally his articles were also for his family, but others found them and the site evolved into what it is today.

A nice thing about Challies.com is that there's something new there every day. A small note in the right corner of his site under the heading, "This and That," indicates that he has now blogged for 1109 consecutive day (as of the day I wrote this article). I wonder how many people can say that?

Tim covers a variety of topics that are of interest to Christians and those interested in Christianity

Tim Challies has recently kindly granted me an interview. His answers to my questions are below. As you read, you will discover that he is a man of deep faith and convictions.

Do you have a goal for Challies.com, and if so, can you describe it in a sentence or two?

"I don't know that I've ever thought about goals for my site. I'm not always a very goal-oriented person and it wouldn't naturally occur to me to set goals for the site. I suppose I'd like it to continue to provide opportunities for me to grow in my knowledge of and love for God and to continue to bring me opportunities to interact with others. But I really feel that the site rests on the grace of God and that I am just along for the ride. I'm willing to go along in whatever direction He takes it."

Your blog stays on top of all kinds of current thought and information as it pertains to Christians and the church. You must spend hours reading. Seriously, how do you stay on top of it all?

"I do spend a lot of time reading, though this is rarely a hardship for me as reading is one of my favorite things to do. Thankfully, it is also a favorite pastime of my wife, so we can spend many hours together but in separate worlds. I have never measured just how much time I actually spend reading, but it is enough to get through somewhere around 100 books a year. It's probably better than I don't measure this! I rarely feel like there is anything I need to stay on top of simply because I enjoy both reading and blogging."

Did you ever dream that Challies.com would become as big as it is today?

"Certainly not. I do keep what I feel is a rational perspective in realizing that, while the site is popular as these things go, it is still, at best, a big fish in a small pond. Still, I am aware of the responsibility God has given me and attempt to do my best in blessing those who visit the site. I am grateful that God has seen fit to so bless me."

Do you have a favorite Challies.com post?

"You know, I'm not sure that there is a post that jumps right out at me. I guess, fitting my personality, the ones I like best are the ones that are either funny or sentimental. But there isn't one that stands head and shoulders above the rest."

Do you do anything in particular to promote readership at your site? (Do you enter tags at social bookmarking sites, technorati, and so on?) If you do, what do you do?

"I do not knowingly do anything to promote readership beyond posting every day and attempting to generate some good, interesting and relevant content. I do not do any kind of tagging, primarily because I have never really been able to figure out what benefit that would bring to me or to the site. I do not know what a social bookmarking site is, so assume I do not promote the site that way. I spend enough time creating the site's content that I am not inclined to spend time promoting it."

Your site also provides book reviews of recent Christian books. If you had to pick two or three books to recommend, which ones would they be and why?

"That would depend on to whom I was recommending these books. I recently went through the long list of reviews I've written and pulled out the ones that I recommend, posting these on a mini-site. This page provides a categorized listing of quite a few excellent books."

"Of the books I've read recently, a couple that stand out are Marsden's excellent biography of Jonathan Edwards (Jonathan Edwards: A Life) and Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, which somehow found its way onto the New York Times list of bestsellers."

What do you perceive to be the biggest obstacle facing Christians today and why?

"I think Christians face many difficult obstacles in our day, but that most of these are of our own making. And this is ironic, in some ways, since we have more Bibles, more resources and more religious freedoms than in any age since the church began. Despite these innumerable blessings, countless Christians or countless numbers of those who consider themselves Christians, display a shocking apathy towards personal holiness. We have such a low view of God's holiness."

In your opinion, what Christian movement or individual has made the biggest impact on Christianity in the last twenty-five years?

"I have not yet been a Christian for twenty-five years and for many years was primarily involved in a very small and closed sector of the Christian world, so I don't know that I have the best perspective on issues like this. I would likely opt out of naming a movement or individual and point instead to a philosophy. I believe that pragmatism, the understanding that right and wrong is judged not by the Bible but by how well something works, has impacted Christianity a great deal and has done a lot of damage to the church. Much of the Church Growth Movement and countless other ways of understanding the mission of the church has been negatively impacted by this unbiblical philosophy. Christians have to learn that something can work and produce results, but still be wrong!"

Do you read other people's blogs? Do you have a favorite blog? What is it and what do you like about it?

"I don't read as many blogs as some people may think, but I do keep up with a selection of favorites. I tend to enjoy blogs more once I have made a personal connection with the authors, so every time I return from a conference it seems that I have a couple of new blogs to add to my list. My current favorite is probably Justin Taylor's "Between Two Worlds." Justin keeps up with interesting news and events and always has interesting links and stories to share. Justin and I think alike in many ways so what he finds interesting I also tend to find interesting."

You also operate a business that designs web pages. Did you design Challies.com? What distinguishes you from other web page designers?

"Yes, I run a web design company called Websonix. Challies.com is just one of an increasingly large list of sites I have designed. I don't know what it is that distinguishes my work from the work of other designers, but people tell me they usually know one of my sites when they see it. I guess there must be some kind of design or effect that I unknowingly add to most of my sites. In my business I attempt to provide good designs and good coding for a good price. It sounds like an obvious focus, but it is one that has worked well for me over the years."

Tell us a little bit about Tim Challies, the individual. What do you do when you are not posting blogs, designing web pages, or reading Christian books for review?

"Tim Challies the individual is really a pretty shy and quiet person who does very little that might thrust him into the spotlight. I am louder and more confident on my site than I am in real life. Having said that, I do enjoy meeting people and love to sit down and enjoy a good chat with some good company. I have been married to my wife, Aileen, for eight years and we have three children, aged six, four and six months."

"When I am not writing articles or designing web pages, I am likely to be reading a book, reading to my kids (I don't enjoy playing with the kids nearly as much as I enjoy reading to them) or trying to deal with the latest algae bloom in my planted freshwater aquarium. I have recently signed a book contract so am spending increasing amounts of time writing my first book, tentatively titled The Discipline of Discernment. It will be published by Crossway early in 2008."

If you had to pick one thing to tell the Associated Content reader and you had three sentences to say it in, what would that one thing be?

"God is holy. You are not. What are you going to do about it?"