Nick Challies, the 20-year-old son of evangelical blogger and author, Tim Challies, has died.
“In all the years I’ve been writing I have never had to type words more difficult, more devastating than these,” the elder Challies wrote in a blog post on Wednesday morning. “Yesterday the Lord called my son to himself—my dear son, my sweet son, my kind son, my godly son, my only son.”
Nick Challies, a student at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky, was playing a game outside with his fiancee, his sister and other students when he collapsed and lost consciousness.
“Students, paramedics, and doctors battled valiantly, but could not save him,” Tim Challies wrote. “He’s with the Lord he loved, the Lord he longed to serve. We have no answers to the what or why questions.”
Boyce is an undergraduate school that is part of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In a letter to students, Southern President Al Mohler said that the entire community was grieving Challies.
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Mohler announced on Twitter that all on-campus classes at Boyce were canceled Wednesday. The school also held a time of prayer on the seminary lawn on Wednesday morning.
“Our hearts and prayers are with Nick Challies’s loving parents, Tim and Aileen, his sweet sisters Abigail and Michaela, and his devoted fiancée, Anna Kathryn Conley,” he wrote on Twitter.
In his letter, Mohler said Southern would hold the Challies family and Conley in their hearts.
“In the mystery of God’s infinite kindness, brothers and sisters in Christ know that our earnest prayers and anguished sympathy really do matter in this time of grief,” he wrote. “They matter to us because we matter to God.”
Mohler also tweeted that Nick Challies was “a wonderful, kind, loving, young Christian” and encouraged people to pray for the Challies family.
Nick Challies, a wonderful, kind, loving, young Christian full of life, went to be with the Lord last night. Here is a word from his father’s grief-stricken heart. Please pray for Tim and Aileen Challies and their family. https://t.co/nrLRikB94M
— Albert Mohler (@albertmohler) November 4, 2020
Tim Challies is a prominent figure among evangelicals in the Reformed or New Calvinism movement. He asked readers to remember his family in prayer as they mourn, saying there would be grueling days and “sleepless nights ahead.”
“But for now, even though our minds are bewildered and our hearts are broken, our hope is fixed and our faith is holding,” he wrote. “Our son is home.”
In a news story published by Southern, Tim Challies, who lives in Toronto, said his son loved Boyce and had many friends there.
“Thank you for being his teachers, his mentors, his friends, and his family when he was here in America,” he said. “He ran only a short race, just 20 years, but he finished strong. I’m thankful he was able to finish his race surrounded by the people he loved, surrounded by you.”
A memorial service will be held on Friday at the school.
Bob Smietana is a national reporter for Religion News Service.
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4 Responses
May God bring you and your family healing and peace with the knowledge you will be reunited one day.
This is a tough article to read, I sent my son a text telling him I love him as he is attending college away from home. Wow, I can’t imagine.
I’m so sorry to hear of this sad news, but I take comfort that young Nick knew the Lord Jesus, and is with Him even as I write this note. May God lift the hearts of the Challies family during this most difficult time in Jesus holy name!
When I read posts like this what immediately comes to mind is the fact that God is no respecter of persons. Jesus Himself handpicked a bunch of absolute nobodies to be the leaders in His Church. This included two violent zealots (one whom later betrayed him), a greatly despised tax collector and a bunch of men who always smelled of fish.
I say this because of how even on a watchblog it isn’t considered to be worthy of blogging about unless the person who dies belongs to a famous family. A week ago a lady named Joy died just as suddenly and yet because she is not famous there is no announcement anywhere even on one single blog. She left a husband and children behind. My own mother died early this year. It was the same: not newsworthy. My sister-in-law is in hospice. And even though she is a medical doctor there will likely be no blog posts for her when she goes.
So while it is tragic that someone died young here, the reality is that it is only news because Christians are not like Christ. We are respecters of persons. Had it been a good friend of his instead who was not famous there would be no story. I think it is important that we all take an occasional look in the mirror and not just behave like the world without even thinking about what we are actually doing…