Articles for tag: James K. A. Smith

March 22, 2017

The Weight of What We Love

By Jim Tune We carry a lot of extra weight with us. No, I”m not talking about the extra pounds around our middle. I”m thinking of our loves. Augustine once described wealth as a weight. “My weight is my love,” he wrote. “Wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me.” This makes sense. We all want money, but we recognize that those who love money must worry about how to accumulate, protect, and manage it. James K. A. Smith helps us understand what Augustine meant. “Our orienting loves are like a kind of gravity””carrying us in the direction to

January 30, 2016

Christian Standard

Ethics & Moral Issues

Contraception? One View

By Mark Weedman This isÂ oneÂ of four views of contraception written by Bible college professors. Other views are written byÂ Phil Kenneson,Â Jack Cottrell, andÂ Robert Pate. What makes contraception so tricky is that for most Americans, regardless of religious affiliation, there seems to be no question about its use. Current debates about the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act belie a nearly universal acceptance of contraception in the United States.1 American Christians may wait until marriage to start using some form of contraception, but very few of us question whether we should be using it. There are, however, some good reasons for

July 24, 2015

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Leadership Development

Michael Plank’s Thought Leaders

We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed severalÂ influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is fromÂ Michael Plank, executive director of worship and discipleship, Spring Road Christian Church, Lanett, Alabama. ________ Dr. Richard Averbeck, professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, is also the director of the Spiritual Formation Forum. Building on the amazing work of Dallas Willard in the field of discipleship, Averbeck and his forum of scholars in this field