"The Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality has jolted many into realizing that we are no longer living in our own Promised Land but, perhaps, are headed into what Fuller Theological Seminary President Mark Labberton calls 'the exile of the evangelical church.'"

For Father’s Day, my daughters gave me one of those nifty snap-on 4-in-1 lens converters for my iPhone. It gives you four options of two macro views, wide-angle and fisheye. Since I rarely use anything but my iPhone for photography now, I have been looking for an attachment that will give me a little more versatility and allow me to dabble with different perspectives. I’ve been trying it out and have noticed each lens lets me see something different. The subject doesn’t change but the view does. And when the view changes, it even affects the way I feel about the object. It’s not just a closer look or a wider look. It’s the ability to capture (imperfectly) what I want…

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]We are halfway through 2015, and I am with my family vacationing on the Carolina beaches. At the end of 2014, I shared a few photos and quotes from my experiences throughout the year. Here are a few more for you, along with some more words from wise men and women. If you want to see more, you can visit The Smith Slant, my website for personal photos, Sunday School lessons and other thoughts and ramblings. I hope you are having as lovely a summer as the Smith family. Blessings to you all.    [/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid style=”all” items_per_page=”10″ element_width=”12″ gap=”5″ button_style=”rounded” button_color=”blue” button_size=”md” arrows_design=”none” arrows_position=”inside” arrows_color=”blue” paging_design=”radio_dots” paging_color=”grey”…

A friend asked me once, “What do you think your best contribution will be? And for what would you like to be remembered?” I did not need time to mull the answer over: “I have been a Sunday School teacher for the largest part of my life now, and other than being a husband and father, I think that is the answer to your question. I am a Sunday School teacher.” Granted, it doesn’t always feel that way when the alarm goes off at 5:00 every Sunday morning. That’s when I put together the notes I’ve worked on all day Saturday. Some mornings it feels like a calling, and other…

In the Baptist church where I grew up, we heard rumors of “intellectuals” lurking in the world beyond our safe fellowship who relished the opportunity to attack our faith. While we had never met one, we knew that one day we would, and it would be the fight of our young lives. We had to be prepared. We had to have a plan and a set of responses. Fortunately, just as David served as our model for slaying giants and Samson for bringing down pagans, we had Paul’s confrontation with the philosophers of Athens as the way to best the intellectuals later in life. We studied his brilliance in the…

In the Baptist church where I grew up, we heard rumors of “intellectuals” lurking in the world beyond our safe fellowship who relished the opportunity to attack our faith. While we had never met one, we knew that one day we would, and it would be the fight of our young lives. We had to be prepared. We had to have a plan and a set of responses. Fortunately, just as David served as our model for slaying giants and Samson for bringing down pagans, we had Paul’s confrontation with the philosophers of Athens as the way to best the intellectuals later in life. We studied his brilliance in the…

Guy Carawan died earlier this month at the Highlander Center in Tennessee. He had been the director there for many years. While an accomplished musician, folklorist and collector of traditional hymns and songs, his most lasting contribution is probably one he launched almost accidentally. “O Sanctissima” is a Roman Catholic hymn composed in 1792. Beethoven arranged the hymn as “No. 4” in his “Verschiedene Volkslieder” and the tune made its way to the United States. Eventually it was rewritten and published by a black preacher in Philadelphia, which led to its use by workers in a 1945 strike against the American Tobacco Company cigar factory. Zilphia Horton, a musician and…

Guy Carawan died earlier this month at the Highlander Center in Tennessee. He had been the director there for many years. While an accomplished musician, folklorist and collector of traditional hymns and songs, his most lasting contribution is probably one he launched almost accidentally. “O Sanctissima” is a Roman Catholic hymn composed in 1792. Beethoven arranged the hymn as “No. 4” in his “Verschiedene Volkslieder” and the tune made its way to the United States. Eventually it was rewritten and published by a black preacher in Philadelphia, which led to its use by workers in a 1945 strike against the American Tobacco Company cigar factory. Zilphia Horton, a musician and…

These six assumptions kept returning to our conversations about how tech people think—and what they will hopefully bring to the practice of philanthropy.

A few minutes before noon on April 25 two tectonic plates nine miles beneath the surface of the earth shifted after 81 years of grinding and pushing against each other. The force of 20 thermonuclear bombs was released in a moment, and the entire city of Katmandhu was lifted permanently by more than two feet. The destruction is the worst in the 21st century and while 5,000 people have been accounted for as having died, we still do not know and will not know for years the full scope of the damage. All of this happened because the tension of two opposing masses of rock had been suddenly released. A…