The future of the church depends on our ability to institutionalize the genius of the past in our corporate DNA.

There is no rational explanation for everything that happens. What do you when life doesn't make sense?

 The simple act of offering a compliment can make a difference in a person's day.

Sometimes our actions do not produce the results that we hoped for. In fact, some times they produce just the opposite.

The Law reminds us how to live. God's grace enables us.

 

There are a lot of life-lessons that can be learned from the Peachtree Road Race experience.

A baseball umpire's bad call provides lessons for life. This originally appeared as Monday Morning in North Georgia on the North Georgia Conference website (www.ngumc.org).  

Giving one's best is an expectation of baseball-- and life.

Like everything else, physical health depends on discipline in little things.

A church member has a pleasant surprise as she is shopping for an outreach ministry.

I enjoyed watching the Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics 100-91 last Friday night. Both teams played well but the Hawks held strong late in the fourth quarter to maintain the lead. The result is a 4-0 sweep of the Celtics this season.  No small feat. You just don't beat a team like Boston that often.

The Hawks played Orlando the next night after the fourth win over the Celtics. And the Magic dominated as they have all season long against Atlanta. How can you have one good team's number and then on the other hand be "owned"by another team?

But life is like that, isn't it?

You win some and you lose some. No matter how strong you are in one area there is another aspect of life where you are weak. A reminder that we are not really self-sufficient. We need others. We complement each other. No one is the complete package. And we need God. Even when we join with our brothers and sisters we still fall short at time.

It is comforting to know that even giants in the faith like the Apostle Paul struggled. He acknowledged that there were places where he did not measure up. "I want to do the good but I cannot do it" (Romans 7:19). He also understood that God's grace was sufficient and that "there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

So we celebrate our victories and continue to work with God's help to learn from our defeats- and overcome them.

The United Methodist Church ia an "aging" denomination but the membership of the North Georgia Conference is younger than most areas.

Some things are timeless

Megachurch does not have funerals or weddings