Classic City Rev

I've been preaching a sermon series on Baptism the past three weeks.  My timing has been spot on because we've been inundated with rain here in the Classic City the last few weeks as well.  One has to admit rain and baptismal talk do go hand in hand. I believe that we don't talk about Baptism enough in the church.  Thus, there is a lot of confusion about the meaning and importance of Baptism. Yet, the truth is that Baptism defines who we are.  It is an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace.   As United Methodist we believe that Baptism is an act of God.  The one being baptized, the clergy performing the sacrament and the water itself are either recipients or agents of the work that God is doing.  Therefore, since God is the primary actor the method of baptism and the age of the one who is baptized is unimportant as it is God doing the work.  For this reason we don't baptize anyone twice because to do so would be saying that God di...

There is movie theater near my house that also feeds you more than popcorn while you there.  You can get a basket of wings, some tacos and other similar selection delivered to your seat by the wait staff of the theater. It's not overly expensive and you can literally have "dinner and a movie" at the same time. They only problem is I can't get them to pause the movie if I want to take a bathroom break. In as much as we are enjoying the experience more, Toni and I are finding ourselves at the movies more often. This week Toni and I availed ourselves to two movies.  I really can't say that I enjoyed either one, not because they were not good movies, in fact both were excellent, but because they were disturbing with the stories they told. One was the film "Just Mercy."    The film tells the true story of an African-American man wrongly convicted of murder in a small town in Alabama and sentenced to death row. The film pointed out to me very strongly...

The United Methodist Church has been debating issues regarding human sexuality long before I entered seminary in 1988.  After many years of divisive debate it seems that our denomination is at a crossroads.   Some feel that  the only solution to this impasse is to split our denomination with our more conservative congregations leaving the United Methodist Church to form a new denomination. There are those on both sides of the issue that feel that such a separation will allow our church to move forward although it may be in new expressions of our Methodist tradition. Friday an article from the United Methodist New Service outlined the work of a sixteen member group of United Methodist leaders including a number of Bishops.  (Our own Bishop here in North Georgia was not among the participating Bishops.)  This group produced a document called a "Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation." According to the article, "The plan looks tow...