Anyone interested in joining us for the Women's Retreat must register with Patti Clark by the end of the day, Friday, August 17! (email Patti at patricia.phillips.clark@gmail.com or call her cell: 678-428-7898)

By Water and the Word

 Rev. James E. Lamkin

     Most of the gear in my Camino backpack was strapped-down, buckled-in, clipped-on, or tied-up; but there were two things I kept handy in my pack's elastic side pockets: my water bottle and my guidebook. I reached for both about 20 times a day.

     However, accessibility can also mean vulnerability. Stop for lunch on a road side rock, or bend over to tighten a shoe string...and too easily I could walk away without book or bottle. They occasionally fell-out or were slung-loose; plus, reach for either in the rain and/or dark and you double the likelihood of losing things.

     So before leaving the bench, rock, chair, table, or bunk bed, I double-checked what I could not leave behind: neither water, nor word.

     I often thought of that hymn we sing. It speaks of the church's foundation of "Jesus Christ her Lord," and we are God's "new creation by water and the word."

     The church is a watered community---baptized and accountable and loved.

     The church also is a worded community...not just an echo of the prevailing culture...but a compelling voice kept alive, creative, and fresh through conversation with the Bible and in prayer. We are attentive to what God might be doing with us and through us. Water and word.

     Though odd to connect these dots...from the backside of the Camino de Santiago to Northside Drive in Buckhead...it is what I do and what I thought of every time I shouldered and buckled my backpack. Water? Check. Guidebook? Check. We need both for the pilgrimage ahead.

in the Fellowship Hall at 9:30 AM

Let's kick-off the new Church School year! You will get a chance to learn about all the 2012-2013 Church School classes and their curriculum as well as congratulate all of the children on their promotions to their next grades. Bring your favorite breakfast food to share. Please bring food already warmed. Milk, juice and coffee will be provided.

At 10:30 AM in the Conference Room

     Beginning on Wednesday, September 12, from 10:30-11:30 AM, in the Conference Room. I once again will offer a Fall Bible Study. This year we will study each upcoming Sunday's four lectionary texts: Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel. There will be study sheets distributed in advance containing each of the scriptures.

     I am excited about this because the group's insights will help me prepare for the upcoming Sunday's sermon based on these same texts.

--James Lamkin, Pastor

     The place: Music Together is on the first floor down from the Preschool hallway near the handicap accessible door (Rm 109).

     The days: Wednesday night's, August 22-October 31, at 6 PM.

     Please register ONLINE to confirm your space as soon as possible (http://musictogethermetroatlanta.com/register.aspx).

September 21-October 31, 2012

Rev. Zachary Bay

Come and join in a discussion of beginnings. We will read and discuss stories, and hopefully, overhear the groanings of Creation and Creator as each strives to exist with the other. This will be study about us and God trying to live together this thing called faith. To prime the pump of conversation, we will make use of Bill Moyer's Genesis: A Living Conversation as commentary material. The book can be purchased inexpensively on Amazon.

Week 1:  The Image of God ..................................Gen 1-2

Week 2:  Temptation ............................................Gen 2-3

Week 3:  The First Murder .......................................Gen 4

Week 4:  The Flood, the Ark, & the Apocalypse ....Gen 6-9

Week 5:  Call & Promise ....................................Gen 12-13

Week 6:  A Family Affair ...........................Gen 16-17, & 21

Week 7:  The Test ..............................................Gen 22-23

Week 8:  God Wrestling ....................................Gen 28-32

Led by Jim Mahaffey
Wednesday Nights, October 10-31 @ 7 PM, in the Parlor

Jim Mahaffey's study and discussion group will cover the development of nuclear power and its many interesting offshoots, diversions, disasters, triumphs, secrets, and nearly forgotten incidents. Nothing is off-limits, including the disaster at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. The text will be Mahaffey's work of non-fiction, Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power, available from Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere, in hardback, paperback, Kindle, e-book, used, or in Chinese. Copies will be for sale at the door, and admission is free. Come for the enlightenment.

Church Week

SUNDAY, August 19, 2012

  9:30 AM - Summer Church School

11:00 AM - Morning Worship in the Chapel

  6:30 PM - Young Adult Small Group

MONDAY, August 20, 2012

  7:00 PM - Church Council

TUESDAY, August 21, 2012

10:00 AM - Staff Meeting

11:30 PM - ROMEOS

WEDNESDAY, August 22, 2012

  6:00 PM - Music Together

THURSDAY, August 23, 2012

  7:00 PM - TNT

FRIDAY-SATURDAY, August 24-25, 2012

  Youth Lock-in @ the Bay's Home