New Member: Mollie Kate Harris
Another addition to introducing our new members through sharing a little of their story. Our hope is that these stories will allow us to grow closer as a family as well as an avenue to share the story of our city.
I was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia where I attended a small private, Christian school, Calvary. My family is very close and continues to play a large role in my life. I am the youngest of three sisters. I just graduated from the University of Georgia majoring in Middle Grades Education with specializations in math and social studies. Throughout the past four years, I’ve lived in Athens and have been a Young Life leader for middle schoolers at Prince Avenue Christian School. I hope to stay in Athens and obtain a job teaching in the surrounding area.
Easter Offering Update
In some parts of the Christian world, it’s traditional for a church or a community to stage a “passion play,” a kind of pageant that reenacts the last week of Jesus’ life. The little village of Oberammergau in southeastern Germany has produced a passion play every ten years since 1634; municipal law states that male residents are forbidden to shave during play years so they can better approximate first century Jewish men.
We don’t have a passion play or a pageant or an interpretive dance. Those things are all good, but there’s a different kind of “play” we’re interested in for Easter. We want to act out the drama of Good Friday and Easter, not by trying to depict the historical events, but by following the pattern God set. He wrote the original “script” by giving up Jesus to death for our trespasses and raising him for our justification (Romans 4:25). In the same way that the Father gave us new life by sending his Son for us, we give hope to our world by giving up what we have for their sake.
The final amount we gathered for Out of Darkness was $4,606. The money we gave will go toward freeing a woman in Atlanta from sexual slavery. Thank you for your generosity. Please continue to pray that God would bless and multiply what we’ve given to bring hope to women in Atlanta.
New Member: Michael Clarke
Another addition to introducing our new members through sharing a little of their story. Our hope is that these stories will allow us to grow closer as a family as well as an avenue to share the story of our city.
I became a born again believer over a year ago because of the mercy of The Lord in my life. I came to know Christ through a guy at work who was living missionally within the workplace and was taking time to care for me by getting to know me. I was raised in a catholic family up till the divorce of my parents when I was a sophomore in high school. Growing up I would claim to be a Christian because that was the socially acceptable thing to do in the area I lived in. I played soccer at Georgia state for two years before I transferred to UGA where my life was radically changed eternally.
New Member: Courtney Hicks
Another addition to introducing our new members through sharing a little of their story. Our hope is that these stories will allow us to grow closer as a family as well as an avenue to share the story of our city.
I am a rising junior at UGA from Richmond Hill, GA, a town south of Savannah. My father was in the air force growing up so I moved around a lot every couple of years, but he eventually retired in Richmond Hill upon my entrance into high school. I have a younger brother and sister. I grew up in a Christian home with wonderful, godly parents but God really began to reveal what the gospel truly meant for me in high school with my involvement in my church’s youth group.
Is That Real Forgiveness?
Frank McKinley likes to spend his time reading, writing, drinking coffee, and taking photographs. He and his family have been members of Christ Community over ten years and in three locations. If you’d like to read more, his blog is http://frank-speakingfrankly.blogspot.com/
If you’ve watched commercial TV for more than an hour lately, you’ve probably seen an auto insurance ad.
The latest marketing gimmick is “accident forgiveness”. It sounds really nice, but honestly how much do you really know about it?
I had an accident not long after I started driving. Like a fool, I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings and plowed into a parked car. I don’t remember the details. What I do remember was the embarrassment and fear that filled my brain so full that all reason was pushed out.
I wasn’t concerned with whether the insurance company would forgive me. I was just hoping my dad would.
The premise behind accident forgiveness is that regardless of fault, you’re first accident will not increase your insurance premiums. So, don’t worry. Drive as if you don’t have a care. The friendly insurance company has got your back.
But then there’s always the truth behind the pitch.
According to an article in Forbes, insurance companies are in business to make a profit. But then, so is any other successful business. Since auto insurers know that people generally hate them, they’ve decided to present a warmer personality through hip commercials with funny, quirky, and compassionate characters who become our friends and even get their own websites. Remember the tour you could take of the Geico Cave Man’s apartment? Now there’s a site where you can learn to dress like Flo, the Progressive pitch girl.
While the insurer promises not to raise your premium, that is all they deliver. You can still be assessed an “accident surcharge”. If they decide your accident is big enough, they can still drop you. You’ll find the accident still counts against your good driver record and into other charges in your policy.
What if people forgave that way?
We all want forgiveness when we screw up. The reality of being human in a sinful world is that we are sinful too. We will say and do things that offend those closest to us. We will break things that we are responsible for. There will be times when we will forget promises we spoken and appointments we’ve made. If there were no second chances, we’d all be suicidal.
Just as we all want to be forgiven when we blow it, others do too. If you want to keep your friends, forgive them when they fail you. If you want to minimize your tendency to worry, remember that no one else is perfect, and you aren’t either.
The beauty of the Gospel is that God is the ultimate Forgiver. He gives endless second chances to the ones He loves. Jesus’ death and resurrection really does free you from all the guilt your sin brings, from the daily blunder to that general sense of your own unworthiness.
Now that’s accident forgiveness that’s good for a lifetime.
You take it to heart.
New Member: Ryan Slauer
Another addition to introducing our new members through sharing a little of their story. Our hope is that these stories will allow us to grow closer as a family as well as an avenue to share the story of our city.
I was born in Dallas to loving, Christian parents who started taking me to church and having quiet times with me at a very young age. We moved around a lot when I was younger, living in places scattered around the south. Constantly being the new kid and having a severe speech impediment (and later on, a severe case of acne) didn’t do wonders for my self-confidence. I moved to Johns Creek, Ga just before I started high school (Northview High School). Throughout my high school years I attended Perimeter Church and I swam for Swim Atlanta. Currently, I am a third-year Economics and Latin major planning on going to medical school.
A Rock to Stand On
Frank McKinley likes to spend his time reading, writing, drinking coffee, and taking photographs. He and his family have been members of Christ Community over ten years and in three locations. If you’d like to read more, his blog is http://frank-speakingfrankly.blogspot.com/
It was a typically steamy summer day in 2005. My son and I decided to seek relief in the dark, refrigerated atmosphere of the Carmike.
The movie was a momentous one. It was the end of an epic saga that had begun in my own youth and was finishing in my son’s. We watched with rapt attention as the main character of the story went from a noble and idealistic hero to a dark and sinister villain.
With each passing moment, we drank more Coke and ate more popcorn. I fought the urge to leave and go to the bathroom with all my might. But the pain of not going won and I set a new world speed record for relief that still stands in my memory today.
If you haven’t guessed by now, the movie we saw was Revenge of the Sith. At the time it was to be the last of the Star Wars movies.
And it was, until last October.
That was when George Lucas sold the rights to the franchise to Disney.
You’d have to be a fool to think they wouldn’t make more movies. After all, they have to make money on their purchase, right? The sure way to keep Star Wars in our minds is not solely through merchandise sales. If you want a new crowd of followers, you have to keep telling stories.
The next one comes out in 2015.
If you’re an introvert like me, you don’t like change. Combine that with being older and it’s a double threat. But life doesn’t care about those things. The world out there will do what it will. You can either keep up or check out.
Sometimes you feel like you’re standing on a rock with waves crashing all around you. You’ll get soaked, but if you keep your balance, you won’t get knocked off.
Life is a lot like that.
If you know Jesus, life can still feel like that. Here’s the story behind the analogy. The waves that splash and crash around you is the reality of living in a sin-soaked world. The rock you stand on that gives you balance is your total trust in an unchanging God who will hold on to you no matter how hard or high the waves crash.
Stand on that and you’ll stay afloat in the strongest storms.
New Member: Hannah Holdridge
Another addition to introducing our new members through sharing a little of their story. Our hope is that these stories will allow us to grow closer as a family as well as an avenue to share the story of our city.
I am currently a sophomore at UGA studying religion. I began attending Christ Community Church during my freshman year around January. I had been “church hopping” for several weeks and when I came to CC I knew that this was where God wanted me to grow as a believer.
Grace in the Life of George Jones
Frank McKinley likes to spend his time reading, writing, drinking coffee, and taking photographs. He and his family have been members of Christ Community over ten years and in three locations. If you’d like to read more, his blog is http://frank-speakingfrankly.blogspot.com/
It seems everyone knows the man and his music. Who doesn’t know his most popular tune, “He Stopped Loving Her Today”? If you’ve ever lost someone dear to your heart, you can feel the pain in the words of that song.
We all love George Jones in the way a lot of us love Bill Clinton. Here is a guy who has his flaws. His character wasn’t solid. He was a drunk for many years. He was married four times. He made bad choices and failed time and again, yet he bounced back like a man with a million second chances.
Maybe you haven’t been a slave to alcohol. But you’ve probably been addicted to something. It could even be a way of doing things. If that pattern is interrupted, you’d find yourself wanting to go back as badly as a chain smoker going an hour without a cigarette. We run to what is comfortable to avoid ever having to feel that feeling.
We can relate to George whenever we’ve disappointed someone. He missed performances often enough that people dubbed him “No Show” Jones. And for most of us, if we did that more than twice, we’d lose all our friends. But there was an unconditional love the public had for him that transcended all his sins against them. In fact it was so great that he was still performing concerts up to the time of his death.
Despite all his difficulties, George was a man with resolve. He got up time after time and kept on going. What seems to have given him the most strength was the unconditional love of his last wife.
George’s life paints a picture of the redemption we all crave. We want to know we matter and that our gifts can make a difference. George used his freely and shared them with the world. He didn’t wait until he was perfect to start because he knew that would never happen.
That’s where Jesus comes in. He loves us as we are, no matter how much we’ve messed things up. He can use even the weakest of us to accomplish his purpose in the world.
So quit worrying and start trusting. Share God’s love by sharing your gifts with a broken world.
Jesus will take care of the mess.
New Member: David Thompson
Another addition to introducing our new members through sharing a little of their story. Our hope is that these stories will allow us to grow closer as a family as well as an avenue to share the story of our city.
I grew up in the Mississippi Delta, which I consider the center of the Bible belt. I participated in a lot of religious activity through junior high and high school, but I would say that my heart looked more like the heart of a Pharisee than the heart of Jesus.
