The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 21

Of a quiet little church and the breath of God 'V. it Excerpts from a book by Barbara Brown Taylor Excerpts from "Gospel Medicine" by Barbara Brown Taylor, published by Cowley Publications in 1995. On the gospel: The gospel is not a flashlight but a fire. It can warm and it can burn. The gospel is not a table knife but a sword.

It can set free and it can divide. The gospel is not pablum. It is powerful stuff, powerful enough to challenge the most sacred human ties, but as frightening as it is, it is not finally to be feared. On Abram's new life as God's Abraham: "Every male among you shall be circumcised," God said, and I am glad I was not there when Abraham found out what that meant. "You want us to do what?" (but) it made sense that a promise concerning Abraham's descendants should call forth a promise about the part of him that would plant the seeds of those descendants.

Ouch. On Jesus' ascension: It was almost as if he had not ascended but exploded, so that all the holiness that was once concentrated in him alone flew everywhere, flew far and wide, so that the seeds of heaven were sown in all the fields of the earth. On God and religion: God is not interested in religion; God is interested in human beings, and particularly in the demolition of our illusions: that we can hold ourselves apart from one i It's a little church. It's white and it's wood and it has a high bell tower. The bell's rough rope hangs through a hole all the way down to the front door.

The church sits on a rise off a town street. It sits among pine trees the limbs of which move in a morning's breeze. The movement causes the sunlight to come and go against the wavy panes of glass in the three big windows that make each i'de of the church almost nothing but windows. You get the idea God's looking in. On first sight, Barbara Brown Taylor loved the little church.

the way things happen. She became the preacher there. she's famous for it. In a survey of 1,500 of her peers, she has been named one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. On this sunny morning in the mountain town of Clarkesville, the little church's every hard seat in every gated pew is filled with worshipers, maybe 80 all told.

It's a plain sanctuary, wood and paint, two thornbushes, a candle here and beauty done simply. The worshipers look to the pulpit at the altar's left. There the Rev. Taylor stands. She is 44 years old.

Is Her hair is so gray as to be white. She is tall and angular. Preaching, she moves with an actor's command, every gesture just so. Somehow, her lilting voice is small even as it fills the room. To hear her speak is' to hope God's listening in.

Jr. Her sermon this day is on daring. Do we believe God can create life where life did not exist? She says God rakes up a little pile of dust and breathes over it. Here she blows a puff of air. Such is how God makes life.

She calls him "a God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist." Extraordinary. Maybe it's the little church. Maybe everyone must be quiet in such a little box of a place. Still, it's extraordinary how quiet the room is. Through three services with 254 wor- r-' x- DAVE KINDRED AT LARGE shipers (this in a town of 1,150 people) Barbara Brown Taylor speaks to people paying attention.

Slowly, softly, sometimes at a whisper, she talks of God's power to create. He did the breathing on dust thing. He did divine resuscitation on dry bones. From the tomb of Jesus he took away the stink of death and replaced it with Easter lilies. The Rev.

Taylor is telling of a husband and wife named Abram and Sarai. Just because God asked them to, they up and left home, the man 99 years old, the woman 90 when God finally delivered on his promise to them. They would have a first child. "So they left everything they had for something that wasn't real yet," the Rev. Taylor says, as opposed to a man named Nicodemus, who would do nothing unless God could prove it to him, even justify it philosophically.

She brings what she knows of life to what she doesn't know of life. She couldn't have known Abram or Sarai, but she knows how moving day went. From the pulpit, she does all the roles: "Somebody must have said, 'Hey, Abram, where you 'Into God's promise. 'Oh. Where's that 'Not sure.

Let you know when we get 'Aren't you a little old to be starting over DAVE KINDRED Staff Barbara Brown Taylor chats with a parishioner after a service at Grace-Calvary Episcopal Church in Clarkesville. 'Well, I don't feel old. I feel 17 years old again. Sarai, you feel 'No, I just look old. I feel kinda frisky.

I feel lucky. I feel "Now, you won't find those words in the Bible. But God dared them to come alive. And they did." The wind stirred up by God blew right over Nicodemus' head, the little church's white-haired preacher lady says. "Abram and Sarai, on the other hand, when God breathed on them, they became Kindred's column runs Wednesdays in Local News and Sundays in Sports.

Developer agrees to preserve part of Civil War battlefield lb i 1 I I I II II I LrmrA)jiwjLirii IJm, inter Mm survey the site for significant Civil War remains and to enter into negotiations with the Civil War Commission about preserving a piece of the site. The five acres constitute what the archaeological firm identified as the scene of the most intense fighting and recommended it to Womble as a preservation site. He agreed. The acreage, Hatfield said, is part of what was called "the Hell Hole" in historic records. In May 1864, Union forces suffered heavy casualties in this area as they charged through wooded, deeply cleft ravines toward By Christina Cheakalos Staff writer Divide and conquer didn't do it, so a developer and historians compromised on Tuesday over a piece of Paulding County land that records show was the site of a' particularly intense and bloody Civil War battle.

Mickey Womble, president of Southlife Properties agreed tp preserve five of his 96 acres. Womble will build a subdivision of about 117 middle-class homes on the rest of the land, located about three miles northeast of Dallas. Gene Hatfield, chairman of the Georgia Civil War Commission, said his group appreciates Womble'sact. "We are well aware that he had no obligation to do so," said Hatfield, an associate professor of history at Clayton State College. "He spent a great deal of time and effort working with us to reach this point.

Given the circumstances, we feel that this is a very worthwhile compromise." Last September the Paulding County Commission approved a request by Womble to develop the subdivision on the site of a portion of the New Hope battlefield. The developer agreed to hire an archaeological firm to V-l- 1 1 111 I j-. Jury convicts Pace of raping, strangling Vine City women 0 Closing costs. Defense attorneys soueht a third option life without parole but the request was turned down after prosecutors objected. Assistant District Attorney Jfnhn Turner told iurors Tuesday $100 Cash rebate for every $5,000 transferred.

Hxed Rate Option that Pace should be executed and that the rarjes and murders were who lived in Vine City and the death of a 42-year-old woman who lived in southeast Atlanta. He was convicted of killing Lula Bell McAfee, 86; Mattie Mae McClendon, 78; Johnnie Mae Martin, 79; and Annie K. Britt, 42. All of the women were sexually assaulted. All were strangled.

Pace has been suspected of, but never charged with, at least three other murders, police say. The trial has now entered the penalty phase, and the jury will decide whether Pace should be put to death or serve a life prison term. By Sandra Eckstein STAFF WRITER jV! A man who once stalked the Vine City community was convicted Tuesday of raping and murdering four women, and a Cjury now must decide if the killer a prosecutor called "Satan's lap dog" should face the electric 'chair. The Fulton County Superior "Court jury deliberated only about three hours before convicting. Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace, 31, Of the 14 counts against him.

Pace was charged with the murders of three elderly women "outrageously or wantonly vile." Turner said he will show jurors evidence of other crimes Pace committed, including a break-in where he tried to rape a 12-vear-old girl and a 1990 hreak-in at the home of Coretta 1-800-222-3222 For rmre information or to apply by phone. Scott King. A detective testified Tuesday that Pace said he saw King sitting on her bed reading. Fort Benning workers underbid Lockheed for missile simulators need it This flexibility makes budgeting easier and protects you from changing interest rates. In addition, you pay no closing costs and earn $100 for every $5,000 you transfer from credit cards, car loans, and virtually any other bank loan or line of credit And, in most cases, the interest is tax-deductible? So just give us a call or stop by NationsBank today.

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