From 1976 to 1978, I served as the music and youth director for the First United Methodist Church of Magee, Mississippi, returning there part-time as music director only in the 1980s.

These good people encouraged my creativity, not only in their programs but also in the column I wrote for their weekly newsletter.

Now, for the first time in over twenty-five years, selected columns are collected here. Some naturally and unabashedly reflect the Christian content of their original avenue of distribution while others are much less specific to their religious wellspring, but most offer insights that will hopefully enlighten and appeal to readers beyond their original context. Some are even expressed as short short stories.

Also included are poems, secular and sacred, penned throughout life and song lyrics including ones of faith written in teenage years.

Finally, for a few years, I belonged to a writing group at the First United Methodist Church in Madison, Mississippi. I’ve thrown in some essays created with those good friends in this collection as well.

Please know that, regardless of the source of each of these parfaits, all of the author’s royalties for this book will go to the First United Methodist Church of Magee, Mississippi.

The Gandy Miniatures is a promotional and outreach division of Maximizing Individual Potential ().