Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

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altView: christopher macdonald Posted by 11.20.2009 8:45 am

altView

“I have heard many complain that they did not want to be “so heavenly-minded that they were no earthly good.” But we are usually in no personal danger of this. In fact, I have yet to meet a human being who was. I have met people who were in danger of being so “religious” that they were no earthly good; but never too “heavenly-minded.”

When people speak of heaven they often wax eloquent as if heaven were an ethereal dreamland. But heaven is more real than you or I. While we are but a vapor upon this earth, we speak of the throne of God as if it were a wishful wisp of smoke from our great-grandfather’s pipe.

In the same way that we are insane to create God in our image (when in fact it is the reverse), so to project a heaven out of your own infantile crayon-on-paper theologies is cute but should go no further than under a magnet on the fridge. Heaven informs our lives and those places in our lives now that seem the most solid in Christ are the beginnings of becoming a citizen of Heaven where such creativity, vision, knowledge and reflected glory will be more powerful than we can imagine. What does C.S. Lewis say? Beings so luminous that if we were to see them today we would be “strongly tempted to worship” them.

Not only is heaven our future, it is to be our present. We are to “seek the things above”- present tense -“where Christ is”- now – “at the right hand of God”. The closest I can come to interpreting the meaning of this verse is that we are to seek the reality of the Kingdom of God in our life.

Jesus Christ is the most heavenly minded, yet the most earthly good. Can you name one man who has ever been more earthly good than Jesus of Nazareth? Now can you name one man who has ever been more heavenly minded than Jesus of Nazareth? The truth is, the heavens themselves reflect the eternal glory of Christ, yet no man has ever been more earthly good than Christ, the “Second Adam,” God in the flesh.

The Jesus follower who is heavenly minded, will always be the most active, Why? Because Jesus is the most active agent in Creation in all ways at all times, even holding all of it together relationally at this very moment in a way beyond comprehension. To be a follower of this Living One to to actively become a part of that as you are “in Him” and He is in you.

To be “heavenly-minded” is to have the “mind of Christ”; and it is unfortunate that many of us simply want the old mind back. The eternal perspective is to be taught by God to see a bit from His vantage point. To be sure, in a “mirror dimly” is all we can take in. But someday “face to face” and then we shall be like Him.

(This is an excerpt from SPOKE: Journal of Christ.)

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altView: holly ballard Posted by 11.16.2009 8:03 am

altView

I don’t know what I believe. That’s kind of a relief, actually, as it’s taken me about seven years to say. Since my fundamentalist upbringing never left a lot of room for doubt, I spent a lot of time bottling up the truth, which was that I no longer knew what capital-T Truth was. Admitting this to myself was difficult enough, but I also found myself faced with a somehow more daunting dilemma: how do I continue to function honestly in the Christian community without people I love rejecting me or—worse—worrying about me? Each time I would come close to exposing the true nature of my (un)belief, I could think only of a time when I had been kept up at night in anguish over a lost soul. What did I do now that that lost soul was me?

My initial solution was not to abandon my challenging but ultimately comfortable beliefs. Instead, I began reading trendy Christian books that pecked at the problem of faith but never really gave me room to doubt. I also tried a couple of newer, less-traditional churches that offered a far cry from the “as together we stand and sing” services of my youth. I was disappointed to find beneath the exciting packaging only the same suffocating space. Throughout this process, I continued trying to keep everyone convinced I wasn’t undergoing a crisis of faith; you may be unsurprised to hear I eventually gave up on the whole thing altogether.

But the whole thing, it turns out, didn’t give up on me. When I didn’t know what else to do, I turned away from institutions and to the only thing that ever consistently made sense to me. That was, and remains, love. The majority of what I’d call worship in the last few years has been simply connecting with other people, namely Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, three men who I’m convinced were wrongfully convicted of murder and who have spent the last 16 years of their lives in prison. The steps that brought me to this case and the relationships I have forged since are nothing if not spiritual.

It seems to me that every act of love, no matter how small, is an act of worship. My current beliefs about spirituality can, I suppose, best be summed up by a fairly blasphemous thought that occurred to me one morning as I was driving home from a night drinking with friends: it was the most worshipful few hours I’d had in a very long time.

It happened that Sunday morning as it often happens to me now. When all is quiet, the sorrows and joys of the day sometimes transform into tiny prayers I didn’t realize I intended to say until they’ve already materialized. I’m still not sure who I’m talking to, but the interconnectedness of all things constantly draws me back to something bigger. And—get this—I actually believe I’ve found a place where I can openly and honestly figure out the rest.

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altView: todd erickson Posted by 11.12.2009 9:30 am

altView

Growing up, I was always told that there were no dreams other than saving souls.

That the only thing that was eternal, that was meaningful, was the souls of other people, and everything else was meaningless and would pass away.

I was told, in fact, that whatever I loved most, whatever my fiercest, dearest dream was, God would ask me to give it up for Him so that I could save souls.

This seemed, overall, to point at a terribly empty and pointless existence where we were all biding the time increasing the size of our club while we waited to be evacuated to another place. It seemed, especially reading the words of Christ, like there should have been much more.

Over time, from doing my own studying, from reading other Christian scholars and authors, I’ve begun to see that yes, there is a great deal more to life than just how many people in a particular community have checked a box that says “yes, I’m saved, and I’d like to experience public immersion”. I’ve come to understand that we are designed with dreams and talents and abilities by God specifically to use them for His Glory…and that God is Glorified when a child learns to read, or when people eat, and eat well, or when friends share comfort and a belly laugh.

For far too many people, Christianity has brought not life (and life more abundant), but law and restrictions and the death of hope and dreams, and that’s simply wrong, it’s unhuman. It’s using the Gospel of Christ to bring more of Hell to earth, and that’s simply not acceptable.

We should be in the process of dreaming dreams, better dreams, and then making them come to life. Of being the Hope that the world truly needs, on a daily basis. And loving the beauty of that existence.

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altView: libby delay Posted by 11.09.2009 10:06 am

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**EDITORIAL NOTE: this is the first of 15 blog posts over the next month and a half that are part of a new series called altView. for an intro to the series, you can read in detail here, but in essence, these are stories of faith from the people of our community. no filters. no agendas. no prompts. just people telling their stories. hope you enjoy!**

There are three states of love. In love, out of love, and on the precipice between the two. We all have a preference, and, surprisingly, in love is not always the hands-down winner. It is too messy, too all-consuming, too much. Then again, out of love can be a little lonely, and that teetering precipice, when you’re no longer in love, but not quite out of it, exhaustingly dramatic. Each is risky. —A Strange Nervous Laughter, Bridget McNulty

I have had tons of love/relationship drama in my life. Yes, definitely with guys, but mostly with God. I’ve always been a Christian, but mostly in the same way I’ve always been white—I was born that way.

Through most of my teen angst—while I identified myself as a Christian—I was out of love with God. I was jaded, turned-off by all the hypocrisy and wickedness of the “Christians” around me, and pissed off that, while I intellectually knew God was real and what I believed was true, I wished it wasn’t. I wanted to believe something else.

God was patient with me though, because in October of my senior year, God brought me to that precipice of love, nudging me slowly to the edge. I wish I had jumped then, but I didn’t. I camped out on the precipice for four months—the four most painful months of my life. I broke up with a guy that I didn’t love, but had dated for two and a half years. I fell in love with a guy who didn’t seem to love me back. I ran away from home, almost dropped out of school and was completely betrayed and heartbroken by two of my best friends.

By March, I finally jumped suicidally into love with God, because I had nowhere else to go. Life was too painful. I didn’t care whether I was happy or whether life was fun. I just wanted for any pain that I felt to mean something.

Being in love with God is messy. It’s all-consuming. It feels, sometimes, like too much to handle. It doesn’t fix everything in your life. In fact, March was a horrible month in a lot of ways, filled with more pain than I thought I could deal with. But I also started dating my now-husband in March and I forgave my family and those two friends that summer.

I’ve seen firsthand what a waste it is to spend resources (time, money, energy) on things that don’t honor God. I regret the years I lost, but I’m working now to create a Warm Space for homeless people in Little Rock. I’m working on staying in love with God through loving his people, his earth and those he has put in my life whether they love me or not.

If you’re jaded or angry at God, realize that the opposite of love isn’t hate, but indifference, and get right with him.

If you’re sitting on the precipice, JUMP! LOVE GOD WITHOUT ABANDON!

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announcing a new blog series: altView Posted by 11.06.2009 12:09 pm

altView

over the last several months, we’ve been able to slowly, but surely share with you the details of our ever-growing community called eikon. through this blog—as well as the various pages here on the website—you’ve primarily heard one voice: mine. with the exception of a couple blog posts and some very brief leader questionnaires, you’ve been exposed to a single viewpoint of an ever-diversifying community. one of our values is to create a space where multiple stories are told, diverse worldviews are expressed and individual points-of-view become part of an ideological melting pot.

it’s with these thoughts that i’m very excited to announce a new blog series called altView. over the next two months, you’ll hear from about 16 or 17 voices in our community. in other words, you’ll be hearing alternative viewpoints.

there will be no filters and no agendas. these aren’t sales pitches for eikon. they aren’t a bunch of “come to jesus” posts, attempting to convert the masses. i’ve simply invited a cross section of our community—representing various points-of-view and levels of faith commitments—to share what’s significant to them. maybe it’s an issue or cause about which they’re passionate. maybe it’s a significant place in their life where faith came to the forefront. maybe it’s the point they decided, “i’m through with church.” maybe it’s the point they decided, “i need the church.” it’s really wide open.

so, it should be a fun journey. there’s so much more to eikon than ryan byrd and you all, unfortunately, have seen little more than that for quite some time now.

we’ll kick things off this coming monday, november 9 and continue on subsequent thursdays and mondays (that is if I can keep my brain and deadline whip in check…).

see you next monday!

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