Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

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cityView: in review Posted by Ryan Byrd 06.04.2010 7:59 am

cityView blog series

we began this series with the following introduction:

faith is everywhere. or lack of faith. or a little faith. regardless of which it is, there’s a bigger conversation occurring in our city than just a single church or a single faith perspective. instead of becoming an insular community, we hope that eikon can be a place that listens to & engages in the broader faith conversation in our city.

over the past few weeks of this series, i think we’ve begun to do just that. we’ve poked around in the faith conversation in and around little rock. we’ve turned over a few of the loose rocks. certainly, it hasn’t plunged us into the deeper waters, but we’ve waded in, getting our feet wet.

the conversation continues, though. in just the fledgling stages of this thing called eikon, we hope this series has been an introductory connecting point with the larger community around us. we simply don’t want to be an island church, floating in the waters of ecclesial and social isolation.

we want to continue conversations with people like thomas hudson, who is seeking out an image of jesus that actually does, instead of just says. we’re seeking out more conversations with people like darren huckey, who’s looking past our modern christian notions of god to capture the essence and jewishness of jesus. we’re looking for ways to connect with people like rich wiebe, who is seeking a life filled with deeply abiding love and compassion for others. all of our writers have expressed a unique dimension of the conversation revolving around faith in our city.

certainly, these aren’t the totality of perspectives in our community.

so, we’ll continue to seek people beyond our “four walls” that are trying to figure out if there’s some Thing beyond us or more to life than what we see in front of us. we’ll continue to talk and write and dream and debate and grow and engage the our city.

there’s a broader view in this city, in our community of little rock. our hope and prayer is that this series is only the entry point to engaging those many views.



cityView: jerusalem greer Posted by Ryan Byrd 05.28.2010 9:35 am

cityView blog series

I am exhausted. Despite my Zoloft regimine and the ice cream I had to eat last night and my Sweet Man who does his best to love on me, I am exhausted. The reasons are all wound up in this thing we call Daily Life, so I will not bore you with the details of them because they are essentially no different than all the reasons you are probably exhausted as well. But still the tears are very close to the surface today and so I am going to lean on my old crutch for this post: Pictures.
I think in images. It is how I am wired, so here are some images from my life and a few thoughts on my faith to go with them.

cityView jerusalem greer

I have always believed. Always. I cannot remember a moment of my life when I did not have faith. I have no great conversion story, which is often embarrassing to me in Christian circles. I am a lousy converter. No drama here to shake someone into belief themselves.

cityView jerusalem greer

Prayer to me is constant. Like a heart beat. Life feet on the payment. It is as natural as breathing. In and out, in and out. I think this is because I have always assumed that God was with me. Listening to all my thoughts regardless of whether or not they are addressed to Him. And as far as I can tell he loves me anyway. Fiercely even.
This is why I get pissed when I am told I must have a quiet time. As if God was in a closet waiting on me to visit him.

cityView jerusalem greer

Hope is like a giant purse that I carry around with me, filling it up with the bits and pieces of my life and the lives of those around me. It is a deep pit and it is a mess. Broken pencils, gum wrappers and loose change rattle around on the bottom of it.
But somehow I manage to find what I need each time I go searching.

cityView jerusalem greer

Community is something I cannot live without. And something that frustrates me to no end. And yet I love fiercely still.

cityView jerusalem greer

The best things in my life found me. I did not seek them out. In fact the story of my life is the harder I try the less likely I am to succeed. I blame and thank God simultaneously for this.

cityView jerusalem greer

I have only one piece of advice. Rest is necessary. God said.