Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: Christianity

  • Getting the love we always wanted from the perfect parent we never had

    When we were small, our parents were godlike to us. They had all power over us. We probably thought they had all power in the world. This experience imprinted on us, and subconsciously we assume that God is like our parents. Better said, we project our parents onto God, and so expect God to treat…

  • A place to start

    In my last post I linked to a story about my first apartment. I wrote it when the blog was new and had few readers. I think it deserves another chance. I got my first apartment just before I turned 22. I had just graduated from engineering school in Terre Haute and had landed a…

  • I came to believe

    I’ve been thinking for months about writing a post called, “Why I follow God.” It all started when two bloggers I follow began discussing God’s existence with each other on their blogs. In short, one believes and the other doesn’t. I wanted to add to the discussion, but the more I thought about it the more my…

  • Finding joy in service

    A year ago my church was still in our building on land where our congregation was founded in 1839, but we were dying. Six months ago we sold the building, bought some land, and prepared to build a smaller building, one we could afford to heat and cool while still paying our pastor. Today we’re…

  • The old songs

    I went to an evening church service last Friday, Good Friday. I’d never done that before. My Christian “heritage,” if you can call it that, has its roots mostly in Restoration Movement churches (Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Christian Churches). These churches tend to lack the usual trappings of Christendom as part of…

  • Best of DTR: Love paves the way

    If you’ve been following my blog lately you know that my church just sold its building and is now worshiping in rented space. We’ve been seeking God’s guidance on how he wants us to reach out. As a church, we tend to want to reach out in churchy ways that translate to “get ’em in…

  • The time capsule

    We found a time capsule in our church building’s cornerstone. See what it contains!

  • Renewing a 170-year heritage

    We sought God’s leading for our dying church. The path he put us on led us away from our home of 170 years, but it unified us behind him after years of strife.

  • Afternoon of awe

    On one of the first warm nights last spring we were standing in the pastor’s kitchen in our shorts and flip-flops after a meeting. “I keep having this dream about a concert,” Nancy said, “in the parking lot at the church. Over and over again I’m dreaming this. I’m getting the feeling that I’m supposed…

  • Like Gideon’s army

    We lost a couple more families at church recently, people who were very involved. Not only is it hard to watch them go, but it’s hard to fill the void they leave behind. And given that our church is small, and that those who contribute tend to wear many hats, that void is significant. We…

  • Yes, Lord

    The church where I attend is dying. Neighboring farm families who settled in northwest Marion County founded North Liberty Christian Church in 1839. Their names are on the gravestones around our building. The congregation has has its ups and downs in 170 years. We’ve built two log cabins, a brick church, and the current brick-faced…

  • The fundamentals

    I tried out for basketball in the fifth and sixth grades. I didn’t make the cut either year, but Coach Bottorff always encouraged me. “You learned some fundamentals in here,” he said. “You keep practicing them and maybe you can play next year.” I didn’t really want to play basketball. My mom made me try…