Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

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point/counterpoint: vote to decide our upcoming series’ topics Posted by Ryan Byrd 03.11.2010 9:07 am

point/counterpoint

even as i type, i’m hiding my face in shame… yes friends, it’s been just over a month (!!) since we last blogged. wow…

well, we have good(ish) reasons (we’re trying to make ourselves feel better…). since kicking off weekly worship gatherings several weeks ago, we’ve been busy, busy, busy. the current series, confessional booth is going great and we’ve been excited to convey our guiding theologies while confessing some of our shortcomings.

even in the midst of this series, though (we have a few weeks left), we’re planning for the next one. we’re excited to announce that the upcoming series (that will begin april 11) is called point/counterpoint. in it, we’ll be tackling some hotly-debated topics. the format will consist of 2 speakers that will present opposing viewpoints of a topic. for example, if we do a week on homosexuality, one speaker would present “homosexuality is a sin’ and the other would present “homosexuality is not a sin.” each speaker would use the bible as their primary starting point to present their argument. ultimately, our goal isn’t to “tell you the answers”, but to present 2 thought-out, bible-centric options to guide your own thinking. it won’t be a debate or an argument or a one-up kind of thing, but rather, a healthy, balanced presentation of the issues.

we really think this will be a great series, but we need your help to make it happen! instead of us just choosing the 4 topics, we thought we’d put it up for a vote. so, please fill out the following survey (and pass this link onto friends!!).

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Posted in core values, gatherings, information, worship | No Comments »



home sweet home: announcing our new meeting space Posted by Ryan Byrd 02.08.2010 8:54 am

confessional booth

several days ago we made the exciting announcement that this coming sunday, february 14, we’ll be kicking off weekly gatherings. we’ll begin this new phase of our community with a series called confessional booth that will take a look at the guiding theologies of our church. think eikon meets postsecret. it should be a really great time to learn about this thing called eikon and connect with a new faith community.

as promised, we’ve got a few new details to share between now and then and this is the biggest. we’re incredibly excited to announce that after meeting in temporary spaces for the past several months, we have a new, (semi-)permanent home. since the inception of eikon in mid-2009, we’ve built a relationship with r street community church and have begun the process of finding ways to build partnerships with them in order to better connect with little rock. so, just as any other good friend does, r street is letting crash on their proverbial couch for a little while. :)

so, beginning this sunday, our new meeting space will be at r street community church’s building, located on the corner of r st. and university ave. in the midtown/heights area. it will be more than sufficient for our growing community and should be a great space until we transition into our own space in the late summer/early fall.

one of the things we’re particularly excited about with this new space is the fully functional children’s areas. whereas we’ve been limited with our childrens’ activities due to our previous meeting spaces, this new space will allow for us to begin to fully realize our commitment to families with children. so, if you have children, know that your child(ren) will have a space committed to them with competent and caring workers.

we’d love for you to partner with us in getting the word out and making this a big night. so, feel free to forward this blog post on to friends, twitter it, post it on facebook or—as crazy as this sounds—have an actual real life conversation with friends and coworkers. :)

see you on sunday, february 14 at 6 p.m. for confessional booth!

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Posted in announcements, childcare, core values, gatherings, information, worship | 4 Comments »



i do confess: our biggest announcement yet Posted by Ryan Byrd 02.02.2010 8:47 am

confessional booth

last june, this thing called eikon kicked off, publicly, with a little cookout with some burgers, some beers and a handful of sorted people. since that time, we’ve connected with new friends and grown over the course of informational meetings, guided conversations and, over the last few months, a handful of worship gatherings. in just the last 6 or 7 months, we’ve come a long way in the initial phases of forming this thing we call a church.

now, we’re incredibly excited to share with everyone that we’ve reached the next step in the process of fleshing out our growing community. on sunday, february 14, we’ll take a big step forward by kicking off weekly gatherings. as mentioned, so far we’ve had worship gatherings every few weeks, but now, we’re ready to move to something more regular that will help to foster a more fluid community.

along with the announcement of moving to weekly gatherings, we’re also excited to announce that we’ll be kicking things off with a 6-week series called confessional booth. one of our deepest convictions at eikon is that the church—in the universal sense—has certainly made innumerable positive contributions to the world, but we’ve also helped to create quite a bit of warranted mistrust, division and disbelief (among other things). throughout this series, we want to take the opportunity to address and confess some of these shortcomings and dream together about some ideas that will hopefully help to chart a new course. no doubt, we at eikon will do our fair share of screwing things up, getting things wrong and even adding to the problem at times, but we hope, throughout the themes of the series, to share our values that offer an alternative to those missteps.

as opposed to the typical scenario where the “congregant” confesses to a clergy member, the thrust of our series will be us confessing to you. we want to be honest and offer a sense of humility as we talk frankly and openly. at the same time, we’re excited to offer everyone a chance to bear their soul a little. now, we’re not going to have an actual confessional booth or some kind of awkward moment where we call people out, but we think we’ve come up with some creative ways to “come clean”. think confessional meets postsecret. that’s the idea, so we hope you come out to experience it!

over the next several days, we’ll trickle out some other helpful details, so be sure to check back regularly. throughout this and upcoming related announcements, the general theme—in the end—is that we’re incredibly excited and we would really love for you to be a part of this important time for our growing community.

we’d love for you to partner with us in getting the word out and making this a big night. so, feel free to forward this blog post on to friends, twitter it, post it on facebook or—as crazy as this sounds—have an actual real life conversation with friends and coworkers. :)

see you on sunday, february 14 for confessional booth!

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Posted in announcements, core values, events, gatherings, information, theology, worship | 2 Comments »



one more chance to CONNECT Posted by Ryan Byrd 01.26.2010 7:45 am

connect an eikon worship gathering

a couple weeks ago, we gathered, once again, to worship together at sticky fingerz. all in all, we had a great time of connecting, continuing to build community and engaging in a great conversation. through this series of gatherings called CONNECT, we’ve looked at the various ways that eikon is looking to focus on and build connections. we’ve looked at our focus on connecting with our city and connecting with each other and now we hope to add another layer.

so, we’re excited to announce CONNECT: an eikon worship gathering. on sunday, january 31 at 6:00 pm, we’ll be gathering, once again, at sticky fingerz (see map here).

for those who have joined us at our past worship gatherings, you’ll notice we’ve expressed ourselves in a number of ways including the following: engaging in conversation, singing, listening, sharing stories, praying, eating, drinking, watching, hearing, thinking and, ultimately, connecting with god and each other. one of our values in regards to our gatherings is that we want to create a sense of familiarity, but not predictability. so, for this gathering, while you’ll notice many of the same elements as those in the past, we will certainly be employing some new modes of expression and connection. in the end, we think everyone will find something in which they can connect with both god and each other.

as with our other gatherings, we’re excited to once again offer free, quality childcare. we’ll have some more info very soon here on the blog about childcare and how you can RSVP your children for those services.

so, mark your calendars, invite some friends, retweet this, put it on facebook. this should be an incredible night to CONNECT with both god and each other.

see you on sunday, the 31st at sticky fingerz!

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Posted in announcements, events, gatherings, information, worship | 2 Comments »



RSVP: worship gathering childcare Posted by Ryan Byrd 01.15.2010 6:13 pm

connect an eikon worship gathering

this sunday night, we’ll once again be gathering for a time of worship at sticky fingerz. if so inclined, you can find all the details here. much like our other gatherings, we’re excited to once again offer free, quality childcare.

since our worship gathering will be at sticky fingerz, the space won’t lend itself to onsite childcare. fortunately, though, our (ryan & christen’s) house is only 5 minutes from the venue, so we’ll be hosting the childcare in our home (google maps link).

having our own children and understanding parents’ concerns, we are committed to having quality, competent care in a clean, child-friendly space. so, a qualified (trained with background checks) worker will be taking care of the children. if you have any questions about our home or the type of care your children will receive, please feel free to contact me at 501.551.8118 or christen at 501.551.8117.

we ask that you drop your children off at our home between 5:30 and 5:50 pm (at the very latest) and pick them up within 30 minutes of the gathering ending. we ask that anything you bring—diaper bags, bottles, food containers, pacifiers, etc—be clearly marked with your child’s name.

an RSVP email is required for attendance. using the form on our contact page, please include the following information:

  1. primary parental contact name
  2. children’s name(s) and age(s)
  3. parent/guardian phone number

address

see you sunday night!

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Posted in announcements, childcare, events, gatherings, information, worship | 1 Comment »



what’s missing in ch ch? ok, nevermind… Posted by Ryan Byrd 01.08.2010 4:35 pm

eikon START teamok, so let’s just begin by saying that we hereby pledge to never again invoke any of those cheeseball quotes from church marquees… alright, now that we’ve placed our hand on the bible and sworn our unwavering non-cheesy intentions, let’s move on… :)

over the course of the last 6 months, we’ve begun the process of the actual physical formation of eikon. we’ve had an incredible response and we’ve been able to connect with so many different kinds of people that we would have never guessed. over the last couple months, we’ve offered people a chance to marry their verbal intentions with a physical means of carrying them out. that process has been called the START team. in essence, it’s just a group of volunteer people who have committed to learning more about eikon and taking an active role in the start of the church.

with the dawn of 2010 (twenty-ten or two thousand ten??), we’re turning a corner in terms of the nature of the START team. whereas we’ve spent our previous sessions dealing with the theoretical aspects of eikon (i.e. why? what? who? when? etc.) and have asked for an initial, concrete commitment, we’re now asking others to join with us in the pragmatic aspect of forming a new community. what that ultimately means is mobilizing people to just do stuff. all kinds of stuff: offer further insights, seal envelopes, move chairs, fold handouts, design graphic pieces, do photography, shake hands, be a smiling face…just stuff. with the official start day (regular, weekly gatherings) for eikon coming in mid-february (be on the lookout for some more clues on that very soon), we’ve got plenty of stuff to do. and that ultimately means that we need some more helping hands. we need you! (see, i used an exclamation point to tell you that…so it must be important! see, there’s another one…)

UPCOMING MEETINGS

we’ll have 3 meetings in january (and likely 1 in february), so we’d love for anyone and everyone to be a part of those. the first one was this past sunday and we’ll be having another this sunday night, january 10. at 6 p.m., we’ll gather at john and shannon hardin’s home once again (see map here), so it will be a very casual environment. we’ll build in some time for drinks and a light dinner, so you’ll have a chance to catch up and hang out a little. also, we’ll be offering childcare on location, so feel free to bring the kids (if you plan to bring children, please drop us a note letting us know asap).

if you have any additional questions, feel free to shoot us an email at info [at] eikonthechurch [dot] com or leave a comment. see you sunday night!

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Posted in events, food, gatherings, information, leadership, start team | No Comments »



announcing CONNECT: an eikon worship gathering Posted by Ryan Byrd 01.06.2010 8:45 am

connect an eikon worship gathering

avoiding all cliché, 2009 was a great year for eikon and we’ve got a decent feeling that 2010 is going to be even better. over the last several months of the past year, we connected several times for worship gatherings, concluding the year with a shared time of advent. as we forge ahead in the new year, we have a whole new slate of gatherings to help foster our ever-growing community.

we’re excited to announce CONNECT: an eikon worship gathering. on sunday, january 17 at 6:00 pm, we’ll be gathering, once again, at sticky fingerz (see map here).

for those who have joined us at our past worship gatherings, you’ll notice we’ve expressed ourselves in a number of ways including the following: engaging in conversation, singing, listening, sharing stories, praying, eating, drinking, watching, hearing, thinking and, ultimately, connecting with god and each other. one of our values in regards to our gatherings is that we want to create a sense of familiarity, but not predictability. so, for this gathering, while you’ll notice many of the same elements as those in the past, we will certainly be employing some new modes of expression and connection. namely, this gathering will be much more conversational and talkback-driven.

along with the commitment of avoiding the creation of a rut, another value is that our times of worship don’t center around a single person or a single way of engaging in worship. often, the church has rallied around a singular “climax” to the service: the sermon. whereas we absolutely believe that the sermon can be transformative and deeply engaging, we want to also let the voices of our community be heard and shared on a regular basis. so, we’re excited to offer a time of voluntary feedback and idea-sharing. through a guided conversation, we’ll connect in a shared time of insight and reflection on god and what it means to engage in this thing called community.

as with our other gatherings, we’re excited to once again offer free, quality childcare. we’ll have some more info very soon here on the blog about childcare and how you can RSVP your children for those services.

so, mark your calendars, invite some friends, retweet this, put it on facebook. this should be an incredible night to CONNECT with both god and each other.

see you on sunday, the 17th at sticky fingerz!

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Posted in announcements, core values, events, gatherings, information, music, worship | 6 Comments »



an open invitation to lend a hand Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.31.2009 4:46 pm

eikon START teamover the course of the last 6 months, we’ve begun the process of the actual physical formation of eikon. we’ve had an incredible response and we’ve been able to connect with so many different kinds of people that we would have never guessed. over the last couple months, we’ve offered people a chance to marry their verbal intentions with a physical means of carrying them out. that process has been called the START team. in essence, it’s just a group of volunteer people who have committed to learning more about eikon and taking an active role in the start of the church.

with the dawn of 2010 (twenty-ten or two thousand ten??), we’re turning a corner in terms of the nature of the START team. whereas we’ve spent our previous sessions dealing with the theoretical aspects of eikon (i.e. why? what? who? when? etc.) and have asked for an initial, concrete commitment, we’re now asking others to join with us in the pragmatic aspect of forming a new community. what that ultimately means is mobilizing people to just do stuff. all kinds of stuff: offer further insights, seal envelopes, move chairs, fold handouts, design graphic pieces, do photography, shake hands, be a smiling face…just stuff. with the official start day (regular, weekly gatherings) for eikon coming in mid-february (be on the lookout for some more clues on that very soon), we’ve got plenty of stuff to do. and that ultimately means that we need some more helping hands. we need you! (see, i used an exclamation point to tell you that…so it must be important! see, there’s another one…)

UPCOMING MEETINGS

we’ll have 3 meetings in january (and likely 1 in february), so we’d love for anyone and everyone to be a part of those. the first one will be this coming sunday, january 3 at 6 p.m. john and shannon hardin have graciously opened their home (see map here), so it will be a very casual environment. we’ll build in some time for drinks and light snacks, so you’ll have a chance to catch up and hang out a little. also, we’ll be offering childcare on location, so feel free to bring the kids (if you plan to bring children, please drop us a note letting us know asap).

if you have any additional questions, feel free to shoot us an email at info [at] eikonthechurch [dot] com or leave a comment. see you sunday night!

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Posted in announcements, core values, events, gatherings, information, start team | No Comments »



RSVP: modVent gathering childcare Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.18.2009 5:48 pm

modvent an eikon advent gathering

our first week of modVent was a big success and we’re glad to be doing it again this weekend. if you want more details on this whole modVent thing, you can find them here. much like last week’s gathering, we’re excited to once again offer free, quality childcare.

since our worship gathering will be at sticky fingerz, the space won’t lend itself to onsite childcare. fortunately, though, our (ryan & christen’s) house is only 5 minutes from the venue, so we’ll be hosting the childcare in our home (google maps link).

since we have our own children and understand parents’ concerns, we are committed to having quality, competent care in a clean, child-friendly space. so, a qualified (trained with background checks) worker will be taking care of the children. if you have any questions about our home or the type of care your children will receive, please feel free to contact me at 501.551.8118 or christen at 501.551.8117.

we ask that you drop your children off at our home between 5:30 and 5:50 pm (at the very latest) and pick them up within 30 minutes of the gathering ending. we ask that anything you bring—diaper bags, bottles, food containers, pacifiers, etc—be clearly marked with your child’s name.

finally, we ask that you fill out the following form to RSVP your children. this form includes contact information for the parents as well as your children’s names, ages and special instructions. please fill it out in its entirety. this form is required for attendance.

see you sunday night!

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Posted in announcements, events, gatherings, information | 1 Comment »



modVent evaluation form Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.15.2009 8:16 am

modvent an eikon advent gathering

sunday night, many of you attended our modVent worship gathering and helped to make it a big success! we had a great time and we hope you did as well.

certainly, there were plenty of places where things didn’t go as planned or that we would have loved to have a re-do, but all in all, we were well pleased. to ensure that we make it the best we possibly can, we ask you to sacrifice just a few minutes of your time and fill out this evaluation. it will greatly help us to improve these types of gatherings and provide a better experience for everyone.

thanks in advance!!

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Posted in gatherings, information | 1 Comment »



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