a couple weeks ago, we kicked off our new series called point/counterpoint. in it, we’re tackling some hotly-debated topics: homosexuality, the death penalty, war and politics. the format consists of two speakers who present opposing viewpoints of a topic. each speaker uses the bible as their primary starting point to present their viewpoint. ultimately, our goal isn’t to “tell you the answers”, but to present two thought-out, bible-centric options to guide your own thinking. it isn’t a debate or an argument or a one-up kind of thing, but rather, a healthy, balanced presentation of the issues.
once again this past sunday, two speakers engaged in a great conversation about war. on the affirmative side of the the issue was brent buie and on the oppositional side was tad delay.
the conversation was really great and, at minimum, got a lot of people thinking, examining their inherent viewpoints and engaging in conversations after the gathering. i was glad we got to hear from two intelligent, well spoken people like brent and tad.
as mentioned previously, we hope to have our podcast up and running very soon, but in the meantime, we thought we’d just post it here. you can listen to it in the player or you can download it by clicking here.
so, if you missed this past sunday, there’s always this week! we’ll be engaging a conversation about politics. specifically, our speakers will be exploring whether or not the most important values of jesus are more compatible with republican values or democratic values. it should be fun, needless to say. :) as always, we meet at 6 pm on sunday nights at the r street community church’s building (more info). see you there!
Tags: brent buie, church, conversation, dialogue, eikon, jesus, just war, little rock, point/counterpoint, tad delay, war
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last week, we kicked off our new series called point/counterpoint. in it, we’re tackling some hotly-debated topics: homosexuality, the death penalty, war and politics. the format consists of two speakers who present opposing viewpoints of a topic. each speaker uses the bible as their primary starting point to present their viewpoint. ultimately, our goal isn’t to “tell you the answers”, but to present two thought-out, bible-centric options to guide your own thinking. it isn’t a debate or an argument or a one-up kind of thing, but rather, a healthy, balanced presentation of the issues.
sunday, two speakers engaged in a great conversation about the death penalty. on the affirmative side of the the issue was chris abrams, a husband/father/christian from north little rock, and on the oppositional side was me (ryan byrd).
the conversation was really great and, at minimum, got a lot of people thinking, examining their inherent viewpoints and engaging in conversations after the gathering. i was glad to engage with an intelligent, well spoken person like chris and we were all able to engage in a helpful question-and-answer time.
we hope to have our podcast up and running very soon, but in the meantime, we thought we’d just post it here. you can listen to it in the player or you can download it by clicking here.
our apologies for the poor sound quality. at the last second, we had some technical glitches with our sound board and it led to unfortunately low volumes.
so, if you missed this past sunday, there’s always this week! we’ll be engaging a conversation about what the bible says about war. as always, we meet at 6 pm on sunday nights at the r street community church’s building (more info). see you there!
Tags: capital punishment, chris abrams, church, conversation, death penalty, dialogue, eikon, jesus, little rock, point/counterpoint, ryan byrd
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a few days ago, we kicked off our new series called point/counterpoint. in it, we’re tackling some hotly-debated topics: homosexuality, the death penalty, war and politics. the format consists of two speakers who present opposing viewpoints of a topic. each speaker uses the bible as their primary starting point to present their viewpoint. ultimately, our goal isn’t to “tell you the answers”, but to present two thought-out, bible-centric options to guide your own thinking. it isn’t a debate or an argument or a one-up kind of thing, but rather, a healthy, balanced presentation of the issues.
sunday, two speakers launched the series with a great conversation about homosexuality. on the “traditional” side of the the issue was todd erickson, an eikon regular, and on the biblically-affirming side was randy mccain, pastor of open door community church.
the conversation was really great and, at minimum, got a lot of people thinking, examining their inherent viewpoints and engaging in conversations after the gathering. both speakers were incredibly well spoken and we were all able to engage in a helpful question-and-answer time.
we hope to have our podcast up and running very soon, but in the meantime, we thought we’d just post it here.
so, if you missed this past sunday, there’s always this week! we’ll be engaging a conversation about what the bible says about the death penalty. as always, we meet at 6 pm on sunday nights at the r street community church’s building (more info). see you there!
Tags: church, conversation, dialogue, eikon, homosexuality, little rock, open door community church, point/counterpoint, randy mccain, sherwood, todd erickson
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we’re just a month into our weekly gatherings and so far, things have continued to progress and people continue to connect. one of the many milestones of our new community is sharing together in a time of worship for our first easter.
this sunday (april 4), we acknowledge this particularly important time of anticipation and celebration for people who follow in the way of jesus. easter marks the season in which we specifically reflect on the death and eventual resurrection of christ. easter is a time of renewal and restoration of the places where we find pain and hurt and decay and death. new life begins at easter. hope is restored. people are renewed. the broken is made whole. and we at eikon certainly hope to celebrate these things this sunday.
as always, we’ll gather at 6 pm at 1900 n. university ave. (r street community church’s building). the gathering will be a sort of interactive time of worship that centers around the stations of the cross (in a kind of a modern, re-imagined way). in addition to hearing from me (ryan), we’ll also be hearing perspectives from both kim roth and john hardin, so it should be a good chance to hear a few different perspectives. so, we think it will be a unique experience worth participating in.
hope to see you there!
Tags: christ, church, easter, eikon, jesus, john hardin, kim roth, r street community church, resurrection, stations of the cross, sunday, worship
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a couple weeks ago, we announced our upcoming series (that will begin april 11) 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.
in addition to announcing the series, we presented you an opportunity to actually choose the 4 topics by voting in our poll. we had a great response and we’re excited to reveal what the top 4 vote-getters were. here’s a graph showing the vote tally.
you’ll notice that the top vote-getters are the following (in descending order): homosexuality, death penalty, war & politics. it was a close race several days for nationalism, abortion & sustainable food sources, but they just missed the cut.
we’re really excited about the series & we think it will be a great time to get a variety of viewpoints that all, ultimately, center around what scripture has to say. in other words, one of the things we affirm at eikon is that the bible isn’t necessarily a book full of singular answers, but rather, a guide that helps us plot out ways of engaging in hard-to-understand topics such as the ones you all have chosen.
so, mark it on your calendars! the series begins april 11 and will conclude may 2. as always, we meet at 6 pm on sunday nights at the r street community church’s building (more info). see you there!
Tags: april, blog, confessional booth, death penalty, democrat, homosexuality, point/counterpoint, politics, republican, sermon, survey, theology, war, wufoo
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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!!).
Tags: april, blog, confessional booth, homosexuality, point/counterpoint, sermon, survey, theology, wufoo
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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!
Tags: eikon, gatherings, heights, little rock, r street community church, worship
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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!
Tags: confession, confessional booth, eikon, gatherings, little rock, valentine's day, worship
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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!
Tags: community, connect, eikon, gatherings, little rock, sticky fingerz, worship
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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:
- primary parental contact name
- children’s name(s) and age(s)
- parent/guardian phone number
address
see you sunday night!
Tags: childcare, eikon, gatherings, little rock, sticky fingerz, worship
Posted in announcements, childcare, events, gatherings, information, worship | 1 Comment »