Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

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point/counterpoint week 3: war audio Posted by Ryan Byrd 04.29.2010 8:04 am

point/counterpoint

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!

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



altView: brent buie Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.04.2009 8:47 am

altView

I was eleven years old when I read the Bible for the first time. Straight through. Genesis to Revelation. It took me four months, but I did finish.1 Impressed?

If you raised your hand there are two reasons you should not be impressed. First: There was an ulterior motive. I do not remember why, but I was going to receive credit in school. This was in the small-town south, back in the golden days of yesteryear (circa 1987), so it was not that shocking. Second: I didn’t get it. The Bible, I mean. To be sure, there were plenty of things to capture a young boy’s imagination. It is, after all, filled with sex and violence, magic and miracles, love and sacrifice. But even after the final Amen, I still didn’t understand.

Oh, I understood the concept of salvation well enough to believe that it was something that I needed. But something didn’t quite sit right. It seemed that I had spent four months to get to a point that could be explained in about thirty minutes (depending on the student’s alacrity). There had to be something more. The trick, I determined, was to have someone explain it to you.

I spent the next eight years having the Bible doled out one hour at a time on Sundays. This was much easier. It was the fast-track to a Godly life – give me a bit, hang an amen on it, and let’s-have-lunch-the-Chiefs-kickoff-at-3:15. It was not until college that I really read the Bible again.

I was attending a study group for my New Testament class, when one of the other participants mentioned one of their beliefs. And I didn’t buy it. (I still refer to this belief as the “New Wine Conundrum.”)

Filled with a righteously indignant energy, I rushed back to my room intent on proving him wrong.2 Time and distance cooled my anger. He was not a bad person, just misinformed. Obviously someone had told him wrong. Obviously . . .

My next thought struck hard: If they were told wrong, then how do I know that I was told right? The answer, friends and neighbors, is that I could not know. I had left my beliefs in someone else’s hands. What!?

Naturally, on the revelation score card, John has me beat cold. But for me, it was life altering. The principles which I held dear had been dictated by others. There was no me in it.

I am no honored scholar of religion and I would never suggest that everyone freely interpret the Bible’s scriptures. But I do believe that each of us will be held accountable. When that time comes, it will not suffice to say, “because others told me to do so.” We must perform the religious due diligence. We must all have something of ourselves in what we believe.

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Posted in altview, theology | 3 Comments »



eikon cookout: the day after Posted by Ryan Byrd 06.08.2009 7:37 pm

as most of you know who have been keeping up with the blog (or twitter or facebook or have talked to me…) or for those who actually know how to scroll down the page and have read the previous post, we had our first ever gathering for eikon. in this case, it was a cookout at our (ryan & christen’s) house last night (sunday, june 7).

i’m excited to say that it was a big success. while we had a good-sized crowd, i’m not really big on judging things based on how many showed up. rather, i was really excited about the great interactions and the relationships that began. of course, i had a good idea of who all would show up, but it was even great for me to meet quite a few people for the first time. it was cool to see everyone really making connections with other people and sharing a little about where they’re at in regards to their faith journey and levels of interest in finding a place to connect and worship.

so, if you thought about coming but couldn’t make it out for whatever reason, while we certainly missed you last night, there are definitely upcoming opportunities to come hang out and get to know a little about this thing called eikon.

we don’t have a definitive date set, but some time in mid/late july, we’ll have our next gathering. much like the cookout, it will be very casual and a great entry point, but we’ll also—in contrast to the cookout—have a bit more of an informational time. we’ll share a little about why we’re starting a church, how we’re going about it and some of the things that are guiding values and theologies. it should be a really great time to come for the first time, or, of course, come back if you attended the cookout.

so, be looking out for that. as soon as we get a definite date locked down, we’ll get the word out in various forums (website, facebook, twitter, smoke signals, sky writers…).

speaking of various forums, we’re very excited to be a matter of days away from the official launch of the eikon website. naturally, as soon as that launches, we’ll get the word out and this temp site will be permanently redirected to that site. the website will be a great place to get a lot more information and a great resource to pass along to friends who might want to know more.

finally, if you want to see a handful of pictures from last night’s cookout, you can see some on our fledgling flickr page. we didn’t get a shot of everybody or everything, but you can get a little glimpse of what went down. in you’re just too lazy or apathetic to click the above link, here’s a couple from last night. :) (by the way, a huge thanks to cara beth buie for shooting the event last night. cara beth’s a great photographer who’s just starting out and a friend of eikon. you’ll see much more of her in the future at eikon and you can find a little more about her and her husband, brent, at their blog.)

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Posted in events, gatherings, photography | No Comments »