A context for the conversation
The evening was characterized by loud conversation and loud laughter as old friends renewed aquaintance and those who came as strangers discovered that they were among friends. On Saturday night Eikon had it's launch party. One a hundred people from all walks of life, of different ages and numerous nationalities enjoyed eating together, playing together and above all dancing together. It was an evening when those who believed were outnumbered by those who didn't. I truly enjoyed every minute of the five-hour experience.
The event was everything we we hoped for at our launch. But more than that it was what we hope the environment of Eikon will always be, a 'grace space'. A space where those who are seeking will always feel welcome and always out number those who believe. If I was to pick one activity to describe what we were trying to facilitate at our event, it is a context for the conversation.
The more I interact with the people who live in the city of Edinburgh the more I am struck by the fact that on matters of faith, people want to talk. But they want to do it at their own pace and to ask their own qustions. Sadly the experience of being accosted by well meaning rather nervous, fast talking Christians anxious to give them answers to questions that they were not asking has resulted in an initial reluctance to talk to Christians about matters of personal faith. An important part of what we @ Eikon will be doing in the days ahead of us is to faccilitate a natural, comfortable context for those conversations: happily that will involve many more parties. That does does not mean that we are gearing ourselves up to be simply an event orientated church. It does mean that our events will reflect the environment of Eikon and that our environment will always be capable of supporting our events. It is important to us @ Eikon that there is no disonance between who we are as church and what we do as church
The event was everything we we hoped for at our launch. But more than that it was what we hope the environment of Eikon will always be, a 'grace space'. A space where those who are seeking will always feel welcome and always out number those who believe. If I was to pick one activity to describe what we were trying to facilitate at our event, it is a context for the conversation.
The more I interact with the people who live in the city of Edinburgh the more I am struck by the fact that on matters of faith, people want to talk. But they want to do it at their own pace and to ask their own qustions. Sadly the experience of being accosted by well meaning rather nervous, fast talking Christians anxious to give them answers to questions that they were not asking has resulted in an initial reluctance to talk to Christians about matters of personal faith. An important part of what we @ Eikon will be doing in the days ahead of us is to faccilitate a natural, comfortable context for those conversations: happily that will involve many more parties. That does does not mean that we are gearing ourselves up to be simply an event orientated church. It does mean that our events will reflect the environment of Eikon and that our environment will always be capable of supporting our events. It is important to us @ Eikon that there is no disonance between who we are as church and what we do as church
posted by tony at
4:09 PM
2 Comments:
Sorry for the typo I meant to write 'over one hundred' people
Hey Tony,
The rationale is sounding a bit like our saviour's. I like that. I was too engrossed in what was going on that I was missing some of the conversation. Great night though. I put a link to your site on my blog. Why not have a look.
Stevie
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