Connect > Community
Community is one of the most central values at Eikon. Being people who do life together and engage each other beyond a one or two hour gathering once a week is a primary focus. We realize that within a church, not every single person is going to be best friends with every other person. Community that centers on Jesus values transcends mere personality differences and, in that context, we hope to connect people in meaningful ways.
We want to provide various ways to connect and foster community. One of the significant ways we hope to do this is via creative communities and networks. Particularly through the leadership of our creative team, we hope to foster communities of musicians, artists, filmmakers, writers, performing artists, technical people and the list could go on. While we will certainly have organized “events” (such as gallery openings, film nights, concerts and so forth), we hope these communities are fluid and permeate everyday encounters in homes, coffee houses, restaurants, the workplace and bars. Community is as much about engaging the sacred in the mundane than it is in the highly structured and atypical moments.
Community also engages in intentional times of study, prayer, education and worship. We hope to do this through a network of smaller groups of people who meet in living rooms or bars or back porches or wherever people prefer to hang out. The point isn’t where but what. We hope these groups—no matter where the location—serve as a time to foster an ongoing space of dialogue, trust and exploration of what it means to follow in the way of Jesus. Whereas each group will take its own unique shape, we hope the connecting thread is engaging each other through Scripture and prayer and authentic dialogue.
Finally, we hope to foster community through various events. Our plan is to host educational seminars, art gallery events/openings, film nights, dialogical round table events, concerts, social justice causes, charity drives/awareness projects, family get-togethers and simple dinner engagements. When it comes to this, the sky’s truly the limit. We want to do whatever engages people in a way that draws them closer to each other and to Christ through community-building.
So, there’s plenty of ways to get connected. No doubt, as we grow and evolve, more and more opportunities will be brought to the table. As with everything else, we welcome and invite your input!