Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

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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 »



so what does eikon believe?: orthodoxy vs. monodoxy Posted by Ryan Byrd 01.10.2010 3:15 pm

last night on twitter, author/theologian/semiotician/generally brilliant person len sweet posted the following tweet:

Orthodox or “Monodox” (Keith Ward’s word)? Orthodoxy=right beliefs: Monodoxy=1 belief, 1 right way to believe, only 1 set of true beliefs.

intriguing.

his thoughts were particularly engaging to me because i think they point to a value of eikon that’s worth exploring. as we’re still in the initial phases of development and growth, we have a lot of people seeking information about what kind of community eikon is and will become. as a part of this process and as people begin to join us at our various gatherings, we get a wide range of commentary like the following:

you guys aren’t very churchy.
you guys are more churchy than i expected.
i can’t really pin down what eikon believes.
eikon seems to be pretty narrow in its beliefs.

in other words, everyone has their own particular perspective and set of presuppositions which lends itself to seeing something very different than the next person. i think a part of this comes from, ultimately, the fact that we’re a little more fluid in the way we define our set of “truths” or hard-and-fast standard of so-called orthodoxy.

don’t get me wrong, we certainly have a series of “guiding theologies” that help to bring some cohesion to our community and shape the way we interact with each other and make decisions as leaders. these things are at the core of what it means to be a part of this faith community, but we’re careful to distinguish—as len sweet points out—between “orthodoxy” and “monodoxy”.

without going into tangential detail, we’re a little leary of a word like “orthodoxy” because it’s simultaneously broad and narrow. on one hand, it encompasses so many things to so many different people. “orthodoxy” to those in the roman catholic tradition might be heresy to those in the pentecostal tradition (or vice versa). on the other hand, “orthodoxy” can be seen as a very narrow window of beliefs that disallows a robust conversation about ideas and theologies. ultimately, though, i think what len sweet is getting at is simply some kind of shared beliefs that help to garner a cohesive theological conversation.

on the other hand, though, his suggestion (as i see it) that “monodoxy” is a dangerous element within the church is one we most certainly share. whereas, again, we have a set of theologies that help to communicate the vision for our community, a key theme of those theologies is that there’s room for a wide variety of interpretations of those values. when we say that our most fundamental guiding theology is the centrality of jesus, the question, naturally, that we’ve received from people is, “which jesus are you talking about?” the jesus who wept over the death of a friend or the jesus who used a whip to clear out the temple money collectors? certainly, one’s way of viewing jesus can be fundamentally different than the next person without straying away from a shared sense of “orthodoxy”. this, though, isn’t true with the concept of “monodoxy.’

monodoxy insists that there is only one view of jesus and if one strays from that singular viewpoint, then they have violated a sacred sense of “rightness”. if you worked your way through our list of guiding theologies, you could use any as an example. take ’scripture.’ for many, scripture is the inerrant, infallible word of god. for many others, though, there’s a sense of “limited inerrancy”, which is a nuanced version of the preceding view of scripture. both of these views can certainly fall in line with an orthodox understanding of bibliology, but would certainly violate the singularity of one’s monodoxy.

ultimately, the point i’m getting at is that we certainly have overarching shared beliefs that characterize our faith community, but never want to be guilty of monodoxy. we have room for a variety of beliefs about god (or even lack of beliefs about god). we hope eikon can be a place where people don’t have to agree, but can engage in a conversation that leads to mutual understanding and growth. we absolutely hope to make jesus known and guide people in living in a way that resembles the life and person of christ, but we think there’s a bigger conversation involved with that than just a singular angle or a narrow monodoxy.

so, we’re currently in the process of adding voices to this community called eikon. there’s certainly room at the table for you and the perspectives you bring. we hope to both connect with and learn from you soon.

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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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altView: a series in review Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.23.2009 5:37 pm

altView

several months ago, i had the idea to let people hear the voices of various people in our ever-blossoming faith community. that idea became a tangible reality just over a month ago with the introduction of the series altView. personally, it’s been a great chance to further hear the stories of faith (and sometimes, non-faith) from the people i’ve come to know over the last several months. for others, as feedback in both conversation and comments, it’s been a time to see the breadth of points-of-view from a all kinds of people in all kinds of life situations.

in my intro to the series, i wrote the following,

there will be no filters and no agendas. these aren’t sales pitches for eikon. they aren’t a bunch of “come to jesus” posts, attempting to convert the masses. i’ve simply invited a cross section of our community—representing various points-of-view and levels of faith commitments—to share what’s significant to them. maybe it’s an issue or cause about which they’re passionate. maybe it’s a significant place in their life where faith came to the forefront. maybe it’s the point they decided, “i’m through with church.” maybe it’s the point they decided, “i need the church.” it’s really wide open.

i hope that’s what has transpired. i think it is. unfiltered. without agenda. and beautiful. and sometimes ugly. and sometimes scary. and sometimes doubtful.

before beginning the series, a pastor friend warned that doing this could lead to people “speaking on behalf” of our church. he warned that people—if unfiltered—could say things that could turn other people off and give the wrong impression if it didn’t represent “orthodox theology.” their point-of-view might contradict my point-of-view as the leader and visionary for the church.

my pastor friend was exactly right.

and that’s why i chose to do it.

one of the values of both altView and eikon in general, is that people are the church. not one man. not one pastor. not just the pastors and leaders. it’s people. it’s the collective conversation of a community of people who bring to the table their experiences and their hopes and their sensibilities and their deepest doubts and their most hidden insecurities and their most valued thoughts about god and the world.

eikon church isn’t ryan byrd. it’s a community of views. of alternative views that describe god and the world around us. sometimes they look like what you’ve heard your whole life. and sometimes they look like the buddhist philosophy of loving-kindness. and sometimes they look like a nebulizer. but they’re always representative of the collective conversation of people engaged in a community that is about pursuing the way of a man named jesus.

i hope you’ve enjoyed this series. this isn’t the last time you’ve heard from some or all of these people and some people you haven’t heard yet.

we will continue to grow with a myriad of altViews. some you will agree with. some you will not. some you will be deeply touched by. and some you will find dissonant from your experience. some will resonate so powerfully within you that you will be moved to action. and some will make you question yourself so intensely that you will be frozen for a moment until you sort out your feelings.

so, as we prepare to enter a new year that is sure to be a huge year for our community, we invite you to share your altView. it may not be here on a blog or written down somewhere, but we certainly invite you to the reality of our ongoing conversation in this thing called eikon.

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Posted in altview, blog stuff, core values, information, leadership, theology | 1 Comment »



announcing a new blog series: altView Posted by Ryan Byrd 11.06.2009 12:09 pm

altView

over the last several months, we’ve been able to slowly, but surely share with you the details of our ever-growing community called eikon. through this blog—as well as the various pages here on the website—you’ve primarily heard one voice: mine. with the exception of a couple blog posts and some very brief leader questionnaires, you’ve been exposed to a single viewpoint of an ever-diversifying community. one of our values is to create a space where multiple stories are told, diverse worldviews are expressed and individual points-of-view become part of an ideological melting pot.

it’s with these thoughts that i’m very excited to announce a new blog series called altView. over the next two months, you’ll hear from about 16 or 17 voices in our community. in other words, you’ll be hearing alternative viewpoints.

there will be no filters and no agendas. these aren’t sales pitches for eikon. they aren’t a bunch of “come to jesus” posts, attempting to convert the masses. i’ve simply invited a cross section of our community—representing various points-of-view and levels of faith commitments—to share what’s significant to them. maybe it’s an issue or cause about which they’re passionate. maybe it’s a significant place in their life where faith came to the forefront. maybe it’s the point they decided, “i’m through with church.” maybe it’s the point they decided, “i need the church.” it’s really wide open.

so, it should be a fun journey. there’s so much more to eikon than ryan byrd and you all, unfortunately, have seen little more than that for quite some time now.

we’ll kick things off this coming monday, november 9 and continue on subsequent thursdays and mondays (that is if I can keep my brain and deadline whip in check…).

see you next monday!

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Posted in altview, blog stuff, core values, information, leadership, theology | 4 Comments »



announcing EIKON | WHERE Posted by Ryan Byrd 10.19.2009 10:11 am

EIKON | WHERE

i’m glad to announce our next monthly big group gathering. once again this month, we’ll be hanging out at gusano’s this coming sunday, october 25 from 6 – 8 p.m. this gathering will be called EIKON | WHERE: a conversation about our community.

we had a really great, fruitful conversation with last month’s EIKON | WHO & we think this conversation will be another building block in the larger conversation about what this thing called eikon is all about. specifically, this conversation will be about little rock and, in broader terms, how people in this area—this community—view and engage the church. there’s a very particular culture here not only in little rock, but the south and the greater bible belt that informs how we do community and, ultimately, this thing called church.

as always, the conversation is incomplete without you! as cliché as that might sound, it’s very true. if i get up and spout off my feelings about the cultural and religious climate of little rock, i may certainly make some valid points, but the conversation, at best, will be incomplete. we really hope that a lot of different people will bring a lot of different viewpoints that will ultimately tell us about the community around us.

as always, i like to offer a bit of a disclaimer: NOTE TO THE INTROVERTS WHO ARE CRINGING AND DRY HEAVING RIGHT NOW (which actually includes myself, in terms of the introvert personality type): because I can certainly empathize, you don’t need to worry about being called on, called out or singled out. it’s your choice about how much or how little you contribute to the conversation. while we encourage active participation, we want to honor the fact that everyone engages in different ways. some do it by talking, while some do it by listening. so, please discontinue your dry heaving…no need to panic…you’re in good hands with eikon. :)

so, here’s the details:

where: gusano’s pizzeria
when: sunday, october 25 from 6 – 8 pm
what: EIKON | WHERE: a conversation about our community
who: everybody come out, bring some friends…the more, the merrier

for the first hour-ish, we’ll be eating, drinking and doing all things that conjure merriment. somewhere around 7ish, we’ll shift into the conversation. so, even if you just want to drink and heckle, this will be the type of gathering to attend. :)

see you this sunday!

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



the creation conflict: don miller talks community Posted by Ryan Byrd 09.24.2009 5:35 pm

donald miller

several years ago, someone made a statement that i have repeated many times since and has shaped my view of god and others: isolation is the enemy of god.

there’s a lot going on in that statement and today, in a live-streamed talk by don miller, i was once again reminded of that declaration.

miller—author of the best-selling blue like jazz and the newly released a million miles in a thousand years—talked about story—in literary terms—and its connection to the biblical narrative, particularly in reference to the creation story. more to the point, he talked about the need for conflict in any good story and how conflict engages characters and creates a need/opportunity to change.

while it seems more and more clear to me that the creation account in scripture is a poem steeped in metaphor, it makes it no less significant to the trajectory of the biblical narrative—the ongoing story of god and people and all creation in relationship. one of the most beautiful aspects of creation is the relationship between human beings.

miller made the point that people generally see life prior to the fall as perfect, without conflict. in fact, though, like any good story, conflict was a quintessential element in the genesis poems that pushed change. we find in genesis 2 that the man experienced an internal conflict that enacted a plot twist.

God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn’t find a suitable companion.

the man had everything—food, water and god—but in spite of these things, something was missing: other people. the man’s internal conflict was loneliness. it was the deep-seated need to engage the other. it was the inexplicably strong necessity of companionship.

his conflict created the need for change.

so god created another human. who created other humans. and other humans.

as miller made clear, people need people. we need community. we need to be in relationship with other humans.

for quite some time, christians have propagated the idea that being in relationship with jesus is the key to unlocking unlimited and unadulterated happiness. it’s the idea that jesus is the ultimate fullness. while there are certainly bits of truth to that, our experiences inform us that it’s only partially true. following jesus doesn’t eliminate conflict. we still experience sadness & loneliness & fear & uncertainty. while faith provides a “cushion”, we still process these things in tangible ways: other people.

the “other” is our way of experiencing something that doesn’t replace our relationship with christ, but makes our relationship with christ touchable.

we hope that eikon, above all things, is rooted in community. we hope it’s a place that resolves conflict by placing people in relationship with other people.

we invite you into this place of community and the other.

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an open invitation: announcing the START team Posted by Ryan Byrd 09.10.2009 7:49 pm

UPDATE: Due to a schedule conflict, the date of the START team meeting has been moved back one night to Thursday, September 17 at 7 p.m. It will still take place at The House. And remember, the last day to register is this coming Sunday (Sept. 13) at 8 p.m. See you next week.

eikon START teamover the last several months, we’ve begun the process of the actual physical formation of eikon. we’ve had an incredible response and a lot of people who have expressed their commitment to helping to grow our faith community. now—as announced a couple nights ago at our EIKON | WHY gathering—we want to invite people to marry their verbal intentions with a physical means of carrying them out.

on wednesday, september 16 at 6:30 p.m., we’ll have our first ever START team meeting at the house (in hillcrest).

WHAT’S THE START TEAM?

first, we should say that we hope it’s way less cheesy than the word team suggests. :) (if you have any better suggestions that team, we’re all ears.) anytime we see the word team, we feel like we should immediately do one of those hands-in-the-middle countdown chant things… “1, 2, 3 CHEESY!!”

second, it’s exactly what it says: a group of people whose objective is to help start eikon. this group isn’t the end-all of the eikon community. it isn’t the totality of the eikon experience. it’s simply the starting point. it should be a group of people who work together (as team suggests) to foster an environment that invites and engages “outsiders.” we’ll work together up until the point of launching our regular, weekly worship gathering, which will happen circa february 2010.

WHO CAN BE A PART OF THE START TEAM?

literally anyone. well, with a slight caveat. while it is a totally open invitation, it’s an invitation to those who are 100%, for-sure, no-doubt-about committed to eikon. even if you think you’re 90% on board, just wait. maybe by the next START team meeting, you’ll be 100% and then you can jump in. otherwise, this isn’t a closed invitation to people of my choosing. if you connect with eikon in a way that leads you to serve on this team, then we certainly want to partner with you.

WHAT WILL THE START TEAM DO?

first, the START team will spend the next several months learning about the specific nuts and bolts of what we’re doing at eikon. we’ll talk, in detail, about our calendar, our leadership dynamic, finances, ways to serve and connect and a lot more. these meetings will really get people invested in terms of sheer knowledge about the underpinnings of the church

also, the START team will be the people to actually physically carry out the tasks involved in the start of our weekly worship gatherings. in other words, there’s a lot that goes into the advent of regular, weekly gatherings and the START team will come together to execute the various necessary tasks.

finally, in addition to meeting the needs of our weekly worship gathering, the START team will be people committed to regularly engaging in and helping out with various modes of eikon connecting points: monthly gatherings, midrash events, art and/or music events, semi-regular worship gatherings and whatever other eikon connection opportunities may arise. we certainly don’t require anyone to be involved with anything, but with equal certainty, part of the point of the START team is an ongoing, sacrificial commitment.

so, we want you to come! if you’re 100% locked in with eikon, this is the best way to connect.

if you plan on attending, you MUST fill out the following form. while we prefer that each person fills out an individual form, if you desire to fill out the form for a spouse, significant other or friend, you can do so. please make sure to indicate the number of additional people attending (that doesn’t include yourself), name(s) of each additional attendee and their email address(es).

deadline to complete the form is sunday, september 13 at 8 p.m.

see you in a couple weeks!

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defining eikon: what we are vs. what we aren’t Posted by Ryan Byrd 08.08.2009 4:11 pm

our community is shaped and defined by a number of ideas and guiding theologies (which, of course, you can find here). our list isn’t a chiseled-in-stone final statement of authority, but rather, an evolving list of descriptions of god that help us to grow in community in biblically and culturally relevant ways. so, as our community grows and begins to flesh out, we hope to revisit the list every now and then and think through ways to tweak language or even add to or subtract from the list.

one of the things, though, we hope to remain consistent is our desire to define eikon by what we are, as opposed to what we aren’t.

what’s the difference?

we think the church–particularly in the united states over the last hundred years or so–has claimed its identity primarily in the form of rules, cultural blacklists and social dichotomies. we don’t drink. we aren’t gay. we think harry potter is corrupting our youth. we disengage from artforms that aren’t explicitly “christian”. the list could go on.

please don’t misunderstand or over-imply our point: we certainly affirm that there are plenty of great churches who don’t define themselves in these ways. no doubt, even here in little rock, there are churches who have made a decision not to make exclusion their chief mode of description. our point is that, by and large, american christianity has become virtually synonymous with this type of self-branding.

one of the key words we like to use at eikon is alternative and we certainly hope to practice an alternative way of defining than what we’ve described thus far.

instead of a church who defines itself by what we aren’t, we hope to define ourselves by what we are.

so, what are we?

we are people who try to follow in the way of jesus. we’re a community that says grace is more compatible with jesus than judgment. we are guided by scripture in ways that help us to engage and embrace culture rather than run from it and create false dichotomies. we are a community that lives in a space of humility rather than arrogant certainty. we want to be a community that serves our city by meeting the needs of those who are broken, oppressed and voiceless. we want to offer new life and hope to the “least of these.”

much like the previous list, this list could go on.

are we all these things right now? certainly not. are we striving to be these things? absolutely. are we connecting with people with like sensibilities and like communal expectations? of course.

so, we invite you to be a part of what we’re doing and what we’re trying to be. our invitation isn’t based on a commonality of “anti-” but rather a commonality of “pro-”.

if you connect with these sentiments (or even if you don’t) :), take a minute to read over our list of guiding theologies. everything we are isn’t there, so hit us up with an email or a phone call and we’ll talk more about this thing called eikon.

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