Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

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announcing midrash and our newest leader, derek blaylock Posted by Derek Blaylock 08.30.2009 12:58 am

A QUICK WORD FROM RYAN

as the title suggests, we have a couple very exciting announcements to make. the first one is that we have a new leader on board at eikon, derek blaylock. derek will be leading the second half of this announcement—which i’ll let him do below—called midrash. we’re super-excited to have derek on board. he’s a great guy who i know you guys will want to get to know more.

when derek isn’t rambling about politics and theology, you can find him enjoying a good cigar and a hoppy pale ale or obsessing over some tiny school in the midwest called kansas (or maybe it’s mizzou…we can’t remember…). his blog, dialogo de derek, is a great way to find out a little more about him (not to mention a good place to find a good cigar or beer recommendation). if you want to know even more about him, you can check him out on our leaders page.)

alright, enough from me. here’s derek.

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midrash little rock

Midrash is a Hebrew word that—when roughly translated—means “commentary.” We’ve taken the word Midrash as the title for our group and created an avenue for people from all walks of life to get together and discuss pertinent topics that impact our lives, our culture, our city, our state, our nation and our world.

THE WHY & WHAT OF MIDRASH

With Midrash—and Eikon—we value engaging culture to show that God’s truth is evident everywhere. The main crux of the issue is that we realize the Bible isn’t an authority for everyone and as such, we want to be involved in different happenings that show how God’s truth intersects everyday life. As a community of Jesus followers, we need to find ways to engage culture in a compelling manner and meet people where they are both spiritually and socially.

Art—of all forms—is a major influencer in our culture, so we base a lot of our gatherings around different art forms. But, we don’t envision a bunch of high-brow art critics standing around sipping dry martinis. :) We’re very ordinary people who enjoy fun and lively discussions about all sorts of topics (and you can even choose your own beverage…).

We host various types of gatherings including the following: coffee shop discussions, film nights, art gallery viewings and the occasional large panel forum. The main types of gatherings, though, are large group discussions in which we throw out a culturally relevant topic and allow for open conversation, facilitated by a moderator. Topics in the past have ranged from violence in the U.S. to animal rights to racism in Little Rock. Our discussions are held at local restaurants, coffee shops or bars—places that are able to accommodate group discussions.

No doubt, people want to talk about the topics we discuss, but just haven’t had the opportunity. We want to provide that opportunity! Our group is open to all kinds of people: religious, irreligious, atheists, nihilists, spiritual, and non-spiritual…everybody.

Does all this sound familiar? Midrash isn’t, in fact, new to Little Rock. You may know that we took a bit of an extended break over the last fews months. We’re excited to say that Eikon is now sponsoring Midrash, as we think Midrash and Eikon make a perfect marriage. The core principles of Midrash are the same ones that guide the Eikon community. So, we’re now refocused and excited to get things going again!

THE WHERE & WHEN OF MIDRASH

We’ll return with a coffee shop discussion on Wednesday, September 9 at The House (in Hillcrest)(check their website for address and subsequent directions) from 7:30 p.m. – 8:30ish p.m. (NOTE: Midrash gatherings will change locations and times from month to month.)

bowling alone by robert putnam

We’ll be discussing the role of social media in our lives, spawning from the book, “Bowling Alone” by Robert D. Putnam. (NOTE: By all means, reading the book has no bearing on your level of participation. It certainly is not a prerequisite for attending and engaging in the conversation. It’s simply a jumping point for a broader conversation.) By plugging into our computers and phones, are we unplugging from each other? Is our social capital as a nation declining or improving as a result of these technological innovations? Is it just a passing fad or is it a step towards our society becoming more reclusive?

Midrash is a welcome place for respectful discussions and we hope you’ll come out, grab a brew, share your view and lend an ear to others’.

(Not only do we just enjoy the social and personal growth aspect of Midrash, but we also think there’s a Biblical connection. Check out the following passages of Scripture: Acts 17: 16-34, Matthew 6: 10, II Corinthians 3: 16-18, Genesis 1: 26-28. These verses speak of God’s calling for us to redeem creation through him.)

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Posted in announcements, core values, culture, events, gatherings, leadership, theology | 2 Comments »



jesus vs. church Posted by Ryan Byrd 03.04.2009 7:47 am

dave gibbons’ new book, the monkey and the fish: liquid leadership for a third culture church, gives some much-needed global perspective into leadership in the church. gibbons serves as pastor of newsong church, a multi-cultural community in irvine, california and in the book, he talks about how to live out the values of jesus in an increasingly global culture.

in the book, he provides a chart that i think speaks so well to what we’re trying to do with eikon. one of our guiding theologies is that the life, values and mission of jesus dictate the shape and flow of our community. it guides us in the way we lead, interact with each other, present the message of christ and engage the larger community of little rock. there’s a way the church has done it (and that way has become the unfortunate and stereotypical standard) and then there’s a way that looks more like jesus. gibbons’ chart helps to illustrate this.

jesus vs. church

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so, who is ryan & why is he starting a church? Posted by Ryan Byrd 02.03.2009 9:21 pm

so, maybe you’ve been following along on here for the last week or two reading about this thing called eikon church and you’re thinking to yourself, ’self, who is this guy ryan and why is he starting a church??’
fair question.
here goes.
let’s start with the basics: i’m 28 years old and have been married for about 5 1/2 years to my incredible wife christen. we have two beautiful daughters, lucy (19 months) and olive (2 months) and hope to keep the baby train rolling… (we love and welcome chaos…). :) we live in midtown little rock (capitol view) and love being in the city and the lifestyle that goes with it (we’re not really ‘burbs kind of people…). (apparently i also love using parenthetical statements…) (and ellipses…)

(here’s my “i’m-gonna-try-to-be-cool-and-stand-against-this-graffiti-wall-but-really-just-look-like-a-dork-in-the-end” picture…)
i’m a product of arkansas, spending most of my childhood and beyond in conway. i’m the middle son (yeah…middle child…) of a pastor (yeah…pastor’s kid…), so i grew up seeing the good and bad of pastoring and the church (more on that some other time, i’m sure). as all good little conway boys do, i attended the university of central arkansas, where i met my wife and, as a bonus, actually managed to receive my degree in fine arts, emphasizing in graphic design. my wife and i are both graphic designers, whereas i currently work as an advertising art director at a great little rock-based publishing company and my wife does freelance graphic design and photography (which is her primary gig).
a couple years after college, we decided to ship off to lexington, kentucky to work on my master’s degree at asbury seminary. the three and a half years spent at asbury (completing my 2-year degree…), as cliché as it might sound, were incredible and life-changing years. during that time, i was able to really analyze a lot of the things i believed and re-evaluate a lot of the “status quo” feelings i had about the church and how to “do” church. during that process of reshaping and rethinking my guiding theologies, god began leading me somewhere that i absolutely knew i would never go: home.
so, back we came to little rock to start a church. thus, the birth of the dream of this thing called eikon.
so why are you starting a church? doesn’t little rock have too many churches already? can’t you just go be a pastor at an established church? is it just because you want to be in control and do it your way? isn’t this really a cover-up for a plot for world domination in which you’re going to gather people in some kind of jesus jungle colony where you all wear matching jumpsuits & nikes and eventually drink some tainted grape juice or something?
again, all fair questions.
there’s a couple primary reasons we’re starting a church:
1. we think the quantity of churches in an area isn’t necessarily indicative of the diversity inherent in those churches. don’t get me wrong, we think there are some great churches that are reaching a lot of people in a lot of different ways here in little rock. in fact, we hope to incorporate bits and pieces of several churches into what we do at eikon. we think it’s time for an alternative in little rock. simply put, generally speaking, we think a lot of the existing churches target and reach a large, but somewhat specific segment of little rock. the point is that while there are a lot of churches in little rock reaching a lot of people, we feel like there’s a piece missing in terms of the people being reached. we think that piece is eikon.
by and large, we believe there’s a young, creative, emerging community of people in little rock that don’t really fit in in little rock churches. no doubt, there’s a few churches that are reaching out to this group, but we don’t see a place that is culturally and socially and theologically specific to that group. we’re starting eikon church because we think little rock needs a church that reaches, specifically, this group.
2. we love little rock. and because we love little rock, we want more people to be engaged in a process of learning about and becoming more like christ. in order to do that, specifically, we think the aforementioned group of unreached people need something that looks like them, talks like them, engages culture like them and is for them.
we want eikon to be a community of faith that does church in a way that is specific to the rhythms of the city of little rock. we don’t want to be a church from the ‘burbs that plops down in the middle of the city and tries to be the church from the ‘burbs. we want to engage the culture of the city of little rock with christ in way that leads people into community and relationship with each other and christ. because we love little rock, we want to create a community that honors christ in the rhythm and sensibilities of the city.
so, there ya go. maybe you’ve found out way more than you ever wanted to know about this goofy guy ryan or why he’s starting some goofy thing called eikon. but, i hope this gives you a little more of a personal glimpse into what’s going on with eikon and the heart of the guy who’s getting the ball rolling.
one of the values at eikon is that ryan, as the pastor, isn’t more valued than anyone else, but we thought it would be helpful to get an idea of who’s primarily behind this whole church thing and where he’s coming from.
so, check back soon and often for more updates from the happenings at eikon.

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values vs. goals Posted by Ryan Byrd 01.23.2009 8:19 am

mark oestriecher’s blog is near the top of my daily must-read blogs. marko is the president of youth specialties, a fellow emergent type and a great blogger.

yesterday on his blog, he talked about leading from values vs. goals, which spawned from a facebook group about his new book, youth ministry 3.0. in essence, he suggests—and i would heartily agree—that leading from values is “better” than leading from goals. i thought his discussion and illustrations spoke so perfectly about the way i want to lead eikon, so i thought i would share them here. (this gets a little ahead of myself in terms of what i’ve been planning for the blog, but i really thought it would be helpful to share this.)

to expand on his ideas, let me unpack these concepts. goal-driven leadership—often—is very static and detached. goals demand a plan of action that is executed until that goal is met, at which time another goal is stated and a new plan begins. there seems to be a never-ending cycle of management and oversight. it often requires micro-management and strict evaluation.

on the other hand, values-based leadership is much more organic in nature. values rely on relationships and care and nurture. values don’t view the church and the people that comprise the church as data and scientific beings. people are the end and not just the means to an end.

marko offered a couple graphics, but i decided to pretty them up and do some consolidation. here’s a visual of what we’re talking about. (the visual on the right represents the leadership values at eikon.)

marko’s post produced a couple analogies that i thought were helpful. first, it’s like the contrast of a factory and a garden. in a factory, an assembly line is intended for efficiency and focused solely on accomplishing the task at hand. if the assembly line worker were to pause for a conversation with a coworker or decide to step away for personal reasons, the goal cannot be met and the worker would be discarded for another more diligent worker. a garden, though, is cared for by the gardener. the gardener’s job is to create a healthy environment for growth. the gardener can’t guarantee the growth, but can be confident that in healthy and rich soil, seeds will open and produce fruit. further, gardens are unique to their environment because they aren’t meticulously watched over as in the case of an assembly line product. to be bold, factories play god while gardeners trust god.

as a tie-in to our current political headlines, goal-based leadership is descriptive of john mccain’s campaign, whereas values-based leadership was characteristic of barack obama’s campaign. mccain was militaristic and mechanical and diligent. it’s almost as if there were checkpoints along the way that had to be reached before going onto the next checkpoint. if a stumbling block was thrown in the path, the whole plan was confounded. on the other hand, obama led by overarching values that inspired people and rallied people together and created a movement. when something was thrown in obama’s path, the campaign moved forward because the response (or lack thereof) was informed by a confidence in a set of values that were inherent since day 1 of the campaign.

so, in the coming weeks, i hope to roll out a series of posts detailing our core values. these are the guiding theologies that will determine the direction and flow of our community, so i hope it will continue to give you an idea of what this thing called eikon is all about.

check back soon for more!

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