Sunday, December 4th, 2022 marked a milestone in my ministry career. It was the day that we announced the end of Eikon Church. Here is the announcement from my Pastor, Kelly Matlock:
It’s an odd feeling to know that there is an ending date to something you’ve been passionate about for many years. It feels like just yesterday I was accepting Pastor Dan’s invitation to leave Seattle and take the job as NextGen Pastor in Kyle, TX, for zero dollars. Yes, you read that right. I accepted the job and moved halfway across the country simply for no pay . . . but also for big rewards. The reward of a promotion into a role I had been dreaming of for so long. The reward of thriving on a leadership team that isn’t afraid of women—especially women of color—having a voice and leading the way. And the reward of being surrounded by people of faith willing to break out of exclusionary white evangelical boxes to show compassionate love and radical inclusion for all.
While it would be easy to try to pinpoint just one thing that led to our closure, there are just so many layers that led us here. Obviously the biggest factor affecting church longevity world-wide was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. And while it did cause us to physically step away from the church building and remain at least six feet apart, our church did find small ways to stay connected. We created drive-through experiences, socially distanced small groups, front porch hangouts, and more.
Some might say that our fate was sealed when our church shifted to become a fully inclusive church for the LGBTQ+ community. It’s true that we took a lot of hits from those in our own church that left and in nation-wide Evangelical church spaces. We received so much hate mail, emails, phone calls, and social media responses from angry Assemblies of God church leaders/attendees calling with shaming comments, threats, and predictions that we would be shut down immediately because of our decision. And while some could lean into a mythical narrative that we closed down because of this move towards Christlike inclusion, that’s not the reality. In reality, we probably lost about 25% of our congregation after we announced our shift to become a fully inclusive church. (Don’t quote me—I’m no mathematician.) Just before we went into quarantine, we hosted a Serve Rally to recruit volunteers and reinforce our revised inclusive by-laws and if the enormous stacks of volunteer cards that attendees filled out were anything to go by, we were FAR from closing down. We were ready for our second wind with a more beautiful diversity in every area of ministry!
In an honest moment, the day we lost our building took the most wind out of our sails. Not just because we lost our meeting space but because of the evil way it happened. Another local area church, Vertical Chapel, without having any prior conversations with our Pastors, reached out to our building lender, AG Financial, before we made our big shift announcement, and were told that they couldn’t lease our building because we still had a standing contract. Fast forward to September 2020, we got a call from our rep at AG Financial that Vertical Chapel had reached out again to take our building from us and had offered to pay a full year’s rent in advance to sway the lender’s decision. Well, AG Financial couldn’t pass up that deal—after all, the church is business. AG Financial took Vertical up on their offer and decided to terminate our contract without warning. They reached out to Pastor Dan, explained the situation, terminated our contract, and gave us 30 days to move out of our building. (It’s also worth noting that by this time, they would have heard about our departure from the AG). When Dan confronted one of the key players at Vertical Chapel about how this transaction came to be he was met with confusing lies. However, when all was said and done—our building now leased out to Vertical—Dan asked for the truth and they finally admitted to lying and owned up to their part in the plan. This crushed our faith community more than the pandemic could ever hope to. It’s one thing to lose your church home, but to know that it was taken through such deplorable means by people claiming to be Pastors and faith leaders hurt people’s faith in Christianity as a whole. This hit especially hard when Vertical Chapel announced that “God had gifted them” *eyeroll* with this brand new building. This communicated to us and others that God is seemingly all about the ‘gifts’ of lying, deceiving, and stealing . . . which I honestly thought were the attributes of Satan, but eh, what do I know? People began leaving our church and faith altogether because they felt that the (big C) Church had fallen so far away from the way of Jesus that other churches would stoop so low to deceive, lie, and carelessly displace another faith community for their own personal pride and glory.
We weathered so many storms after that. We walked through the sting of losing one of our lead Pastors in the fallout of being betrayed by so-called ministry friends and the onslaught of anger and shame heaped on by Evangelical Christians near and far. We walked together to rebuild our faith community once it was safer to gather in person. But even by then, our leadership team had grown apathetic, and our churchgoers found other faith spaces to connect with. And honestly, we understood their reasoning and offered nothing but grace and peace despite the loss. Still, the core group of us kept pushing forward despite all odds. We found a new place to meet and kept meeting as long as we financially could. We continued to build partnerships with other inclusive churches in the area and found new community connections along the way. As I’ve reminded our church leaders repeatedly, we made it two years longer than anyone thought we would. And at the end of the day, we did EVERYTHING we could with what we had to make a positive impact in our faith community and in our community as a whole.
But now we’ve reached the end of the road. On Sunday, December 18th, we shut our doors and said goodbye to Eikon Church. Not the people, just the entity. We will undoubtedly have to work much harder to nurture and sustain the relationships we’ve made along the way. Still, I have hope that even as we move on to what’s next, we’ll stay in touch and keep the threads of Eikon going in all that we do. I know I will.
In the words of King George from Hamilton, “What comes next?” While I will no longer be on staff with Eikon Church, I will still host a Youth Bible Study for our teens on Sunday evenings and participate in Second Sunday youth gatherings through the end of this current school year. I will still be a curriculum contributor at Orange and will most likely find a new church to attend in the New Year. As for the new job that will keep food on the table and fuel my desire to impact the next generation positively, I have taken on a full-time position as School Operations Manager at KIPP Austin Brave High School! It is right up my alley, with problem-solving, organization, and public relations skills being put to use every day. I love working with the KIPP community, especially at the girls’ school (the graduating Middle Schooler will be attending next school year)! I am blessed to be able to put so much of my ministry experience into my new job, and I look forward to bringing the heart of Eikon to the school community.
I will forever miss being a part of Eikon Church. It hurts and makes me sad when I think about not being in that space and serving on that level. While I know I may never find a church quite like Eikon, I’m grateful for the relationships I’ve built to last and for all the ways my faith has grown richer through the years. Eikon will always be with me and I’m honored to have been a part of the story God was writing through our church. So now as I step away from vocational ministry, I do so resting in the fact that I crossed the finish line with no regrets!
amo.says 