Time for another great Canvas art show! We are really excited about the line up of artists this time around, and we have everything from paintings, to photography, to sculptures, to ink drawings. Complimentary wine and cheese and as always some great tunes with Andrew Lawrence on the ones and twos. Feel free to come out, make some new friends and purchase some art to take home with you. Bring your friends.

Canvas will be hosting an art show in our gallery space at 3205 Montrose Blvd on Friday, August 5. The show will benefit a local non-profit organization that is doing great work both locally and globally. When you buy a shirt from Stop the Nakedness your purchase provides clothing for people in need. For every shirt purchased Stop the Nakedness donates one shirt locally and one shirt overseas. Who knew buying clothes could help save the world?!

We will be doing our normal art show thing: great art, tunes from DJ Andrew Lawrence, complimentary wine and cheese, and lots of great conversation. This time however, the proceeds from any purchase you make will go to clothe people in need around the world. I can’t think of a better way to start a Friday night.

A couple of years ago, there were 5 of us sitting at a table at a local coffee shop beginning to dream about what a new church in the Montrose area of Houston would look like.  In my opinion, Montrose has some of the best of what Houston has to offer.  There is so much movement here and so many people that God cares deeply for.

Part of our conversation that day dealt with the stereotype of the church as the voice of censorship in culture and its role in limiting the free expression of ideas in society as a whole.  Our conversation centered around the Genesis story and the idea that when God created human beings in his likeness, the two things that we know about him at that point are that God is, at the core of being, creative and that he is powerful enough to accomplish the work of creation.  This spurred a lot of conversation about how the church could encourage people to be creative and free in their expression of worship to God.  This creativity could be expressed through, but not limited to, art, music, craft, the free expression of ideas, questions and opinions…even if those ideas and opinions differ from others in the community.  Part of the beauty of the Christian community is that sometimes the only thing that we have in common is a trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and that is enough to bring us together.

Over time, God has grown, reformed and molded this vision, but at its core this is still what we strive for at Canvas.  So this is an open invitation.  It is an invitation to ask questions.  It is an invitation to come and to figure out whether or not you believe any of this Jesus stuff.  It is an invitation to bring your gifts to the feet of the Lord in worship without someone saying that they aren’t quite right by someone else’s standards.
What excites you about this type of community?