For the Sake of Spiders
March 30, 2011I realize that some of you may look through our site and desire to know a little more about the early days of Canvas, i.e. how we began and why we began. This is my attempt to offer a look back while pointing to the future of God’s work in Montrose through the people of Canvas.
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?
