The Heritage of the Canvas House

From it’s very beginnings, this ministry we call Canvas has been incredibly blessed, on all fronts, with things both incomprehensible and undeserved. We’ve experienced grace and provision during this endeavor like never before. When Canvas received the house on Tiverton Road, at that time called Tiverton Christian Fellowship, we couldn’t quite believe that God would do something so magnificent and that people could be so selfless. At the time, we unknowingly stepped into a heritage of great significance and it’s that heritage about which I write today.

As we were giving the Canvas House a good spring cleaning, I came across a document from May 1993 that outlined some of the history of the building that has come to mean so much to the work of Canvas. In it are photos, historical accounts, and the back-story of the place called “The Gospel Hall,” and later “Tiverton Christian Fellowship” and still later, “The Canvas House.” Here are a few of the photographs the document included, plus one to bring it up-to-date:

It’s amazing to see the history of this place that now seems so normal to the team. It’s the place we work in every day. The place where we play loud music. The place where we meet students where they are. The place where we “do” ministry, and in that regard, the building hasn’t changed that much at all.

I want to share just two excerpts from the history we’ve learned about The Gospel Hall / Tiverton Christian Fellowship / Canvas House and then I’ll give you a link to download and read it for yourself:

By 1890 there were a number of Christians…living in the district. They began to meet together in a local cottage and, as a result of their witness and outreach, their numbers increased and they soon outgrew the facilities available. As a temporary measure, a ‘Gospel Tent’ was erected in the lower part of the village and this was open for meetings every night of the week…

…The new chapel was opened and named ‘The Gospel Hall’ in 1893…The cost of the land was £100 and the estimated cost of the building [was] £300. It cost an additional £50 for the furnishings, including the benches which are still in use (Kevin’s note: we still have these benches in the garden).

What a humbling story this is for me. I doubt I will ever look at this building in the same way and I know that I will never look at God’s provision throughout the ages in the same way either. Even in 1893, God had the idea that some day a group of people from could come from America and, in a way, continue the purposes of the building by loving university students with the love of Jesus. It’s nearly incomprehensible to me.

If you would like to read the whole account, click here to download the booklet in Adobe PDF format.