Photo courtesy of Jon Potter.
0213 Jon and Lisa
Jon and Lisa Potter and their three children. Elliot, 20 is a student at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. His two daughters, Barrett, 16, and Kelsey, 15, are students at Mountain Brook High School and Mountain Brook Junior High.
Jon and Lisa Potter are of no kin to the book character, but they do have quite a magical story.
The Potters were the image of the American dream. Jon was a member of corporate America, pulling in six figures. He had three beautiful children and an amazing wife, yet he still did not feel fulfilled. It was then he decided to abandon his job for a calling within the field of ministry.
That was 11 years ago. Jon has now worked as a pastor in every corner of the Jefferson County map, including Mountain Brook, Birmingham and Homewood – as well as19 countries across the world. Now, Jon and Lisa have started their own church right here in Homewood.
“About a year and a half ago we felt the stirring to plant a church in Birmingham,” Jon said. “It was just sort of a natural progression from where we were.”
Canvas Church began in the Cahaba Heights area of Mountain Brook, where it remained for eight months. However, Jon and Lisa did not feel that the area was conducive to their goals. They truly wanted to live up to the church’s name.
“A long time ago I saw a church named Canvas down in Florida, and I thought that it was a very eclectic and cool picture of what a church should be — multicolored, multifaceted and kind of open to interpretation,” Jon said. “The Bible says we’re all God’s works of art, and it just kind of stuck with me.”
Jon and Lisa then made the decision to move Canvas Church to Homewood. After creating a coalition with The Exceptional Foundation, Canvas Church has officially been meeting there since July of 2012.
“My heart was for Homewood because of the demographic. I loved the small town feel in the big city and the location just couldn’t be better for what we want to do,” Jon said. “You have middle class, upper class, and then the Rosedale class has a strong African American and Hispanic contingent. That went along with my vision for a multiracial church.”
Canvas Church had its first major outreach in October of 2012, where they fed more than 400 people from the community. The event, entitled Jumpin’ Jambalaya, featured live music, food and children’s activities.
“It was our first ‘this is who we are’ event,” Lisa said. “We didn’t preach, we just wanted to tell the community that we were here and we want to love on people.”
The Potters hope to continue expanding their church as well as their involvement in the Homewood community.
“So many people have been wounded by religion. I want our church to be a safe place to heal if you’re wounded or if you’re hurting,” Jon said. “I want to grow a multiracial multicultural church. We believe sin is black and white but church shouldn’t be.”
