Isaac's Keep | Reformed Canton Church in Downtown Canton, GA

Summer time in the park with IK family.

Last weekend was the start of Canton’s Farmers Market in Historic Downtown Canton.  The market is open every Saturday until October from 9am to 1pm.  You can find fresh lettuce, greens, flowers, hand made soaps, baked goods, wood carving, and perhaps the greatest commodity to be found: community.  Live music is also performed throughout the day. The market is a great place to meet others while supporting the local farmers and economy.

I’m excited that Isaac’s Keep is getting involved and providing shoppers with FREE bags made of recycled material for produce and other goods.   If you would like to help we are collecting material scraps to make bags with, you can contact us at church@isaacskeep.org or just bring the scraps with you to the market and we will be glad to take them from you and make you a bag for next week.  If you’re interested in getting involved with the Farmers Market contact Ginger Garrard at the City of Canton at 770.704.1548.  See you at the market!

Art is the process of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It involves a range of human creations and expressions.  Art influences our lives whether we acknowledge it or not. Art can portray things of beauty. For the Christian, art can be a praise in itself.  I’m not really an artist, not a very good one, but I’m fascinated by art.  The sensibility, the wonder, the intent of the artist, these things challenge me.  That’s why I’m so excited that Canton is hosting an Arts Festival.

This weekend Canton gets it right! A juried show for fine arts and crafts called the Canton Festival of the Arts in Historic Canton’s coolest site, literally and stylistically, Brown Park (223 E. Marietta St.).    The festival is two days, Saturday May 16th and Sunday May 17th, from 10am to 5pm.  What’s going to be there?  Artists market, literary celebration, serenity gardens, Camp Imagine, live entertainment, family activities, beer and wine garden.  Cost is just right, FREE! Parking is scarce in Canton but there should be plenty of room to park at the Justice Center parking deck.

Historic downtown Canton is quickly becoming a refuge for artists as new galleries and artists are relocating to Canton’s tranquil little downtown.  Which makes the Festival of the Arts a perfect event to welcome them to our community and to invite friends and neighbors for a day of enjoying the more cultured side of Canton.  I’m personally excited that Canton is investing in the Arts and I hope to see a festival succeed that doesn’t include dropping a million Easter eggs and giving away free Wii’s and PS3’s or cost a family $50 to attend.  So come on out and support the arts and hopefully we can learn more about each other as we look at the creativity and wonder of art. Francis Bacon once stated, “Man by the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over nature. Both of these losses, however, can even in this life be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by the arts and sciences.”  As Christians we should have interest in the arts, in fact we should use them in our worship for the glory of God.  As Francis Schaeffer once said, “our imaginations should fly beyond the stars.”

I’ll be volunteering and serving concessions at the Festival on Saturday at 1:30pm, come by, I’d love to meet you and serve you a Coke!

When people ask me where I attend church and I say “Isaac’s Keep” the typical response is “Huh?”  It isn’t your run of the mill church name, in fact it doesn’t even have the word “church” in it, which sounds a bit outlandish, especially to the ears of folks raised in the south.  But trust me, there’s a reason for that.  There’s a reason for pretty much everything we do, and don’t do, at Isaac’s Keep.  So let me tell you about this one.

The name “Isaac” comes from the promised son of Abraham, and denotes that we are people of the promise, just as Isaac was a son of the promise, a covenant people, Romans 9 stuff if you will.  But you can read more about the Isaac part here and here.  What I want to focus on is the latter part, “Keep”.  Why do I call my church a “keep”?

First, we have to look at what the word “keep” means (the noun, not the verb).  One definition is “the innermost and strongest structure or central tower of a castle”.  So a keep is strong, it is fortified, it is a place where the people can go and be safe.  Wikipedia notes that, in medieval times, a keep was “often…the most defended area of a castle, and as such may form the main habitation area, or contain important stores such as the armory, food, and the main water well, which would ensure survival during a siege.”

The writers of the Psalms used a similar picture of a tower to describe God.  “For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.” (Psalm 61:3)  “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” (Psalm 18: 10)  Ultimately, God is the strong, fortified place we can run to, the only place we can go to “ensure survival during a siege.”

But, why use it in the name of a church?  Simply because that is what we desire our church to be.  A keep, a strong tower, a refuge from the onslaught and siege of the world around us.  We want Isaac’s Keep to be a place where believers can and will come for relief, peace, encouragement, and rest.  We want this body, this family of believers, to be a place of refuge, not another exhausting activity to add to your already enormous list of activities.  We want this to be different.

It is our hope that the members of the body of IK are out facing the onslaught on a daily basis, living out the gospel in their community and world in a way that glorifies God.  It is also our hope that IK is a place of refuge for them, it’s the Word of God in people that are a source of encouragement to them, and taking shelter within it’s walls, if even for a short time, refuels them and enables them to face the world once more.  That is truly what IK is for me, and I am glad to call The Keep my home.

written by Paula Nix