When Cross Creek residents Dean and Heidi Reule began Cypress Point Community Church in 1998, the married couple saw that residents of the burgeoning New Tampa area would need houses of worship as well as places to work, shop and play. As Hetti, who is the church’s children’s pastor, explains it, the insight was more inspired than reasoned.
“There was not much in the area at the time and the Lord was very clear about wanting a nondenominational Christian church in the area,” Hetti says.
Dean, who is the lead pastor of Cypress Point, agrees that the decision to start a church came from a deep conviction of its righteousness.
“It was that mysterious sense of vocation,” he said. “I just had the sense that this was God’s plan for my life.”
Cypress Point’s genesis was a small group of spiritually like-hearted families who gathered together in a living room for Bible study and prayer. As the church grew in size, venues such as the Hunter’s Green Model & Visitor Center and the Muvico Starlight 20 movie theater on Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. accommodated the growing congregation. Today, more than 700 worshippers attend services weekly in their own 30,000-sq.-ft. building on Morris Bridge Rd., just north of Cross Creek Blvd.
In addition to having a spacious sanctuary of its own in which to hold religious services, Cypress Point also has grown in terms of its impact on the local community, and beyond. “We’re a church that really tries to be on mission. We try to minister to the whole range of human needs,” says Pastor Dean, who has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Florida State University in Tallahassee. “It’s what you do with the message that’s important to us.”
Among the services focusing members’ efforts to serve others are a Care Center, which provides groceries to 48 families each month and outreach ministries serving members of the military and firefighting communities.
Pastor Dean says church members deliver food to local fire stations to demonstrate their appreciation to the first responders staffing them. Support for the military community ranges from visiting veterans in hospitals and nursing homes to helping the families of deployed active duty forces when daily life presents challenges.
“Our military support mission is recognition of how many people in New Tampa that are active duty or retired military persons,” Dean says. “Somebody deploys and, on the home front, there’s a family of somebody who serves, and it’s nice to have a church family to help with practical matters and child care.”
The Military Support Outreach ministry also assists homeless veterans and sends care packages to troops stationed overseas.
In addition to community outreach, Cypress Point offers classes, workshops and topical Life Groups that provide members with Bible-based life skills and fellowship. Topics range from strengthening marriages to family protection classes that teach how to respond in an active shooter situation.
Like many churches, Cypress Point engages with communities outside its local area with missions to other states that refurbish homes and perform other acts of charity.
There’s also a global reach to Cypress Point’s missions. Mission teams travel to Thailand and Laos to assist youth at risk of exploitation there. Through construction projects and economic development programs, Cypress Point supports Christians who are a religious minority in those countries and often live and practice their faith on the margins of society, says Dean.
“We focus on serving the persecuted, underserved churches in Southeast Asia.”
Helping To Fight Fear
Just as the leadership of Cypress Point Community Church supports Christian communities facing persecution overseas, it also is dedicated to fighting religious intolerance in its own neighborhood (as Dean remarked in a recent service) by, “building bridges of love and respect with our Muslim neighbors.”
Cypress Point is next door to the Islamic Society of New Tampa’s Daarus-Salaam Mosque and the two groups occasionally get together for picnics and open house events.
That neighborly approach appeals to Cypress Point member Leon Jonas.
“Pastor Dean, he preaches love,” the Cross Creek resident says. “You’ve got to know your neighbor. Once you get to know people, you’re not so cold toward them.”
Leon and his wife Zoey (who volunteers with the worship arts and prayer teams) have been members since 2013. According to Zoey, being a part of Cypress Point’s church family means more than showing up on Sunday mornings. “You have to participate to make things happen,” she says.
Another appealing aspect of Cypress Point Community Church, according to some of its members, is its family-friendly atmosphere.
Bobbie Benson says discovering the church nine years ago following a divorce helped her and her three children get through a difficult transition in their lives.
“I felt accepted right away,” the Tampa Palms resident says. “After my divorce, (the church family) gave me a lot of support and gave my children stability. There’s a place for everybody here.”
Doing More To Serve Families
In particular, Cypress Point emphasizes being a place for children. There are age-appropriate Bible studies and activities that engage the church’s youth.
Tampa Palms resident Jill Barber is the worship arts pastor and sings in the worship band. She says attending Cypress Point has been especially beneficial to her five children.
“It’s a great place for my children to grow up in,” Jill says. “It has changed their lives by loving God and serving others.”
Involving young people in service to others is one way Cypress Point delivers its educational message, according to Sunday School teacher Rachid Mehdaova, who lives in Live Oak Preserve.
“They do a mission once a year,” Rachid says. “This year, the mission was local, working with Habitat for Humanity and going to multiple projects.”
Youth Pastor Earl Henning has been a part of Cypress Point for 16 years and has witnessed its growth. He says much of the church’s future expansion will be oriented toward its youngest members.
“We are in the process of building a 10,000-sq.-ft. youth center with a gym, basketball court, rec center and café,” Henning says, adding that the church hopes to eventually begin a special-needs youth program.
Serving Cypress Point’s youngest members is central to its mission, Pastor Dean says.
“We partner with families to help the mom, the dad, the guardian to build spiritually strong children.”
Cypress Point Community Church is located at 15820 Morris Bridge Rd. Sunday services are held at 9:30 and 11 a.m. For more information, call 986-9100 or visit CPCConline.com.
It was a countdown worthy of a trip to the stars:
The school is located about a mile south of S.R. 56, and opened with just over 500 students enrolled.
In the video, Williams extended the metaphor by explaining how families and the community form the foundation for learning and that using the right educational tools for each student is important. For example, doors can open up opportunities for growth and success, and stairs are for overcoming challenges and reaching the top. 
“He plays his entire lesson from memory and he helps his brother out, which really impresses me,” Pickett says. 
That experience brought home Tony’s own football beginning, as a 14-year-old playing in a youth football league and then catching passes at Pinellas Park High. His focused dedication to athletic achievement became part of his overall lifestyle, including academics, and he earned a scholarship to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, where he majored in political science. 
One of PROtential’s coaches is Brooks Lovely, who says he has been playing sports since he was 3-years-old. Lovely was an offensive lineman at Maryville College in Maryville, TN, and he also was a football coach at Robinson High in Tampa before signing up with PROtential. Lovely expresses awareness of the responsibility he is entrusted with in working with young people.
All-American holidays honoring veterans, celebrating our independence and remembering those fallen in defense of it are times when citizens, old and new, proudly display the Stars and Stripes. But, what is to be done with Old Glory when it becomes worn and tattered and needs to be replaced and properly retired?
According to the United States Flag Code, organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the military and some veterans organizations are authorized to conduct flag retirement ceremonies.