PHOENIX, Ariz. — CalvaryPHX celebrated 161 baptisms and 249 decisions for Christ in the first nine months of 2024. While the numbers are notable, perhaps more impressive is the church’s story.

Mark Martin, senior pastor and cofounder of CalvaryPHX started out as a Seventh-Day Adventist minister. He was fired from his church after preaching the gospel and inviting his church to repent.

Disowned by his family and friends, and with a calling to preach the truth, he and his wife Leslie and nine others started a church in an elementary school’s band room. For 10 years, he led a church of 11-50 people.

“I’m watching all these other churches grow, and I’m thinking, ‘What’s the matter with me? They started around the same time as our church,’” Martin said. “One day, the Lord spoke to me and was like, ‘Look, take down the empty chairs, and you focus on the people I’ve brought you. Feed them the best you possibly can. Stop looking at what you don’t have and look at what I’ve given to you.’”

Then, on an ordinary Sunday, they grew to 80, and then soon to 100. Suddenly, the church exploded in growth until the school eventually told them to leave because of the size of their attendance. Today, the church has 6,000 congregants.

While success can surely fuel an ego, Martin doesn’t seem to have one. He frequents the same local restaurants, befriending their employees, asking about their needs and offering services for those needs. He treats strangers like friends. He commonly quotes 1 Corinthians 1:27, claiming himself to be what is foolish and weak in this world that God will use.

For 42 years, Martin has consistently shared the message of Christ and the love of Christ to the same congregation and neighborhood with authentic humility. Throughout the history of CalvaryPHX, 23,000 people have made decisions for Christ, and 11,000 people have been baptized.

Another key ingredient to Calvary’s success is its involvement in the community.

This year, Andrea Worth, director of outreach for CalvaryPHX, took part in a meeting with six concerned local business owners. Their shared neighborhood has experienced years of violent crime, with drug paraphernalia and litter impacting their businesses. While their concerns were apparent, they lacked solutions.

Worth, representing the church, suggested they start a business alliance, where the church can help provide resources for the homeless and work with the businesses to keep the neighborhood safe. After tapping into the vision of these business owners and sharing Calvary’s vision to spread the love and message of Christ, the church led the six businesses in an alliance to clean up and provide safety for their neighborhood.

“The first initiative in this business alliance is safety because safety unifies us,” Worth said. “When people feel safe, they develop trust and want to come to our church at night for services and events. So we started with shared private security. We’re one of the main sponsors for this entire neighborhood.”

The business alliance is only part of Calvary’s outreach focus. Calvary has four focuses for its missions and outreach: community, foster care, school partners and global missions. For nearly a decade, the church right off the I-17 freeway has developed relationships of hope locally and globally.

“We see it as the highest compliment when the [school] district calls us and says, ‘We need your help. We need your church to pray. We need a pastor to perform a service for us,’” Worth said.

Every year, Calvary has a kickoff for the missions and outreach. This event is to equip the church for outreach and unite them under one goal — the gospel.

“Hope is the most helpful resource we can provide,” Worth said.

For Martin, it’s all about the gospel.

“It’s not just a social justice kind of outreach,” he said. “Everything we do has a clear gospel focus; the end is Jesus. There is no timidity in sharing the gospel.”

Martin and Worth have a few suggestions for churches looking to increase their community outreach:

• Start with something. Begin doing things with the church culture you have. With a healthy dose of vision, stay focused on what God has already given you in the ministry. They advise starting with a local school, listening to the vision of the principal and seeing how you can provide hope to that school. 

• Do not be timid in sharing the gospel. Calvary does not serve for the sake of social justice, the public spotlight or social outreach in itself. The intention is to lead people to the cross. Do not be timid in sharing the hope of Christ as the reason for your outreach.

• Do everything with excellence. “We serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We want to hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.,’” Martin said. At the same time, keep in mind that people in a serving church can burn out.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Noah Jaeger, a freelance writer and photographer, is a member of North Phoenix Baptist Church and is the launch catalyst with Christian Challenge Ariz.)