On Spiritual Holiday - Superstition Springs Community Church

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) This scripture captures the mission of Superstition Springs Community Church (SSCC).

SCCC is a sister church to Cornerstone Church in Chandler. It was birthed out of Sun Valley Community Church in 1995 and they met at Highland High School for 10 years. In 2005 they hired Mark Connelly as lead pastor, moved into their present facilities and have since experienced phenomenal growth. Weekly they fill five services in their soon-to-be-replaced chapel that holds 400. We attended the 10:30AM service. Don’t be stylish late at this church because by 10:15 it was standing room only. SSCC is well on its way to becoming a mega church with all that entails.

We received a heads up about this church from a respected friend of ours. Glad he did and we would like to hear from you readers about other churches to attend and review.

SSCC not only has a rock solid grip on the Gospel for the soul put capably applies it outside their four walls by partnering locally with House of Refuge and their developed worldwide ministry of Vision Abolition.

Approaching the church at 4450 E. Elliot Rd in Gilbert we turned unto a temporary dirt road and made our way to the back to park. They are three weeks into construction of their new worship center. All along the way of our walk from the parking lot to the chapel we were greeted by serving members who stood out sporting light colored short sleeved pin stripped shirts embossed with service team logos much like you would see at a bowling alley. Interesting touch!

Lead pastor Mark Connelly preached. The Lewis family agreed that Mark resembles friend and Pastor Brian McKay at SGC. Obviously Brian is better looking, younger, and better at church announcements.

This Sunday Pastor Mark announced a new addition to the church’s family ministry, Gary Smalley of the Gary Smalley Relationship Center. Gary is best known as a teacher, counselor and writer of such well known books as, The Blessing, The Two Sides of Love, The Language of Love and 25 other award winning books.

Mark is a quite a dynamic preacher. We heard he worked for General Mills and felt the call to ministry later in life. He is another one of those guys who doesn’t use a pulpit, however he differs in that he moves over the entire stage during his message. His style and delivery easily engages the congregation and draws them into the sermon with humor, relevant stories and spot-on scriptures that cleanly pierce the heart.

His sermon this Sunday was on forgiveness. He started with things Jesus never taught about forgiveness. First, forgiveness is not having to feel good about a bad thing that happened. Second, forgiveness is not about forgetting what happened to you. Thirdly, it is not synonymous with trust, and finally, it is not the absence of consequence. He then unpacked the ground rules by showing in the scriptures that we follow Christ‘s example, we have the power and capacity to choose to forgive, and that because we have received underserved grace and limitless forgiveness, we do not keep records or wrongs.

The sermon ended with simple and clear application questions like; “Who do I avoid? Who makes me cringe when I see them? Who in my past do I no longer keep in touch with and why?" In addition a helpful little card was handed out with forgiveness exhortations and questions.

Worship was dynamic with a mix of contemporary songs and upbeat hymns. And it made it easy for the non musically inclined Lewis family to participate. The congregation worshiped uninhibitedly with enthusiastic singing and clapping and raising of hands.

The Sunday we attended 50 new believers were baptized, ten of which during our service. SSCC has a unique approach to baptism. After a brief time of worship one of the pastors came forward and introduced each new believer with their brief story. Then the congregation returned to worship. Off to the side of the stage, the ten were baptized and the experience was projected on the massive screen behind the worship team. What a powerful combination! The songs were so pertinent and it was a true worship experience. The most touching moment came when a family of five was baptized. First mom and dad went under; Then the pastor stepped to the side while the newly baptized couple led their children into this most consecrated Christian sacraments.

As we left the church we couldn’t help noticed Big League Dreams (BLD) with its eight replica baseball stadiums just to the north. In BLD one can live in his dream fantasy however in SSCC one can live in his dream reality to the Lord.

On Spiritual Holiday - Desert Springs Church

Desert Springs Church located at 19620 S. McQueen in Chandler was started as an Assembly of God church plant back in 1997. They have been meeting in their own attractive and well functioning building for almost a year.

Parking was easy and there were plenty of friendly faces to greet us on our approach to the church doors. Once inside a youthful, early 30s, greeter struck up a conversation with us. She asked lots of conversation generators which prompted us to ask our fair share of questions. At one point our questions garnered an invite to meet and talk with Pastor Brad Davis. We found this man of God warm, engaging and easy to talk with.

Pastor Brad Davis and his lovely wife of over 20 years, Becky Davis, are motivated by their vision to “Touch a Generation for the Kingdom of God.” They are both graduates from North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota where they met. Becky is a talented singer who led us in worship the morning we visited the church.

Their core values are expressed by being people who:
· are filled with passion for God,
· raise the bar,
· are unafraid to dream,
· refuse to settle,
· embrace today,
· leave it better than we found it and
· speak life.

Although striving to be relevant in today’s culture, at least in our first visit, the church is holding to the essentials of the Christian faith.

Their goal is to equip people through praise, relevant preaching, passionate times of prayer and allowing ample time in the service for the Holy Spirit to move.

We commend them on the last point of giving time and place to Spirit. Within their upbeat worship where the saints feel the liberty to raise or clap hands they punctuated with a pause, to listen for the Lord’s promptings, and “singing in the spirit.” And although the church is Pentecostal in its origin, we didn’t believe anyone accustomed to today’s contemporary worship style would feel uncomfortable worshiping with these dear saints.

Pastor Davis has a straight forward easy to listen to teaching style. He is topical rather than expository in his approach to the scriptures.

This particular Sunday we caught one of a five part series on marriage. Using a large flat screen console loaded with the Wii game of baseball he proceeded to demonstrate how this type of game only has meaning when you interact with another person, just like marriage.

In his sermon he walked the fine line between God hating divorce and yet not hating divorced people. He emphasized God’s grace and forgiveness. He supplied plenty of statistics on divorces damaging effects. Yet he did not disqualify the repentant from the kingdom of God. The service concluded with prayer up front for those with needs. Like all the churches we have visited thus far children are welcomed in the services. So if you are looking for community, relevant teaching and Holy Spirit friendly worship, give Desert Springs a chance.