Our Story

Church of the Cross is a new church in the Glendale/Peoria area of Arizona that exists to love God, love others and follow Jesus together. We do this by worshiping God, strengthening believers and spreading the Gospel. We want to be a multiplying community of people transformed by Jesus, becoming His hands and feet to a hurting world, transforming culture for His glory.

Tired of “doing” church and wanting instead to “be” the church, we met for the first time as a church family on July 20, 2008 in the home of Brent and Kristi Thomas. God has been gracious to us and we have seen a vision of living as missionaries take hold and spread.

Church of the Cross is not a place. Yes, we gather together, but we don’t believe the Bible ever speaks of “going to church.” Instead, God’s people living under God’s rule is the Church.

Church of the Cross is not what you might expect from church. Though God saves us as individuals, He saves us into a community centered around the truth of Who He is and What He has done. Community should be at the center of our experience of church. After all, the Bible describes us as family. This means that the best way to attain our goal may not be something filling every night of our week, a class for this and a program for that. Instead, it is living life together on God’s mission (to restore all things to Himself through Jesus).

But don’t be fooled, we may have less on our calendar than other churches, but chances are, we expect more from you than other churches. The Bible tells us that we are supposed to bear each others’ burdens (Galatians 6:1-2), we are supposed to show hospitality (Romans 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9, etc.), contributing to each others’ needs (Romans 12:13). We strive to live out everyday life with Gospel intentionality, living out Jesus’ new kingdom in the shell of this fallen world, reversing the hurt, death, decay and destruction caused by sin.

It’s no exaggeration to say that we want to see Jesus change the world, beginning in our own hearts, our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities and the world. This is no small vision, but we believe it is the mission God has called us in to and we’d love for you to join us.