About the Church
We officially launched as a church plant, meeting in homes in July of 2023 from our sending church, Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson. We will begin meeting at Gladden Farms Elementary School, 11745 Gladden Farms, Marana, AZ on Sunday September 10th. Our service will start with a time of fellowship at 9am with light refreshments, then a time of worship and teaching from 10am-11am.
During the planting process our church leadership has been intentional about creating healthy church leadership and forming a clear mission and vision. Our hope and prayer is to be a blessing – building community within, and reaching the world with the truth of the Gospel. To learn more about our vision for the church, click the button below.
About the Pastor
A church should never be built around a pastor, but the shared mission to worship together, build community, and reach the world. The role of a pastor is to act as a shepherd, a leader, to guide and direct the people of God, helping to equip them for good works. And while this role is not nearly as important as some modern churches position the pastor, we recognize the desire to know the leader of the church because their beliefs and vision for the church will guide and direct the focus of that church. With that in mind, we want to introduce you to our Teaching Pastor, Peter Martin.
About Peter
I was born and raised in Tucson to a godly family who were prominent in the Christian community. I spent most of my life attending Calvary, and though I had every opportunity to accept Christ at a young age, I struggled throughout my teen years with the truth of the Gospel. I was always a deep thinker, which led me to ask really hard questions from a young age. Sin, hell, the goodness of God, and eternity were all concepts that plagued my thinking. As a teen I began to struggle with pornography and sexual sin, which ultimately led me to reject God and embrace atheism.
When I was 16, God finally opened my eyes to His truth, and showed me who He is. I could no longer hide from that and surrendered my life to Him. My battle with porn, lust, and sexual sin was not over, however.
The very week I graduated from high school, I enlisted in the Marines. I spent the next 4 years of my life serving in the military, with two overseas tours in Afghanistan during some of the bloodiest years of conflict in the middle east. During that time I experienced life-altering suffering, and it was there I realized I could not stomach the idea that the people we were fighting were going to go to hell if they did not receive the truth of the Gospel.
When I decided to leave the Marines after my 4-year service ended, I knew God was calling me to be in ministry.
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I came back to Tucson and started working with Pastor Beau and Pastor Scott Richards of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson. Eager to learn what I could about the Bible and teaching, I did every odd job imaginable – including being the church janitor – in addition to leading the high school ministry, and assisting with Running Light Ministry (a ministry that helps people struggling with porn addiction overcome through Christ). My role in the church grew over the next 10 years, and I began Biblical Counseling, in addition to filling in at the pulpit and helping on their radio show, A Reason For Hope. In 2013 I met my future wife, Emma. In 2015 we were married and now have two children – Fira (3) and Leif (not quite 1).
I am a scholar by nature. I devour books and am always seeking the truth in all things. I am always drawn toward pursuing truth in difficult questions – relying on the completeness of the Scripture as a guide.
I have written a few books on topics that interest me – suffering, growing with Christ, etc.
My hope and desire for Calvary Marana is to be a church marked by authentic community where we can be open about our questions and our struggles.
Church Leadership
Peter Martin
(Senior Pastor)
Emma Martin
(Hospitality and Connection Ministry)
Kevin McCarthy
(Elder, Kids Ministry)
Lisa Keller McCarthy
(Counseling, Internal Hospitality)
Terry Rozema
(Elder, Security, Community Outreach)
Kathy Rozema
(Women’s Ministry, Social Media, External Hospitality)
Mike Dodd
(Elder, Business Operations, Worship/Tech)
Ashley Dodd
(Worship Ministry)
Our Vision for Calvary Marana
Ephesians 4:11-15 And (Jesus) Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
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This statement by the Apostle Paul has remained the central call for the church for over 2,000 years. And yet each new generation faces challenges which hinder our ability to fulfill this call and honor God in our local churches.
I believe that this generation faces two of the most difficult challenges to church unity than any generation before us – the Community Crisis, and the Information Crisis. The church must adapt to answer these crises specifically, or church unity will cease to be attainable.
Community Crisis
For all of human history, there has been a practical need for strong social bonds. Throughout history, the Church has bonded together during times of persecution in order to encourage one another in our weakness (Hebrews 3:13), and provide practical aid to those who are in need (2 Corinthians 8:8-15). Practical needs drove people to deep bonds within the body of Christ. If you look at impoverished parts of the world, you’ll notice a deep sense of community, most likely rooted in necessity. However, in our modern age, we struggle not with necessity, but instead with over-abundance. We are more wealthy than all previous generations, and sit under a government that offers aid to the poor and needy in greater abundance than any singular church ever could.
Because these physical needs are being met by a non-communal entity, people no longer have a physical need for community and are now, to a large extent, abandoning strong social bonds. We now live our lives surrounded by strangers. We live near strangers, we work with strangers, go to school with strangers, are counseled by strangers, and even attend church surrounded by strangers. The only consistent community that some have right now is on social media – which reduces relationships down to simple likes and comments.
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It is an inadequate replacement for in-person community. This is why so many people today have mistaken love for praise, approval, and attention. They don’t fully understand the beauty and the complexity that real relationships entail.While the physical needs for community have gone away, the spiritual needs remain. It is no coincidence that as communal life has gotten more rare, loneliness, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide have become more prevalent in our society. This is why the modern church must innovate to address this new dilemma.
In the past, churches never had to push community in their congregations, because people would be naturally driven to it. A pastor’s job could simply entail delivering the word of God faithfully and clearly, and the community aspect of the church would sort itself out as people naturally built strong relationships in the Body. This current generation does not understand their need for these types of relationships and so they are “content” remaining anonymous in their church. Someone can potentially attend a church for years and never develop a single relationship that goes beyond the superficial. If the church is to answer this need, we must orient ourselves around communal gathering, otherwise this cycle of collective loneliness will perpetuate in the church body as well.
Information Crisis
In the past, the majority of people could only receive a small amount of professional commentary throughout the week. For the most part, church would be really the only place that a person would actually sit and listen to a well thought out teaching for more than a half hour. Now, modern people are bombarded with commentary. Podcasts, sermons, and written commentaries are so widely available that individuals will listen to and skim numerous lectures, sermons, videos, and social commentaries, some Christian, some not, every single day. In this modern landscape, a pastor’s thirty minute teaching will be just one teaching among many that an individual will absorb in a given week. And many of the commentaries that they consume will be far more eloquent and informative than whatever that individual pastor will be able to offer.
Because of this, the likelihood that the teachings of one pastor, alone, will have real life changing consequences on an individual’s life are slim to none. This does not discount the importance of sermons within a church, but instead shows the increased importance of a church community that is living life together and manifesting the Word in their lives.
If all the church has to offer is teachings and worship, then we are not offering anything that someone could not get without ever leaving their own home.
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If the church offers real community, then we are offering something that individuals aren’t getting anywhere else. And because this community is built around the person of Christ, then we are not just offering the indispensable joys and benefits or real love and fellowship, but also a practical entry point to relating to God in a more real and profound way.
While what we are doing at Calvary Marana is certainly not new, it is intentionally oriented around addressing this current cultural moment. We have purposed our services to center around fellowship and community. This is why we have intended that service will begin with a time of food and fellowship and end with intentional time in fellowship. In furtherance of these goals, we will not expand beyond one service. We want to be united in our Church body and desire those who attend to not only be welcomed in, but to learn how to participate in the building of the church in practical ways.
During the week we want to encourage more home studies, as well as ongoing church events. To the best of our ability, we want to minimize the obstacles to close relationships and by doing so, maximize our ability to live life together while we honor God.
Mission Statement
Mission Statement: We are a fellowship of believers who pursue the God who passionately pursues a lost world; we do this by connecting with one another, through fellowship, worship, and studying Scripture.
Vision Statement
At Calvary Marana, we create environments that minimize awkwardness and remove obstacles, believing this will maximize belonging and create opportunities for life change. We want people to feel loved, cared for, and comfortable, because we believe this makes them more receptive to the Word. We want to implement this in everything we do including our worship experience, giving experience, home bible studies, and children’s ministry. Everything we do is about creating life change and we
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want to build and provide opportunities for change in every realm of life: spiritually, relationally, professionally, and emotionally. We want to see people give their lives to Jesus Christ and become better husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, and employees and business owners. We believe that having a relationship with Jesus is the very meaning of our lives, and by knowing Him we can learn how to live our lives well.