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The History of The Church at South Mountain
From the day we began meeting together as a fellowship of believers, we have been seeking to be true to the words found in Psalm 145:4, “One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”
In 1991, Marvin Knight had been teaching a discipleship class at North Phoenix Baptist Church, where he was a staff pastor. It was during that year that he and Rich Wells began to forge a relationship as Marvin invested his life in discipling Rich in the faith. Pastor Knight also helped him discern the Lord’s call to full-time Gospel ministry. As their relationship continued to develop and strengthen, they began to talk and pray together about starting a new church in South Phoenix. This had been a thought brewing in the back of Pastor Knight’s mind for several years, since he had grown up in the area.
In 1993, with much prayer and the support of Pastor Richard Jackson, Pastor Knight and Rich Wells decided to step out in faith and move forward with beginning a new church. That, in and of itself, was evidence that the Lord was in this – neither of them had any previous church planting experience. In fact, Rich had no pastoral experience at all at that point. They sketched out the first vision statement of “Presenting God’s Grace to Every Race” on a napkin at Taco Bell!
Vision meetings were held in early 1994 at First Southern Scottsdale Church, where they, along with 30 other members of North Phoenix Baptist Church, began planning the new church, then called Cornerstone Church. The name was soon changed to The Church at South Mountain, inspired by the New Testament churches (e.g., the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, etc.) and because many churches in the Valley had the word “Cornerstone” in their names.
The Church at South Mountain (CASM) held its first services at Holdeman Elementary School on July 10, 1994, with 30 charter members in attendance. Within the first six months, the church’s attendance grew to about 100 people. In 1995, Rich Wells was ordained as Associate Pastor. This was affirmation of the call of God on his life, given several years earlier, to full-time ministry. As an infant church, this was our first opportunity to put into practice our commitment of having biblically qualified leadership; a commitment that continues to this day. We understood early on that as the leaders go, so goes the church.
By 1996, CASM had outgrown the facilities at Holdeman and moved to Nevitt Elementary. CASM also launched its first mission at this time by partnering with Valley Christian Center in taking 55 underprivileged children, mostly from the surrounding community, to Tonto Rim Christian Camp near Payson, AZ. During this time, we learned that you don’t have to be large to make a difference. The Lord was allowing us to try some ministry opportunities that caused us to really stretch our faith.
Within the same year, another move was made, this time to an office building at 40th Street and Roeser. This move allowed us to have more permanence in where we met instead of being in a school, with the limitations that came with being in someone else’s building. Here we experienced our first intense spiritual battle. The president of the business park association did not want a church in his park. The building we were renting required us to secure permits and various city approvals before we could remodel it to suit our needs. This enemy of the cross put up roadblock after roadblock to prevent us from doing what we needed to do. John Politan and Scottsdale Bible Church came alongside us during this time and proved to be of great help to our ministry.
Under the providential hand of God, instead of continuing to fight the business park battle, a way was made for us to move in 1997 to the Broadway Commerce Center at 40th Street and Broadway. That same year, our first deacons were ordained – Ray Olguin, Charles Graham, Pert Mims, Rodney Davis, and Tony Long. Years later, three of these same men are still serving God’s people in this role while two of them (Ray and Tony) were ordained as Elders in 2010. The long-term commitment of men like these has led to stability in the ministry for which we are so grateful.
Another very significant event that occurred in 1998 was the ordination of Julien Kinsale, Alex Wright, and Mark Grady as the first elders of The Church at South Mountain.
In 1999, CASM celebrated its fifth anniversary. This was significant because the statistics show that most new church plants do not make it to the fifth year. This occasion was marked by a special time of fellowship, worship, and remembrance of what the Lord had done in those years. The leadership also decided in 1999 to move into a bigger suite in the same office park at 40th Street and Broadway. These new facilities included a larger sanctuary, offices, and several classrooms. These classrooms facilitated the teaching of the children and youth. From the beginning, CASM has made it a priority to educate children and youth in biblical understanding. Teachers receive regular training on how to first prepare themselves, and then how to bring the children to an understanding of the Scriptures. The purpose of each lesson, regardless of the text or story, is always to point towards Jesus Christ and how they might be saved.
One highlight of 2000 was the first Desert Harvest Crusade. This event was the result of the leadership at CASM seeing a need to bring the true Gospel to many who had not yet heard it. Between 600 and 700 people heard the Gospel that night and several new Christians were born. In the following year, the second Desert Harvest Crusade was held at the Phoenix Civic Center, with several churches partnering across the valley. Brent Milner is fruit from this effort. He came to Christ at the second crusade and he now leads our Youth Ministry.
As a result of these crusades, the reality set in that churches committed to the sound, faithful exposition of the Word of God are not as common as we would like. In many places, the emphasis is on entertainment, people pleasing, and easy-to-listen-to story times, rather than the bold, unapologetic proclamation of the Word of God.
It was around this time that Pastor Knight, as he studied the Word of God, leaned more than ever upon the Puritan pastors and theologians of the 16th and 17th centuries. The reformed theology embraced and taught by the Puritans proved to be an immense help and encouragement. After much study, the elders came to a deeper conviction that the Bible holds high the sovereignty of God in salvation and teaches equally man’s utter helplessness in securing his own salvation. In 2001, the Doctrines of Grace began to be a central teaching at CASM, as they have been by men of the Word such as George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, J.C. Ryle, Thomas Watson, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and, in more recent times, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, and Sinclair Ferguson.
Throughout the years, CASM had always planned to have our own building in South Phoenix. In 2000, we struck a deal to purchase 20 acres on the corner of 19th Avenue and Southern. After doing all that we were told we needed to do, we encountered problems with the financing we had set in place to make the purchase. After several more attempts failed, it was clear the Lord had other plans for the home of this body of believers. While still in control of the land, we were able to sell it at a small profit. God graciously provided for His people, even in the face of our missteps.
