City Square Church celebrated its first anniversary at Crescent Ballroom with tacos and music by The Copper States and The Sugar Thieves following their usual service on Sunday.
Pastors Brian Kemp-Schlemmer and Rob Rynders started to plan City Square Church in July 2012 after they began to work with the United Methodist Church. Rynders said this coincided with the growth and development occurring in downtown Phoenix.
“We try to offer places for people to connect,” Rynders said. “We have events for people who don’t want to be spiritually, but just communally, involved to people who want to advance their faith.”
City Square is a United Methodist Christian church that meets every Sunday at 10 a.m. in the cafeteria of Bioscience High School near Pierce and Sixth streets.
City Square’s mission, according to its website, is “to work for the transformation of Phoenix as a compassionate, inclusive, creative and thoughtful place to explore and grow in relationship with Christ.” The church also offers Bible studies and small groups dedicated to specific topics. One of the groups that is suggested for new members is City Square 101, an introduction to Christianity and the United Methodist church.
For more spiritually and community-inclined members, City Square hosts Theology Pub, an event during which members can eat, drink and discuss different religious topics. Theology Pub takes place the second Sunday of every month at Angels Trumpet Ale House, which is south of Garfield on Second Street.
City Square’s small groups give its members multiple opportunities to connect with the community through similar interests, including hiking, creative writing and beer brewing.
Kemp-Schlemmer said the church is connected to a creative community. For example, when the beer-brewing group meets, they utilize the spent grains to make bread for the following week’s Communion service.
Both Kemp-Schlemmer and Rynders emphasized the church’s ties to the downtown area. Whenever they can, they hold events locally such as Happy Hour, Theology Pub and Gospel Brunch.
“We initially started working with Crescent when we first started a year ago,” Kemp-Schlemmer said. “We did happy hour once a week and then introduced Gospel Brunch. We don’t do Gospel Brunch on a monthly basis now, but we still hold events from time to time there.”
City Square still holds a happy hour once a month at Crescent Ballroom. It is just another way they put emphasis on supporting the community they’re focused on bringing change to.
City Square focuses on the people in downtown, since the pastors bill themselves as a hyperlocal church. As part of their service, the church picks a different nonprofit each quarter to donate 10 percent of its funds to.
“City Square is a lot smaller than other churches, but it’s a size we’re used to,” church member Kerice Doten-Snitker said. “We’re looking for a community that’s not just there on Sundays. It’s a place where people are active in the broader community. We run into people outside of church at community events like poetry slams.”
In the next year, City Square is looking to expand. The church currently has plans to venture into the Arcadia neighborhood by the first of the year.
Contact the reporter at kaci.demarest@gmail.com
