Market 

or 

Ministry?

Here in Tartesso and throughout Arizona, we’ve witnessed the real estate market take a tumble. We’ve seen our neighbors abandon or be forced from their homes. We’ve watched the balloons that once clamored for the attention of eager buyers disappear from the sky above sales offices that are now closed. We’ve come to realize that the long drive to get a gallon of milk or loaf of bread is not going to get any shorter any time soon. 

The reason for it all is simple. If there’s not a market to sell to, those who have stuff to sell will vanish or never show up to start with. 

When we started Crosspointe, the Church at Tartesso, we had the same high expectations that you and your family likely had. We thought there would be at least 1500 families living in Tartesso by now. There’s maybe half that many. We thought there would be a steady parade of loaded U-Haul and Penske trucks heading into to Tartesso each week. There’s barely a trickle now. We thought Tartesso’s entrance would have a grocery store and small retail store fronts that would be the first wave of retail and restaurants that would sweep rapidly along the Sun Valley Parkway like a late summer dust storm sweeps across the desert around us. It’s still twelve miles to buy groceries. 

Without question, the reality we all face is a bit different than what we anticipated. That difference has changed the plans of a lot of people. And, frankly, it’s caused us to change our plans, a bit too. 

However, Crosspointe, the Church at Tartesso is still here. And we will be here next week, next month, next year. It hasn’t been an easy ride, but we’re here. 

God has blessed us with a group of partnering churches that believe in what we’re doing here in Tartesso. They support us with their prayers, their labor, and their dollars. Many from those churches have come out to Tartesso from the Carolinas, from California, and from other parts of Buckeye to help us with the big events we’ve done and with some simple tasks like staffing our nursery or handing out candles for our Christmas Eve service. 

While these partnering churches are the resource that enables us to remain here when others have abandoned our community, they are not the reason. 

The reason we remain is because we see Tartesso as a place of ministry, not a market. We see our community as a place to serve, not a place to sell something. We see you and your family as people to love, not exploit for our gain. And because these things are true, we’re going to continue to love and serve the people of our community. 

We invite you to gather with us this Sunday or any Sunday and get a glimpse of who we are.

We don’t draw the biggest crowd. We don’t have the slickest show. We don’t have the best preacher you can find. But we do have a group of people who love Jesus and love the people around us, including you. 

We meet at Tartesso Elementary School at 10:30 every Sunday morning. 

If you have questions, email our Lead Pastor, Dennis Conner at dennis@xpointe.net.