Chandler First Church of the Nazarene sits on the corner of North Hartford and Flint Streets in downtown Chandler, Arizona, where it has been a steady presence for about a hundred years. The campus is bigger than a single congregation: three worshipping communities and several outside groups share the building and grounds, and the front doors open every week to neighbors who come for Sunday worship, midweek Bible studies, a long-running grief support group, a quarterly Repair Cafe, and a free mobile health clinic. The congregation describes itself as "ordinary, imperfect people learning to lean on His grace," and a tagline drawn from 1 John 4:7 reads, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God."
A Century in Downtown Chandler
The congregation dates its life in Chandler back roughly a hundred years, putting its earliest roots in the mid-1920s when the Church of the Nazarene was still a young American denomination. The Chandler fellowship is part of the broader Nazarene family founded in 1895 in Los Angeles by Phinneas Bresee and Joseph Widney, who wanted Christians to follow Jesus's example of preaching the gospel to the poor and investing time and money in ministries for salvation and the relief of the needy. Chandler's local church carries that original impulse into a Maricopa County city: it calls itself a "neighborhood family" and welcomes visitors "just as you are." The campus itself has grown over the decades and now includes a sanctuary, classrooms, a church library, and a gymnasium that doubles as a community meeting space.
Sunday Mornings at the Church
The Sunday rhythm at Chandler First Church of the Nazarene begins early and is built around three anchor moments. Coffee and donuts are served at 8:30 AM, giving people a chance to arrive, greet one another, and settle in before classes start. At 9:00 AM the Sunday School hour opens for all ages, alongside Adult Small Groups for adults and the Breakfast Club for teenagers. Worship begins at 10:00 AM and is described by the church as "casual, friendly, and dynamic" with a "spiritually challenging message." That description points to a service that leans contemporary in tone while still preaching carefully from Scripture.
Children are not an afterthought. After the opening portion of the 10:00 AM service, kids are dismissed to their own Children's Church so that the adults can hear the sermon and so the children can learn at their own level. Parents can also drop children off at Kingdom CHAOS Kid's Club at 9:00 AM, a parallel program that runs during the Sunday School hour. Teens meet during the same 9:00 AM hour for the Breakfast Club, a small group that gathers around food before the main service.
For those who cannot be in the sanctuary, the Sunday service is livestreamed. Recent sermons are also published as a podcast on Spotify, so the congregation can be joined from a hospital room, a business trip, or a kitchen table on the other side of the country.
The Pastoral Team
The church is led by a small team that reflects the kinds of ministry it prioritizes. Kevin McGinnis serves as Lead Pastor and preaches at the Sunday morning service. Andi Blanton is the Children's Pastor, overseeing Kingdom CHAOS, Children's Church, and the broader family ministry. Matt Codd is the Prayer and Visitation Pastor, caring for members and friends who are homebound, hospitalized, or simply in need of conversation. Tina Wilson-Delbridge is the Pastor of Bereavement and organizes the GriefShare ministry described below. Chuck Warner leads worship as the church's Worship Leader. Together they shepherd a church that puts a premium on personal care alongside preaching.
Small Groups and Midweek Bible Study
The Connect ministry at Chandler Nazarene is built around the conviction that "friends keep each other sharp," a line the church draws from Proverbs 27:17. Sunday morning worship is the main gathering, but the deeper work of discipleship happens in smaller circles.
For adults, the main weekly small group meets at 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings. On Wednesdays at 10:00 AM, the women of the church gather for "Ladies Church," a Bible study that runs throughout the year. Adults and seniors can also join the GROW New Testament reading plan, a 48-week schedule that walks readers through the entire New Testament in 2026 with daily Old Testament cross-references and a single reflection question per day. The reading plan is divided into themed weeks - The Word Becomes Flesh, Kingdom Stories, Resurrection Hope, Holiness and Love, Letters to the Churches, and others - and is meant to be doable at five days a week.
Children and Teens
Children's ministry is one of the most clearly defined areas of the church. At 9:00 AM on Sundays, Kingdom CHAOS Kid's Club gives children their own time of Bible teaching, games, and activities while parents are in Sunday School. Children then join the 10:00 AM worship service for the opening songs and announcements before being dismissed to Children's Church, where the lesson continues at an age-appropriate level. Online "Lessons for Kids" are also available for families who want to keep the same teaching going at home during the week.
For teenagers, the Breakfast Club meets at 9:00 AM on Sundays for a small-group time over breakfast. Teens then stay for the main 10:00 AM worship service. The model is intentionally simple: a smaller circle where relationships can deepen, followed by the larger gathering where the whole church worships together.
GriefShare and the Bereavement Ministry
One of the most distinctive ministries at Chandler First Church of the Nazarene is its GriefShare program, run under the direction of Pastor Tina Wilson-Delbridge. GriefShare is a national, video-based grief recovery program, and Chandler Nazarene hosts an ongoing weekly group for anyone in the community who is grieving the loss of a loved one. Sessions meet on Tuesday evenings in the church library from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM. The doors open at 6:00 PM for coffee and fellowship, and the formal session begins at 6:30 PM. The standard 13-week curriculum is supplemented by two specialty seminars: GriefShare: Loss of a Spouse (a single Saturday morning session that costs $10 to cover materials) and GriefShare: Surviving the Holidays (a free seminar held each November to help people face the Thanksgiving and Christmas season after a death). The group is explicitly open to the wider Chandler community and is not limited to church members.
Repair Cafe: Fix It, Don't Ditch It
Four times a year, the church opens its gymnasium for a Repair Cafe, a free community event built around the idea that fixing things together is a form of care for both people and the planet. Visitors bring broken items from home - clothes, furniture, small electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, toys, and the like - and work alongside volunteer fixers who have skills in sewing, woodworking, electronics, bike repair, and more. The events are completely free because the labor and tools are donated. The church's North parking lot, which faces Flint Street, is the recommended place to park during Repair Cafe days. The Repair Cafe movement originated in the Netherlands, and Chandler's version is one of several running across Arizona; it has its own Facebook presence and a volunteer sign-up form for anyone who wants to lend their repair skills.
Serving the City: IHELP, Mission of Mercy, and Crisis Care Kits
The Serve ministry at Chandler Nazarene is built around three long-running partnerships with the wider Chandler community.
Twice a month, the church hosts dinner for neighbors in the Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program (IHELP), a rotating shelter network that moves congregations of different faiths through a week at a time. Church members can serve by providing food for the meals, by serving the food, or by sitting at the table with the guests to hear their stories and pray with them. The shared meal is treated as a ministry of presence, not just food distribution.
The Mission of Mercy mobile health clinic also uses the church campus. Mission of Mercy is a free clinic that provides medical care and medications to anyone who needs them, insured or not, in the spirit of "healing through love." Volunteer physicians, nurses, and lay helpers set up in the building on a regular basis, and church members help with logistics and hospitality. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Mission of Mercy.
Twice a year, around the spring and fall, the church also collects Crisis Care Kits for the Church of the Nazarene's global disaster response network. The kits are sturdy gallon-sized bags filled with personal-hygiene basics - a comb, a toothbrush, a hand towel, a small stuffed toy for children, bandages, tissues, bar soap, shampoo, toothpaste, fingernail clippers, and sanitary pads - and are distributed to families who have been displaced from their homes by natural disasters or other major crises. The Chandler congregation has set a goal of assembling 100 kits a year, and donations of individual items, full kits, or money to purchase kits are all welcome. A running list of needed items is maintained.
On Fridays from October through June, the church also opens its backyard and playground to neighborhood families. Volunteers help set up, clean up, and spend time with the children who come. It is a low-key way for the congregation to be present in its neighborhood beyond Sunday morning.
Three Congregations, One Campus
The Hartford Street campus is home to more than one worshipping community. The Thanksgiving potluck held each November gathers "the three congregations and other groups that meet on campus" around shared tables, and the Koinonia Chapel on the property has recently been dedicated for the Eagles Wings congregation, a Cameroonian fellowship whose name comes from Isaiah 40:31. The dedication of the new chapel space was celebrated with a shared meal and a brief dedication service, and the Eagles Wings congregation is now using the chapel as its primary worship space. The three congregations share facilities but worship in their own distinct rhythms, an arrangement that has helped the campus remain a genuinely multicultural and multilingual gathering place.
Beliefs and the Wider Nazarene Family
The Church of the Nazarene is a Wesleyan-holiness tradition that takes its name from the Nazarene described in the New Testament. Nazarenes believe that God calls Christians to a life of holy living marked by what they call entire sanctification - an act of God that cleanses the heart from original sin and fills the individual with love for God and for other people. The denomination is organized around a global mission: "to take the Good News of life in Jesus Christ to people everywhere and to spread the message of scriptural holiness across the lands." Locally, Chandler First Church of the Nazarene belongs to the Arizona District, one of the denomination's regional governing bodies, and is part of a worldwide network that includes Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Nazarene Missions International, The Foundry Publishing (the denomination's publishing house), and the Jesus Film Project. Resources for understanding Nazarene beliefs include the denomination's Articles of Faith and Holiness Today magazine.
Giving, Contact, and Getting Connected
The church is supported financially by the tithes and gifts of its members and friends. Online giving is processed through PayPal, and donors can use an existing PayPal account or simply a debit or credit card. Checks may be mailed to the church office or dropped in the secure mailbox by the church entrance on Hartford Street, and most online banking platforms can also be set up to mail a check automatically through bill pay.
For visitors and newcomers, the church asks that they fill out a contact form or simply show up on Sunday morning. The office is open during the week at 301 N. Hartford St., Chandler, AZ 85225, and can be reached at 480.963.4464 or by email. A Google Maps link is posted online for anyone driving in for the first time. The church also keeps an email newsletter that carries news, prayer requests, and updates on upcoming events.
Worship services are held at 10:00 AM on Sundays in person and online, and the doors open long before that. The Sunday morning schedule, the Wednesday Ladies Church study, the Tuesday evening GriefShare sessions, the quarterly Repair Cafe, and the twice-monthly IHELP dinners all run on a regular rhythm that makes it easy for a newcomer to find a place to fit in. With three congregations already sharing the campus and a century of history behind it, Chandler First Church of the Nazarene has the feel of a long-established neighborhood institution that is still actively reaching outward into the city around it.