The Inspire Story – God Provides!

In the fall of 2015, God began moving in the hearts of the leadership at PWCC in Fresno, California. He ignited a desire to plant a church in Arizona. The leaders approached Pastors Jim Kennon and Bryan Hitch and asked them to pray, along with their wives, about this new assignment. 

In January 2016, our team visited Arizona to explore housing options. This advance team included Jim and Sue Kennnon, Bryan and Terry Hitch, and the Hitch's daughter, Emily. The team rented an Airbnb for ten days. They had a lot to do in a short amount of time. During that visit, Jim and Sue found a home right away in Sun City West (SCW). Bryan and Terry returned in March and found a home in Surprise. The Hitches moved the next month.

That fall, Jim and Bryan invited other PWCC families to pray about being part of the church’s launch team. Bryan and Terry hosted launch team gatherings in their home, and the Holy Spirit began to move in those gatherings, giving an even clearer vision for our church plant.  

In January 2017, we began holding monthly interest meetings at Zuni Hills Elementary. We sent a mailing to the surrounding neighborhoods. This “bedroom community” showed little interest in the new church. The location at the school was hard to find, and the entrance to the school’s multipurpose room, where we met, was even harder to find.

On September 10, 2017, we had our "soft" launch and began weekly services. The school provided a storage closet for all our gear, which meant we didn't have to load and unload a trailer each week. Thank God! This was a tremendous blessing, considering the age and demographic of our launch team.

We officially launched Inspire Church AZ on October 17, 2017. We successfully "grew" from 125 to 25 by the end of December. This became an inside joke between Jim and Bryan. It was clear we had to make a change.

Pastors Jim and Bryan spoke with Pastor Bruce of Palm West Community Church. He offered us the use of his church’s Hoover Hall. We chose Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. to hold our weekly services, which at the time was an innovative time for the community of SCW. Starting January of 2018, we were once again given a storage closet for all our sound equipment, projector, screen, computer, instruments, and pipe and draping.

A year later we moved to SCW Foundation’s Powell/Webb meeting rooms. Again, through the generosity of the SCW Foundation, we received a storage closet for all our gear. We began to experience growth at the Foundation in early 2020.

Then COVID-19 hit! The first two weeks of March, we live-streamed our service from Hoover Hall because of Pastor Bruce and PWCC’s continued support. We used an iPhone, keyboard for worship, and podium for the message. The third week, The Foundation generously invited us to keep everything set up in the Webb Room so we could stream our services. It was a tremendous blessing! For several weeks, protocols restricted our gatherings, but we continued to record and post our services as a “live” premiere every Saturday at 4:00 p.m. 

In February of 2021, we moved into the lease space where we currently meet, and God continues to grow His church, Inspire Church AZ.