Saguaro Christian Church sits on East Broadway Boulevard in Tucson, an intentionally sacred, intentionally inclusive, intentionally intergenerational, and intentionally missional congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The church is known for its bold welcome (their words are "all means ALL"), its weekly communion table, and its outward-facing ministries that include East Tucson's first community kitchen, a food pantry, and a long-running partnership with the Be the Neighbor program, a national initiative that helps faith communities walk with migrants in Southern Arizona.
The congregation gathers for one blended worship service each Sunday at 10:00 AM in a sanctuary that has automatic doors and ramps, a Pray Ground for young worshipers, and a tradition of welcoming children into the full life of the assembly. Communion is served every week and is open to all who believe in Jesus the Christ, including children. The same service is livestreamed on the church's Facebook page at 10 AM, with replays available on Facebook and YouTube.
A Welcome That Means All
Saguaro calls itself an Open and Affirming Church, and the language shows up in everything from the baptismal font to the communion table. The invitation to this community of faith is as open as God's grace: no one is barred from participation due to race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, age, or political ideology. Saguaro celebrates differences and diversity, and rejoices in the many ways God creates, sustains, and blesses its people and their relationships.
The congregation practices baptism by immersion while honoring other baptism traditions. Communion is the climax of every worship service and is shared around an open table. The Bible is held as the written foundation of the Christian faith, inspired but not inerrant, to be witnessed to and interpreted by the faithful. Persons are free to follow their consciences guided by the Bible, the Holy Spirit, study, and prayer, and individuals within the community are expected to extend that same freedom to others.
Pastoral care is taken seriously. Worshipers who want a call from an elder or minister can request one through the same form used to check in for online worship. Prayer requests submitted through the form are held by the staff and prayed over by the prayer team.
Sunday Morning at 10 AM
Saguaro gathers for one blended service every Sunday at 10:00 AM. The service is intentionally intergenerational, with children welcomed into the sanctuary rather than separated from the main gathering. Child care is available for parents who want it. The worship space includes a Pray Ground designed for children, and a Blessing of the Pets Sunday each year brings animals into the sanctuary for a special liturgy that includes a communion blessing for the pets and a remembrance of beloved animals who have died.
Worshipers are invited to dress comfortably, since the church lives in a desert. A mask or face covering is optional. The service moves through music, scripture, sermon, and communion, with a tone that the staff describes as earnest, faithful, and imperfect, with a clear commitment to a creative, intergenerational church.
Remote worshipers are invited to have bread and juice (or cookies and milk, or chips and salsa, whatever is on hand) ready to partake at God's open table. The form used to check in for online worship is also a way to submit prayer requests, ask for a call from an elder or minister, and sign up for the weekly newsletter. Those who watch the replay rather than the live stream can move the slider on the timeline to skip past the pre-service music.
Communion Every Week
Communion is the climax of Saguaro's worship and is celebrated every Sunday. The table is open to all who believe in Jesus the Christ, and children are permitted to take part. In a tradition with deep roots in the Disciples of Christ, the weekly observance keeps the central meal of the Christian faith at the center of the church's life, and the open invitation reflects the congregation's commitment to radical hospitality.
Music at Saguaro
Music has been a defining feature of Saguaro's worship for more than a generation. The music ministry includes the Sanctuary Choir, a handbell ensemble, and additional vocal and instrumental groups, and the congregation sings through cantatas, anthems, and special seasonal music throughout the church year. Choir practice is held on Wednesday evenings at 5:00 PM, and new singers are always welcome, whether they have been in choir for years, are trying it for the first time, or simply want to learn a new song.
Music is woven into the seasons of the church year. The Sanctuary Choir presents a cantata on Palm Sunday to begin Holy Week, and a handbell ensemble often adds to the Christmas Eve and Easter offerings. The music ministry works closely with the pastors, staff, and volunteers to create thoughtful and meaningful worship experiences that help people encounter God through music, and the ideal is always to be a creative collaborator and encouraging leader who enjoys working with people of all ages and musical abilities.
The Sol Food Initiatives and the Saguaro Center
Saguaro is building East Tucson's first and only community kitchen. The vision is bold: a shared space where Tucson nonprofits and religious communities can partner, innovate, and dream together in order to eliminate food insecurity in the surrounding neighborhoods. The kitchen is organized under the Sol Food Initiatives, a 501(c)(3) with a threefold purpose: to create collective impact between nonprofits, to launch pilot initiatives exploring new approaches to eliminating food insecurity through food sovereignty, and to manage a social enterprise portfolio that supports the work.
Alongside the kitchen, Saguaro operates the Saguaro Center, a hospitality hub on the church's campus where neighbors can come in, cool down, use the bathroom, chat with a volunteer, and select items from the food pantry. Emergency food bags are distributed from the Center as part of the Sol Food Hospitality Feeding Ministries. Cooking sessions bring volunteers together to prepare meals and to learn from one another, and Saguaro is open to partnering with other groups and invites anyone with ideas for new initiatives, volunteer time, or donations to be in touch.
The Food Pantry
The Saguaro food pantry is one of the congregation's oldest outward-facing ministries. It runs through the Saguaro Center, and the church regularly publishes a grocery list of staple items that volunteers can pick up while shopping. The list is simple and practical: nonperishable proteins, peanut butter, canned vegetables, dried beans, rice, pasta, and other basics that make up an emergency food bag. When the community remembers the food pantry during their regular trips to the store, the church can keep its neighbors fed.
Pantry volunteers distribute bags, talk with visitors, and offer a moment of human warmth. The church is always looking for additional volunteers, and the office phone number is the easiest way to sign up. People who want a quieter way to support the pantry can simply add a few extra items to their grocery cart each week.
Be the Neighbor
Be the Neighbor is a national program that invites faith communities to walk with migrants in the borderlands. Saguaro Christian Church has been selected as a Be the Neighbor site, and the senior minister, Rev. Kelley Dick, has been working with community partners to create week-long experiences where groups serve and share in the city, learn about the work of immigration, and explore what it means to live as followers of Christ in relationship with people who immigrate.
The partnership has brought Sunday lunches, art sales, and shared meals into the life of the church. Wendy Lopez, one of the church's community partners, has prepared pupusas, a thick, handmade Salvadoran corn flatbread stuffed with savory filling, for a Be the Neighbor Sunday lunch. Vegetarian and vegan options are offered, and all pupusas are gluten-free. Visitors can also purchase handmade earrings, tortilla cloths, and small bags made by Wendy and other women in the partnership. All who come are fed, no matter what they can afford.
Be the Neighbor programming has also included film screenings and educational events. The documentary "Samaritans," which examined the work of extreme volunteers in the Sonoran Desert borderlands, was shown with a Q&A with the filmmaker, exploring the compassion shown by those providing life-saving aid to migrants facing harsh realities in one of the deadliest land crossings in the world.
TIHAN and Poz Café
Saguaro is a longtime faith community partner of the Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (TIHAN), a local nonprofit that brings together religious, secular, corporate, and nonprofit organizations to create an inclusive support network for people living with HIV. One of TIHAN's programs is a monthly lunch for people in the wider community who live with HIV/AIDS, called Poz Café.
Poz Café is an opportunity for persons living with HIV/AIDS to get out of the house, take a break, meet other positive people, and enjoy great food. Volunteers from Saguaro prepare and serve a delicious and nutritious meal. After lunch, participants hang out, play games like bingo, enjoy a raffle of fun and useful gifts, and receive a CarePackage. Saguaro has also been a long-time supporter of TIHAN's other work, including the Tree of Life remembrance each December and the annual Walk for HIV Awareness.
Quail Hour: Sunday School for Every Age
After the 10 AM service, the church offers Quail Hour, a Sunday school and small group time that meets at 11:15 in the Quail Room. Quail Hour is for kids, teens, youth, and adults, and the topics rotate through book studies, scripture deep-dives, and current discussions. Recent sessions have explored books like "Worth Fighting For" by John Pavlovitz and "Outlandish" by Sarah Heath, and have used the Psalms and Lenten themes as starting points for conversation. In Advent, children gather for themed craft workshops while adults study together in the same room.
Quail Hour is intentionally intergenerational. Adults and young people sit together, share their questions, and learn from one another. The format changes with the topic: some weeks are structured book discussions, others are open conversations about current events, and still others are hands-on workshops. The Quail Room is the heart of Saguaro's Christian education ministry.
Creation Care
Saguaro takes seriously the call to care for God's creation. The church partners with Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice to host a Creation and Justice Fellow, a position that supports young adult leaders in doing environmental justice work within congregations. The Fellow writes a regular column and helps the congregation explore questions of sustainability, climate, and ecological faith.
The church has a pollinator garden on its grounds, and members take turns watering the garden as a spiritual practice, a small but tangible way to connect with God through creation. Saguaro has also explored questions of infrastructure and sustainability, dreaming about what a society shaped by sustainable values might look like. The church hosts a Creation Season each fall, with worship that names the ways humanity has broken from God's vision for creation and that celebrates the co-creative work of the natural world.
The Brady Scholarship
The Brady Scholarship is one of Saguaro's oldest commitments to the next generation. Long-time members Allan and Marie Brady were known for their astute investments and careful spending, and when their estate was settled in 2000, Saguaro received an endowment that provides income each year for projects above and beyond the ordinary budget. Part of the Creative Ministries area was designated for scholarships to support Disciples students in Tucson, with priority given to Saguaro Christian Church family members.
The Brady Scholarship funds are inclusive of most post-high school kinds of education, from short-term continuing education opportunities to technical schools, as well as college and university undergraduate to postgraduate education. Applications are available through the church office each spring, and awards are made in mid-July.
Lent, Advent, and Easter at Saguaro
For more than fifty years, Saguaro has celebrated Easter sunrise in Saguaro National Park, a tradition that draws the congregation out of the sanctuary and into the Sonoran Desert. The service is one of the most beloved moments in the church year, and the church arranges bus transportation to make the trip easier for everyone. After the sunrise service, the congregation returns to the church for the 10 AM sanctuary worship, followed by an Easter egg hunt.
Holy Week at Saguaro includes a Palm Sunday cantata from the music ministry, a Maundy Thursday service in the Saguaro Center with a simple meal and communion, and Good Friday reflections. Ash Wednesday opens the season of Lent, with the sanctuary open throughout the day for prayer, candle lighting, and the imposition of ashes.
Lent at Saguaro is a season of intentional journey. The church picks a theme each year and offers programming around it, including small groups, book studies, and outdoor experiences that connect the Lenten journey with the landscape of Southern Arizona. Lenten devotionals are available by text message for those who want a daily practice. Advent brings its own rhythm, with the music ministry presenting a cantata, children gathering for themed craft workshops during Quail Hour, and seasonal giving opportunities like the Angel Tree.
The Saguaro Connection
For people who are new to Saguaro and want to learn more, the church offers The Saguaro Connection, a starting point for those curious about the church's core intentionalities, the Dream Team leadership structure, and the many ways to get involved. The Saguaro Connection is the church's way of saying: come, learn, ask questions, and see whether this community is a fit for your faith journey.
Visitors can also sign up to serve on Sundays as greeters, communion servers, or virtual greeters. Each role is a way to meet people, to give back, and to help make Sunday morning a warm experience for everyone who walks through the doors. The church is always looking for additional food pantry volunteers, pollinator garden waterers, choir members, and helpers for the Saguaro Center.
What Saguaro Believes
Saguaro Christian Church is part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a denomination that describes itself as a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. The Disciples welcome all to the Lord's table as God has welcomed them, affirm that Jesus is the son of the Living God and offers grace to all, and affirm that all persons are God's children. The tradition holds that persons are free to follow their consciences guided by the Bible, the Holy Spirit, study, and prayer, and that individuals within the community are expected to extend that same freedom to others.
Saguaro practices baptism by immersion, though other baptism traditions are honored. Communion is celebrated weekly as the climax of worship, and the table is open to all who believe in Jesus the Christ. Children are welcome to partake. The Bible is held as the written foundation of the Christian faith, inspired but not inerrant, to be witnessed to and interpreted by the faithful.
Staff and Leadership
Saguaro is led by Rev. Kelley Dick, the senior minister, whose calling includes both preaching and pastoral care. Rev. Jessica Braxton serves as a minister, bringing energy and perspective to the staff. Jocelyn Hartley serves as the Creation and Justice Fellow, a position supported by Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice that focuses on environmental and justice work in the life of the congregation. A bookkeeper and a church administrator round out the staff and keep the congregation's finances and day-to-day operations running.
Plan a Visit
The church building is at 8302 East Broadway Boulevard in Tucson. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 9 AM to 3 PM, Friday from 9 AM to 1 PM, and Sunday from 10 AM to 11 AM. The phone number is (520) 296-5901, and the email is info@saguarochristian.org. The office is also reachable by fax at (520) 298-0168.
Worship is on Sunday at 10 AM, with livestream available on Facebook and YouTube. Child care is available, masks are optional, and the building is fully accessible with automatic doors and ramps. Communion is offered every week and is open to all. Visitors are encouraged to dress comfortably and to come as they are.
Saguaro Christian Church is a community that takes its faith seriously, laughs easily, welcomes everyone, and believes the table is big enough for all. Whether someone is looking for a church home, a community kitchen to support, a choir to sing with, or a way to give back, Saguaro has a place for them.