College Park Community Church is located at 1990 Jagerson Ave. and offers worship services every Sunday: a Traditional Service at 8:15 a.m. and a Contemporary Service at 10:45 a.m. (Andrea Heer-Elliott)

Because Kingman has so many churches in the community, it can be hard to keep track of them all. These places of worship can sometimes get lost in the noise, making them unknown to the people their messages would most resonate with.

One such church might be College Park Community Church located at 1990 Jagerson Ave.

College Park’s main worship center. College Park is open to all visitors and invites everyone to see what they are all about and what they have to offer. (Andrea Heer-Elliott)

College Park began in 1977 as a church plant of the First Southern Baptist church in town to help nurture the growing northern area of Kingman.

“Back then, this area was growing and [there was a need], and there were no real ministries out here,” said Pastor Denis Cronkright.

Though College Park is part of the First Southern Baptist denomination, they are welcoming to visitors of all stripes. In fact, many visitors have said that the first thing they notice after walking through the doors is the congregation’s warmth and friendliness.

“We endeavor to develop community, to have a warm relationship with people so we’re very personable,” Cronkright said. “We want to help people to – first of all, to know Christ as their Savior [and] to have a relationship with Him – and to integrate them; [we want to] help them be involved in some kind of service or ministry, so they can do something with their Christian life instead of just soaking it in.”

College Park’s gymnasium in their Community Center. (Andrea Heer-Elliott)

This mission manifests itself in the work College Park does by allowing their work to have a “personal touch” to it. And their desire to reach out to the community is evident in their ministries and facilities, including a community center and a gymnasium that offers more floor space than a high school gym.

“We have a children’s ministry called Kingdom Kids that’s from pre-kindergarten on up through 5th grade, and we have a youth ministry for middle school and high school,” Cronkright explained. “And we have a big gymnasium and multi-purpose building with classrooms [and] a game room.”

And don’t allow any previous misconceptions to prevent you from experiencing all College Park has to offer.

The Community Center’s game room offers youth a place to socialize while still staying in a Christ-centered environment. (Andrea Heer-Elliott)

You may be surprised.

“Perhaps the biggest misconception is that – because we are a Baptist church (even though we are referred to as a community church) – a lot of times people think that Baptists are very rigid [or] legalistic, and we’re not that,” Cronkright said. “If people want to know about the Bible, everything we do has its foundation in the scripture.”

If you would like to learn more about College Park Community Church, you can call (928) 757-4669, or stop by 1990 Jagerson Ave. on Sundays for their Traditional Worship Service from 8:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. or their Contemporary Worship Service from 10:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Andrea Heer-Elliott