The Dream of a New Church in Columbus

Ambassadors of Christ Ministries began when six people joined Pastor Luis Scott and his wife, Iris, for Bible study in their home in January 2007. For the next four months they met every Wednesday and the small Bible study group grew to about 15 people. As the group continued to grow, the conversation changed and plans to start a Sunday Worship service in June 2007 became the focus. For about a month, Pastor Scott looked for a place to meet, but nothing suitable was available.

In the first week of April, a military couple came to Pastor Scott’s office seeking marriage counseling. After exchanging greetings, the husband asked Pastor Scott what his plans were after retirement from the military service. Pastor Scott answered that he was planting a church in Columbus. The couple, without thinking much about it, said that they wanted to become members of the church. Since the church had not begun, Pastor Scott told the couple church did not have a place to meet and were still looking. The couple, without hesitation, suggested that the new church plant could use their building on Macon Road. The couple owned a photography business and they had enough space to host about forty people, if we could get some chairs.

Pastor Scott agreed to use their facility to get the ministry started while still looking for a larger and more accessible place for the new church. Ambassadors held its two first public services in the photo studio. We saw the first signs that this ministry would make a significant impact in the city of Columbus when about thirty people joined us for those first two services.

Laying the Foundation

While we were making preparations to launch our new church Pastor Scott sent out fifty letters to friends and family members willing to support the ministry for one year. Pastor Scott also send out invitations to contacts and people he had met over the years in the chaplaincy who might have some interest in joining and being a part of the new church. Many friends responded to the call.

In addition to looking for a place to host services, Pastor Scott and Iris were looking for a house they could purchase, since it appeared that Columbus was going to be their new home. As they were looking for houses, God spoke to Pastor Scott in a loud voice and told him to “Look for my house first and then we will look for yours.” At that moment Pastor Scott told Iris that they were done looking for houses. They needed to focus on looking for God’s house. This was another confirmation of God’s hand on the new church. A few days after hearing God’s voice we came in contact with the owner of a small storefront building on Armour Road. The place appeared to be the perfect place to get the ministry started. It only had parking for about 30 cars, but it was big enough to sit around 75 people.

Pastor Scott contacted the landlord and arranged to sign a lease for the building. There was one problem—the church did not have enough money to pay for the deposit and rent. In spite of that Pastor Scott signed the lease and gave the deposit believing by faith that God would make a way to pay for the rent. The rent was due on June first, but we had not been able to save enough money to pay the rent. It was time to pray and ask God for a miracle.

On May 29, just three days before the rent was due we received a check for over four thousand dollars. It was for a loan that we have had not requested or asked anyone to send. Nevertheless, there was the check. Initially we thought that it was not a check, but Pastor Scott told Iris, “There is only one way to find out.” He deposited the check and it was real. That Friday, June 1, Pastor Scott paid the rent for the first month and Ambassadors of Christ Ministries could conduct their first publish worship service on June 3.

That first Sunday was exciting. We had invited many friends to come and support the new church plant. We knew that most of them would not stay because they had their own churches or had come from out of town. But, there was a sense of anticipation as we held the service. We conducted the music using CDs. We did not have one single musician, and we worshiped for more than five years without live music. We had 63 friends join u us for that initial worship service. About 25 of those were committed to staying and journeying with us. The Lord blessed us and the offering for that day was enough to pay for another month’s rent. Together with the loan we had received, we now had enough funds to pay rent through the month of August, which was more than enough time to get the second part of Ambassadors of Christ Ministries started.

Toward the end of June many of the friends I had asked to support us financially began to respond to our request. Thirty-four out of the fifty responded positively. Our friends had made a combined commitment of $2,700 a month to support Ambassadors. That was more than enough, even without counting the church’s contributions, to pay for the rent and all the bills for the first year. After the first year we were financially healthy enough that most of our friends were able to end their commitment. As a church were, and continue to be, extremely grateful for their support. Without them that first year could have a very difficult year. Eight friends continued to support the ministry for another two or three years, two friends have continued to support the ministry for various activities and fund raisers from time to time, while one friend has remained faithful for the entire time Ambassadors has been in existence.

A Second Congregation is Born

Three months after the successful launch of Ambassadors of Christ Fellowship, Pastor Scott had a chance encounter with Naty Mandés, a lady he had met briefly in one of his marriage conferences in Columbus. Naty challenged Pastor Scott to plant a Spanish ministry in Columbus. After holding a meeting with nine Spanish speaking Christians looking for a place to worship, Pastor Scott launched Iglesia Embajadores de Cristo on August 17, 2007, with nine people in attendance.

Both churches continued to grow and within a year the new ministry had to expand their facilities to accommodate all the people that had joined the ministry. As both congregations continued to grew, it became obvious that while we could still host the services the parking area had become inadequate for our members and guests.

Time to Move

In April 2010 the ministry started a capital campaign to raise funds to purchase a piece of land or a building that would be more adequate to our needs. The capital campaign was called “Upon this Rock.” Members and friends would commit to donate $1,000 for one brick for our building project. In the same month we initiated our capital campaign, a local realtor called us regarding an old skating rink that was on the market. The building was in disrepair and needed a lot of work. The bank was asking for $525,000 dollars for the building. Some members of our leadership team came to see the building. We believed this building could meet our needs in spite of all the work that had to be done.

While we were looking at the building a gentleman drove into the parking lot to asked what were we doing looking at his building. Apparently the gentleman’s church had already made an offer for the building and the seller had accepted the offer. We were all disappointed, but if someone else would purchase the building, then God had something different for us. We continued with our capital campaign and by the end of August the Lord, through the generosity of our congregation and friends, had provided more than enough money for a solid down payment on a building or a piece of land to build.

During that same time we saw two and a half acres of land for sale and we could acquire it for a decent price. We already had more than half of the cost and it would not have been difficult to pay off the difference in two or three years. We could purchase the land, but in order to build we needed to receive a special permit from the city of Columbus. Everything appeared to be in place, except that a local minister, who lived in a nearby neighborhood, mounted a challenge to us building the church in that location. She argued that building the church would devalue her house because of the traffic the church would create. The city council approved our purchase, but we had made the decision not to proceed with the purchase if the city council did not approve the permit unanimously. The vote was 4-3, so we backed out of the purchase of the land.

A couple of months after we moved away from the deal for the land, the relator who had shown us the skating rink called us back. She said that the skating rink had been put for sale again. She stated that the previous buyer could not secure the mortgage loan and the sale fell through. Immediately we made a bid for the skating rink. We offered $400,000 dollars. The bank countered with $450,000 dollars and we settled for that amount. Within ten days, four banks had approved the loan, including the bank selling the property. Since they gave us the lowest interest rate, and they were eager to sell, we closed the sell in thirty days. Ambassadors of Christ Ministries were the proud owners of a 24,700 sq. ft. building with more than 180 parking spaces. Now the hard work would began.

From Skating Rink to Sacred Space

After one year and two months of hard work, we had our first worship service in the new facility on October 3, 2011. It was the most exciting and encouraging time for Ambassadors and Embajadores.

After we had settled in our new sanctuary, we began work on Phase II of the remodeling project, the classrooms and educational space. The classrooms remodeling project took another eight months to complete and by July 2012 we were able to inaugurate three nurseries, seven classrooms and one conference room.

Even though the building project has consumed a great deal of time and energy, the congregations have shown continuous growth. Over the last few months we have lost many valuable members due to military and/or job reassignments. However, the Lord has brought new people with renewed energy to continue Ambassadors’ and Embajadores’ mission for Columbus.

Continue praying for Ambassadors and our mission to see God’s work done in the tri-city area of Columbus/Fort Benning/Phenix City, AL, through our ministry of Reconciliation, Restoration, Discipleship, and Spiritual Health.