ReachColumbus Launches Through Great Team Effort
Update 22 March 2011 - Scarlet City Church
Please pray for comfort and God’s presence for Gabe and Monica deGarmeaux, and daughter Lilly, church planters with Jay O’Brien at the Scarlet City Church, Columbus, OH. March 21, Deacon deGarmeaux, their two-year old son, was struck by a car and died. The following news appeared on the church website:
On behalf of the deGarmeaux family, I want to thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement. As many of you know, Gabe and Monica’s son Deacon deGarmeaux passed away earlier this evening after being struck by a car. We are shocked and feel numb. Our hearts are broken from this loss. We will be giving updates on the website and via email. Scarlet City Church
Please pray for comfort and God’s presence for the deGarmeaux family.
ReachColumbus Church Plant Launches
It is a fascinating city of great commerce and cultural influence. With Ohio State University helping to define the city’s ethos, Columbus, OH, is considered progressive, entrepreneurial, liberal, and educationally strong. Yet it is a broken city with very few gospel-centered evangelical churches representing the redemptive message of Christ.
Into this city of great influence has come a church-planting movement called ReachColumbus. As church planter Jay O’Brien believes, a broken city that embraces the blood of Jesus to cover that brokenness also has the power to infiltrate culture beyond that city.
A Unique Converging of Hearts
ReachColumbus is a partnership among two districts (Great Lakes and Allegheny), two teams of church planters, EFCA Start Churches, EFCA ReachStudents and about 4,000 EFCA students.
In the summer of 2010, both the EFCA Leadership Conference and the Challenge student conference were held in Columbus. District church planting directors Brett Gleason (Great Lakes) and Jim Culbertson (Allegheny) helped shape the broader vision for ReachColumbus, as well as recruit and mentor church planters.
Then God added to the mix church planters Scott Burns and Ken Flower, along with Jay O’Brien and Gabe deGarmeaux and their families. These sold-out church planters are willing to pack up everything, leave their comfortable homes and make Columbus their new home. It is a converging vision that only God could orchestrate.
And as God brought together the hearts of EFCA leadership, He also stirred a passion in thousands of EFCA students to pray, serve, and give sacrificially on behalf of the redemptive message of Christ in a broken city.
Students Flood In
Hosting the Challenge 2010 conference in Columbus gave students the chance to partner in the launch of the new church planting endeavor. Students participated in several service projects. They prayer walked the neighborhoods of Columbus, inviting God to release the power of the gospel throughout the city.
God also stirred the students to give sacrificially toward ReachColumbus. Many of them related so powerfully to the vision of church planting that they gave $32,000 to the new church plant. Jay received an e-mail from a student who had to wait until he got home to send $100.
"He may never again come to Columbus, but he was willing to give," said Jay. "What a statement-thousands of young people saying [they] are committed to passing on the gospel."
The First Plant: Scarlet City Church 
Jay O’Brien and his wife Megan considered planting a church everywhere from China to Phoenix to Florida. As they sought God for His leading, He put Columbus on their hearts—and Scarlet City Church was etched in their vision.
If you live in Ohio, you know the Ohio State University colors are scarlet and gray. So the word "scarlet" captures the attention of Columbus residents. But as Jay explained, scarlet has a much deeper meaning.
"It reminds us of the scarlet letter, sin, and the scarred nature of human beings. It also reminds us of the scarlet thread of redemption and blood of Jesus to cover our brokenness."
Scarlet City Church is now in the "core-gathering stage" of the plant. They hope to have 60 to 100 core adults before they officially launch the church in spring of 2011.
Scarlet City Church team photo at right with Jay and Megan O’Brien and Gabe and Monica deGarmeaux.
The Second Plant: Cross City Church
Church planter Scott Burns was burdened for Columbus about a decade ago when family members came to Christ and wanted to find a good church. But in checking with various contacts in the area, Scott discovered a very small gospel witness in a city of 1.7 million. God placed a call on Scott and his wife’s Melissa’s hearts to eventually leave California and head for Columbus.
Scott and his church planting partner Ken (and Beth) Flower and their families are planning to make the trek from California to Columbus in December 2010.
They will establish "frequent spots." These are places that they will frequent (coffee shops, etc.) where they can begin to establish relationships.
Scott has already been doing this very successfully, and has learned that "patience and interest in people allows me conversation over time." By being present at a local Starbucks, he has had opportunity to marry and bury people, as well as lead some to Christ along the way.
Hope for Future Plants
Cross City Church plans to plant a second church in 18-24 months after they arrive in Columbus. Ken will pastor the second church, and each will bring on new "journeymen" to mentor and train with the goal of quickly planting more churches.
Partnering in Prayer
Both Scott and Jay are intentional about the place of prayer in church planting.
"It’s humbling and freeing to step out into something that is completely beyond you," Scott observed. "It leaves us no place but prayer because this is so evidently bigger than us!"
Jay added a plea for prayer with those who might partner with the ReachColumbus. "Pray that God will bring the right people," he said. Pray also for transformed lives, financial resources, and a place for each church plant to meet."
His final request is perhaps the most profound:
"Pray that we will walk humbly and love our wives well. We want to be good husbands, fathers, and friends."
—written by Carol Madison
Scott and Melissa Burns Ken and Beth Flower
