Hello, I’m Chris Sandford Pastor of the Ambassadors Church; on behalf of my wife Lisa, I'd like to share a little bit of the the journey which led to the planting of and becoming the pastors of the Ambassadors Church. I'll do this by looking at four pivotal transitions that occurred in our lives that has brought us to where we are today.  

 

In 1988  Lisa and I were stationed in Barnegat Light, New Jersey. It was the last year of my enlistment in the Coast Guard providing, I didn't extend or reenlist. My commanding officer Lt Thompson, made an appeal to me to apply for Officers Candidate School (OCS) with his recommendation, he even had me talk with an another officer who was also African American, to both help encourage me to do so; as well as to ease some concerns I had expressed. I'll admit that the thought of being a coast guard officer was intriguing, and honestly it had been my intention to make a career in the Coast Guard; and what better to do that than to become an officer. But in the end as much as I imagined and tried to calibrate how that fit with God's ultimate plan for me, I didn't sense that that was what I was purposed to do.

 

I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time but I came to realize that serving a 20 year career in the military was really more of my plan for myself than it was God's plan for me. So, at the end of 1988 through a series of events that can only be described as God's hand definitely being involved. I decided that I would not reenlist or extend my service time; therefore ending any chance of me becoming a u.s. military officer. Lisa and I relocated back to Muskegon after having lived in New Jersey during my final assignment in U.S. Coast Guard. This was the first of four pivotal transitions that God used to bring about His will for our lives.

 

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 The second pivotal transition came two years later; this time it would be a monumental spiritual transition; as we changed our place of worship to the Family Worship Center Church in Grand Rapids Mi, under the leadership of Apostle Harvey Hester. This was a cutting edge, prophetic and apostolic church that God was using mightily and globally at the time. During this season I could really sense God's strategic plan unfolding in our lives. God was setting things in place for additional foundational footings to be established. Our time here would prove to be crucial for His plan for us down the road. God used this ministry to impart and establish deeper truths of the pastoral, five-fold ministry gifts and ministry excellence into our lives.

 

 The third pivotal transition happened in September of 1991. Family Worship Center Church Muskegon was planted and our family along with several other local families that were commuting to Grand Rapids each week became charter members of this new church plant. Here we learned valuable leadership skills and forged lifelong friendships and relationships; many that are still strong even today. While serving here Lisa and I enrolled and graduated from it’s school of ministry and were licensed as ministers. Our bountiful filled time at Family Worship Center Church which in time was changed to Great Joy World Outreach was for the better part of 10 years. While there we held positions as home cell groups leaders and was appointed as the church's first Youth Pastors, and later served as Outreach and Evangelism directors. Lisa even began to cut her teeth in church administration by working in the church office for a season.

 

 In 2000 The Lord began to revisit the call to pastor stronger than ever before, This calling was originally confirmed at a worship service at my home church; the Westside COGIC, through prophecy and the laying on of hands by my then pastor, Elder Harrison Pressley and visiting Elders from Detroit in 1982. When I think back during the years when I was a child the call was just periodic and barely warm to the spirit and I really didn't know what the meaning of those feelings were back then. But by this time the call was boiling within me and it rarely departed my spirit; and after some time of spiritual counsel, fasting and consecration we sensed a release from God to answer the call to plant and pastor The Ambassadors Church which was the fourth pivotal transition.

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On Resurrection Sunday 2002 we held our first service at Edgewood Elementary. This has truly been a step of faith for Lisa and I; but God has been faithful all the way. He has connected us with a great man of God for spiritual oversight in Bishop Lafayette Scales pastor of Rhema Christian Center Columbus Oh and Founder of the Network of Local Churches

 

We would like to personally invite you to visit us on Sunday's @10:30 am. We promise you an experience that will bring you closer to the God we’ve come to know, trust, and serve. So come and join us, as we continue in the work that God began so many years ago.

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Christopher D. Sandford