6 | April 2026
Columbus Legacy Church Begins New Life Through Replanting
By Stephanie Heading, managing editor
God is bringing new life to dying churches in Ohio, and he is using church replanting to do it. On Sunday, March 15, an Ohio legacy church celebrated its launch into a fresh season of ministry as a church replant. Southside Baptist Church, Columbus, was founded 72 years ago. The church, on South High Street not far from downtown, became a mainstay in its community. Over time, as families left Columbus for the suburbs, Southside’s community changed, becoming more multi-cultural. As the church struggled to transition to a new ministry context, it spiraled into decline. With fewer than a dozen remaining members, Southside was on the verge of closing. As hope dimmed for its survival, Summit Baptist Church, Pataskala, and its pastor, Mark Glenn, reached out, of- fering to foster the ailing church. “Our small church loves to foster dying and declining churches and help bring them back to health,” Glenn said. “We spend about a year with these churches as we love on them, serve them, supply their pulpit, and even- tually, help find them a new pastor.” Southside accepted Summit’s offer, and the search be - gan for a sending church for the replant. In January 2025, Glenn approached Maranatha Community Church, Pick- erington. “Last January, Mark reached out to us. He said he want- ed a like-minded church in the SBC that plants churches or revitalizes churches. We have a track record of that,” said Justin Bubar, one of the elders at Maranatha Pick- erington. However, Maranatha already had plans to plant a church in another location, so the timing wasn’t right. “We actually said ‘no,’ originally,” he said. A few months later, a group from Maranatha, including Justin, attended a conference where they heard a mes- sage about ministry in hard-to-reach places. The pastor said, “If you are doing compassion ministry in hard areas, and you do not have a church, just stop. Stop and reassess, and then look at how you can plant in those areas. If your goal is not just meeting the physical needs of people, and they get saved, well, then where do they go? You’re 25 minutes away in the suburbs.” The message hit a nerve. “We were like, ‘Lord, you’re knocking on our door again. It looks like you’re gonna kick it down. So we’re just gon- na say yes to this,’” Justin recalled.
Maranatha became Southside’s sending church, and they needed to find a replanter. “It was going to have to be from within our eldership col- lective, and none of us were jumping at it, not even me at the time,” Justin noted. “I worked full-time in roofing. I’m just grinding, trying to work hard to pay our bills.” The elder collective and their wives prayed, asking the Lord to raise up the man to lead the Southside replant. During the season of prayer, Justin and his wife Jenna prayed, but didn’t talk about Southside. Finally, Justin broached the subject with Jenna. “Are you thinking about Southside?” he asked. “And she said, ‘Yes, Justin, are you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am.’” It was time to share with the elder collective. “They were all very excited – affirming and confirming,” he remembered. “They said, ‘Justin, if anyone was going to do this, we wanted it to be you. We just didn’t want to pressure you. We wanted this to be from the Lord.’” The elders also loved Justin and Jenna’s hearts for the nations. “My wife and I have an extensive global missions back- ground, so this is in my wheelhouse,” Justin said. This (Southside) is a hard area. It’s not the suburbs.” In October 2025, Justin committed to replanting South- side, which is now Maranatha Community Church Southside. “Now we’re walking into this sort of exciting, yet scary Pastor Justin Bubar preaches his first sermon at Maranatha Community Church Southside, a replant of Southside Baptist Church, Columbus.
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