You’re celebrating your 15th anniversary as pastor. Does it seem that long? I can’t believe it. It went by like it was yesterday. Sometimes I’m asked what intrigues me most, and it’s changing and impacting lives. It’s like watching a baby grow and watching young people take that rightful place. At the church, we have the Ernest Raleigh Fund. He worked at Fort Benning, and we played pinochle together. I was the Command Chaplain at Fort Benning and before I got out of the military, he asked me: Have you thought about becoming a civilian pastor? He died last year. We started a fund to help kids go to college their first year.
How long were you in the service? I was a chaplain in the U.S. Army for 23 1/2 years, and retired at Fort Benning. I finished the Basic Chaplains Course, Advanced, Command, General Staff College and the War College. I’m not the smartest guy, but it was a blessing to be selected for those schools. I love Columbus, and I think Columbus loves me. I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world.
How did Faith Tabernacle come to be? Ernest Raleigh planted a seed but he didn’t know it. It was a thought that became a concept that became an idea. I asked Pat Hunter, a Realtor: Do people rent churches? She said she showed six churches that week but there was one nobody wanted. It’s on Mallory Road. It was this quaint, small church. We started there with 35 people.
How did you decide it’d be non-denominational? Here at Faith we have persons who can practice their faith in a non-threatening environment. For example, with communion we use real wine as well as grape juice. In Jamaica, I belonged to the Church of England, and then in the U.S., I was in the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church. … The community — specifically CB&T — put me in this building (on Floyd Road). They saw something in me that perhaps I didn’t. The church has enhanced this community. This had been another church. I wondered if it could be sold. One day I came to talk to the pastor. He and I knew each other. I came in and we began talking and he started to cry. He said, “There’s no way you could have known we just voted to sell the church.” God reduced the price. When we went for the closing, Chris Meacham, the attorney, volunteered to give his fee to the church.
How many members are there? On a good Sunday, we’ll have about 230 people. On the fourth Sunday, you can’t get a seat. It’s Youth Sunday. Our dance team alone has 30 people. On the fourth Sunday, I get a little bit crazy. I’ll pick a movie like “Facing the Giants” or “Blindside” and use clips and challenge the people.
When did you come to the U.S.? In the ’60s. I went from Jamaica to England when they opened their gates to persons from the Commonwealth countries. I left home at 17 and I told my mom I’d never come home in the same way I was leaving. None of my family members had an education, so I went on to school. In Jamaica I attended West Indies College, a Seventh-day Adventist school. After England, I came to this country and attended Azusa University in California. Then I went to ITC (Interdenominational Theological Center) in Atlanta, and went to Phillips, the CME school. I took classes at Emory, too. I joined the Army in 1971.
So you’ve lived all over the world. I moved continuously. Wherever the soldiers are, you are. That soldier knows he has a friend. They love to see it when the chaplain comes around, especially in combat zones.
Talk about the celebration. It’s not about me and my work. It’s about God and the changes He’s allowed in the lives of so many. He continues to change and mold people. There’s a day coming when we’ll all have to stand and give an account. God will ask someone how they got to heaven and they’ll say, “Because of Pastor Plummer.” So I’m grateful to God.
Pastor Plummer’s anniversary celebration is 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday. Speakers are the Rev. Percy Roberson Sr., and Apostle Timothy R. Cole Sr. The New Life Gospel Singers will perform at 3 p.m.
