Foreclosed Pastor Sues His Previous Church for Break of Promise and Vanishing Dollars

Rev Henry J. Scott was previously the pastor for Mount Galilee Missionary Baptist Church on Joyce Avenue in Columbus, Ohio left the church with a modest sum of 19,000. But his successor, Rev. Marcus L. Martin, has since saddled the church with a loan of about $750,000. Rev. Martin and his colleagues became very involved in big business and unfortunately it led the church to go into debt.

Rev. Martin has a dubious past as a regards financier. Meanwhile the church failed to keep its promise by paying $1,100 per month to Scott as retirement benefits. Scott noticed this because he was missing $17, 958 in his bank account leading Scott to face foreclosure on his house. He has since moved to an apartment with his wife, works as night guard to make a living, and has initiated legal proceedings.

The new church was built alongside the previously modest-sized church. The extension was opened with much fanfare in September 2007. Within a few months, the contractors sued the church for unpaid dues because it was in so much debt. Martin then took loans from Huntington and used the money to clear previous dues from Park National. Martin was the only one who signed the papers.

Martin and other leaders of the church have not made any comments on the foreclosure action being initiated by the bank. The church has been renamed New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church. The attorney of the church, Jeffrey Sams, also did not comment.

The spokesperson of Huntington Bank, Jeri Grier, said that the foreclosure action initiated against the church is pending. Martin’s lawyer (not of the church) Byron Potts said that the loan matter had been resolved, but he was not aware of the details.

Some anonymous church members said that they did not know Martin had taken out a loan of over $700,000 or that the church was facing foreclosure. One of them was surprised that Martin was the sole signatory of these loans from Huntington. Another church member commented that secrecy has always been the rule for church accounts.

Anthony Edwards, another member, joined the church three months ago and his mother had been coming here for twenty years. He praised Martin for transforming the church into something beautiful. He remarked that Martin had a special way in dealing with the elderly and the little ones.