Scott Mallory, Building a Lifelong Legacy in Ministry

Scott Mallory comes from a strong Christian family. Scott and his family have a life long legacy and commitment to serving and supporting Christian ministries. 

In 2012, Scott Mallory felt a burden from the Lord to impact the city of Columbus for Christ. After prayerful consideration and research, Mallory gathered like-minded leaders with the common shared interest of building a Gospel Movement in Columbus, OH. Scott has been the steady force behind organizing “Concerts of Prayer,” “One Night” of worship events, and “Leaders’ Summits” to unify the Body of Christ and bring reconciliation. Through these events, hundreds of churches and thousands of Christians have linked arms to intercede and serve in our city. Relationships have been formed and partnerships built that serve the city with practical ministry. This has been accomplished through the organizations Pray for Columbus and Catalyst for Columbus, now known as For Columbus. 

Scott  is the founder of Highland Real Estate Group. After graduating from the United States Military Academy, Scott served in the Army as a Field Artillery Officer.  Highland is a commercial and residential real estate firm with interests in development, brokerage, construction management, and advisory services.  Scott holds a BS from the United States Military Academy and an MBA from Indiana University. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Be a baller. Welcome to Be A Baller podcast, where we will discuss how to build a lifelong legacy. I'm your host, Coach Tim Brown. Today, we'll be talking about building a legacy in ministry with our special guest, Pray For Columbus co-founder, Scott Mallory. Before we get started, let's hear a word from our sponsor.

SPEAKER_01: 0:27

The courage to fight and the faith to believe. We're strong in numbers, moving with a purpose. We're not just a number, we're In The Number, the brand that counts. Visit us at InTheNumber.com. Let's

SPEAKER_03: 0:40

get started. Today on our show, we're excited to have Scott Mallory, who is a successful businessman in Columbus and a leader in ministry. He has a true heart for building the kingdom of God through prayer for Columbus. Pray for Columbus is a citywide network of intercessors, pastors, prayer groups, businesses, communities, seniors, Bible study groups, students, parents, and many others. All comprise their diverse network of Christian followers across St. Ohio. Today, Scott is going to share how Pray for Columbus has allowed him to build a legacy in ministry through a lifetime of supporting and bringing together local ministries. Scott, welcome to Be a Baller podcast. Thanks, Coach Brown. It's an honor and a blessing to be here. Yeah, I know you're a strong man of faith. Could you talk about how your faith foundation growing up? Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 1:32

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home. My parents came to Christ early in my life and just really blessed to have a praying mom. I think having a home that's just grounded in faith, but a house that's grounded by a praying mom was a tremendous blessing. And my parents embraced their faith. They were open about their faith. They lived their faith. And I think that was just a really a powerful testimony for my brothers and I.

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We know in today's world how hard it is raising young men. And you and your wife have been blessed to have three godly young men. Can you talk about that, how you're able to raise three godly young men? Well, I think first thing,

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give credit to their mother because she was the faithful steward. I think when my oldest son was born, a mentor of mine pulled me aside and said, the greatest gift that you can give your children is to love their mother and to honor her. And I've tried to take that and embrace that through our lives. And as I looked also at the faithful witness of my parents as well, Christine and I have tried to be very open and transparent with our faith as the boys were growing up. We had a lot of open dialogue. We talked about our faith struggles. We talked about the highs. We talked about the lows. But we tried to make our faith real, not something that was a Sunday morning expression but a day-to-day walking with the Lord. And that, I think, really helped us develop a relationship with our boys. And even now, we can continue to talk about where they are in their faith and where we are as we're learning and growing and pursuing a life of faith together. That's

SPEAKER_03: 3:28

a great answer, because as we know, it's a process. It's a process. This faith walk is a process. The Bible says, train up a child in the way they should go. When they're old, they won't depart And that word says train. You know, it says specifically to train, to teach them and whatnot, to guide them and direct them when they're old, they won't depart. And it's awesome to see on the back end, you know, to kind of see them continue to grow in their walk with the Lord. You know, in person, think about the Mallory name. You know, think about your uncle, the cousins being football coaches and your uncle being a great coach at IU. And then your dad being an inventor in the medicine field. Can you talk about that name? Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 4:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 4:08

You know, I've been very blessed in many ways. My grandparents, so these would be my uncle and my dad's parents, raised their children in Hillsborough, Ohio. They were both teachers up from the river. But they poured into all three of the boys, both my uncles and my dad, and really gave them a great baseline. I don't know that faith was, they were certainly faith engaged but I don't know that they fully embraced their faith until later in life and when I came along but they gave my father and his brothers some just great foundational life lessons the value of good and honest hard work of being honorable being a person of integrity and character that your word means something and to follow through is important honoring your family Those things that just came forward with my father and my brother or his brothers as we were growing up, they just lived that witness very, very powerfully. And then as my father came to faith later, building on that foundation of his parents and then living that out, I think one of the things that my father took from his parents was a heart of service as his parents were teachers. And he gave that to my brothers and I as well as really thinking deeply about what it means to be a good neighbor to community around us. When you hear the word legacy, what comes to mind? Wow. I think legacy is something that we build over a lifetime. It's not a moment. It's a journey. Certainly, there's moments of legacy that we can look back and say, well, he or she did these things and this is the fruit of that. But I think it's just the day-to-day process of living. Living first for the glory of God and then trying to be faithful in the calling that He's put on our lives. And of course, we don't do that perfectly, but we do that in such a way that we're given our best.

SPEAKER_03: 6:29

That's great. Speaking of legacy, you're co-founder of the ministry Pray for Columbus. What was the vision behind it?

SPEAKER_02: 6:36

That's a great question. Now that has actually been rebranded into for columbus we started um probably about a little over 10 years ago and started thinking about our city we didn't really know um have a good word for but we felt like god was calling us to start to pray for our city i guess back then there were words like revival and what you know what did that mean it was kind of a inviting the holy spirit for transformation the city um and so a small group of us came together and started every week praying for the city praying that uh um that there would be revival and as we started to do that it was interesting god started to open up doors eventually we found ourselves in new york city um pursuing um kind of this uh this sent this sense of revival and we had an opportunity to sit down with tim keller and some of the leaders there and we asked them the same question you know what moves the city what moves the people and the constant answer the consistent answer was prayer. And so they told us about a man named Jonathan Edwards. And Jonathan Edwards, about 200 years ago, started this idea of Conscious of Prayer. And that became the foundation of Pray for Columbus. We brought that back. And ultimately, that led us to several meaningful prayer events early on. And that eventually brought to a in our city. There's a lot of great things that are happening in Columbus, but Columbus is also a leader in things like human trafficking. Obviously, the challenges of racial injustice, the challenges of homelessness and addiction and other things that are really hitting our streets very hard right now. And communities at large have invested through policy and other things in Trying to move the needle, but it's still a big gap. And we started then thinking about what's the role for the church in this? All these things are too big for any one church to engage. But if churches come together and engage together and really walk the gospel out together, then that's a powerful witness to the community at large. But it also helps address a lot of these issues. And so that just began the initial foundation for the minute. And

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it's grown from there.

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intentional prayer, an intentional connection with the Father through His Son, the Holy Spirit, and being routine in that and developing that pattern in life. And I think it's like anything, routines develop habits, and those habits can be a positive for sometimes, but they can also be a positive as well, not just a negative. And so prayer, I think, is like that. So intentional prayer for me me is saying, am I going to just take a little bit of time every day to step into this conversation with God and pray very specifically about what God's pressed on my heart?

SPEAKER_01: 10:19

The courage to fight and the faith to believe. We're strong in numbers, moving with a purpose. We're not just a number, we're In The Number, the brand that counts. Visit us at InTheNumber.com.

SPEAKER_03: 10:32

Could you talk to the audience about how Pray for Columbus has been successful in bringing together Pat pastors, parachurch ministries, Bible study groups, business community, others together to impact the community through prayer.

SPEAKER_02: 10:44

Yeah. You know, that's interesting because in many ways it's easy. That was a pretty easy ask. I mean, really? Because when we would sit down with pastors and sit down with leaders and nonprofit ministries or businesses and say, you know, would you pray with me? Would you have time to to do that, people gravitated to that. I think there was a real desire for community and particularly after we came out of COVID, desire to kind of reconnect. But the thing about prayer is it's almost like a, it's low hanging fruit. You know, there's not, it's an easy ask in the sense, but when you pray with somebody, you start to develop a relationship. And I think that probably was really the fruit of those prayers. When those churches and churches started to come together, to pray. It wasn't just about that moment of prayer. It was about that time together. And that started to really open up a lot of dialogue and a lot of relationships. And that continues today. I

SPEAKER_03: 11:51

think you've done a great job with Pray for Columbus and building those bridges. You know, bringing people together and understanding we're more powerful when we are together than we are apart and bringing those together. You have a good buddy of mine, Gerald Murphy. Young Gerald Murphy. I grew up with with Pastor Murphy, with Gerald, and I'm so excited about the things he's doing. Can you talk about some of the things that he's doing with the home churches?

SPEAKER_02: 12:15

Absolutely, yeah. Pastor Murphy, Gerald Murphy is just, we've been blessed to have him in our city, his leadership, and be a part of that. Been very fortunate for his leadership in Pray for Columbus as well. A couple years ago, Gerald planted a church, Garden City, on the West Side, and God has just been so faithful in that process. It was interesting because that happened right in the middle of COVID, and you think, wow, that's about the hardest time. Good, but Gerald stepped out in faith and stepped into that opportunity, and he connected with a lot of the leaders on the West Side. About that time, Columbus Public Schools systems went remote, and He and a number of the pastors came together and formed a learning extension center there. And the beautiful thing about that is that has evolved. And when the kids went back to school, Pastor Murphy and other pastors there said, we want to continue. And the students and the families were saying, we want that as well. Well, I'm pleased to say that today, actually, that's a partnership with Tree of Life. And Tree of Life has planted, in fact, with the help of Troy McIntosh, former superintendent here, and principal here has planted a Westside Christian school as a result of that.

SPEAKER_03: 13:48

So as we think about this, what would you want your legacy to be? Because I'm hearing a lot of things that you have started, been involved in. What would you want your legacy to be? What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02: 14:00

Well, that's a great question. I remember a few years ago reading about Billy Graham. And as he was finishing up, somebody asked him, if you could put one word on your tombstone, what would it be? And he said, preacher. In fact, I think that's on his tombstone now. And I started thinking about, you know, what would it look like for you, Scott? If there was one word, what would that word be for you? And I've been thinking about that. And I think I'm coming to the term of a builder. What does it mean to be a builder? And for me, in my heart, And I think, Coach Brown, you're the same way. You've got a heart to build young men and to build men. I have a heart to build community. And we both want that to be a gospel-centered building up and to lean into that. And I think as I think forward, I'm hoping that that word builder will be part of the legacy that I leave

SPEAKER_03: 15:01

behind. That's great. That's great. As we wrap up, can you issue a challenge to the audience on how to be intentional in building that legacy because a lot of things you've done have not just been haphazard, they've been intentional. You know, seeing a need and intentionally tackling that need or addressing that need through prayer. Can you talk to the audience about how to be, it's your challenge to the

SPEAKER_02: 15:24

community. Yeah. You know, I think one of the things that I think about as a young man or when I was a young man, I always had this sense of urgency. It was always about go and do and try to get to next. And when I was doing that, I missed a lot of things. And as I've grown older, I think I've come to realize that life is cumulative. It's about the moments. Don't miss the moments. Be present in the moments. I was in such a hurry. I missed a lot of moments. And so I guess my challenge to particularly young people would be be present in the moments. They're precious. You just have those. But if you collect them, you will build a legacy over time.

SPEAKER_03: 16:03

Wow. That's great. Be present in the moment. Be present in the moment. Don't miss it. Don't miss And that's not just in life, but with your family, with your children. Just be pressed because you're building that legacy. And that's where it starts at home. Well, Scott, this has been great. As we begin to come to the end of this episode, I want to thank my friend Scott Mallory. I pray for Columbus for joining us during this engaging discussion on building a lifelong legacy in ministry. We hope today's podcast is beneficial to you as you build your lifelong legacy. As always, thanks for listening to Be A Baller.

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If you enjoy our show, please share this podcast with your family and friends. Be A Baller podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown. It was edited by Teron Howell and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.