Cedar Rapids native takes over as pastor at Amazing Grace Church in Charles City

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Samuel Rambo has a message for Charles City and surrounding communities.

If you’re broken, you can be fixed. If you’re down, you’re not out.

Rambo, the newly hired 23-year-old pastor at Amazing Grace Church in Charles City, is eager to welcome into his church anyone who may be struggling in life or enduring hard times.

His congregation will welcome them with open arms, he said.

“Every church wants to do something in their community. For us, we really want to reach the people that feel far away from God – the people that would feel ashamed to come to a church. We don’t want anyone to feel far away,” said Rambo. “We want to reach the broken-hearted. We’re really trying to reach the unreached, I guess.”

Amazing Grace Church has rebounded after undergoing some setbacks of its own after financial problems forced the congregation to move to a new location, at 2670 195th St.

The congregation currently worships in a building just off of Gilbert Street and right next to the old locale where worship services were held when the church was called New Life Church. Mills Inc. purchased the church’s former home and runs its home improvement business there.

Rambo, a Cedar Rapids native, took over as full-time pastor at Amazing Grace this past October. He said his small congregation of around 30 members didn’t have a full-time pastor for two years.

The church’s new building had been vacant for over 15 years, but received extensive remodeling and refurbishing in recent months. A new roof was put on in 2018 and Rambo helped finish putting up siding on the exterior.

“It is a really exciting time. Our church kind of went through some tough stuff with our last pastor. Just some different situations happen, some tough stuff that our congregation had to go through,” said Rambo. “Part of the excitement is just that God hasn’t forgotten about us.”

A short candlelight service will be held at Amazing Grace on Christmas Eve tonight at 6:30. Rambo will have a short message on why Christmas is celebrated on Dec. 25. Kids also will read some Scripture verses and there will be games available to play during the evening. Christmas carols will be sung and there will be plenty of hot cocoa on hand to warm the body and the spirit.

Rambo said there’s no pressure to attend his church, which holds a worship service every Sunday at 10 a.m.

“We’re trying to make it very homey and very low key. We’re not super professional at Amazing Grace — just because we don’t want people to feel like they have to fake something when they come,” he said.

Rambo is a 2015 Cedar Rapids Washington High School graduate and graduated this year from seminary school at Trinity Bible College, located in Ellendale, North Dakota. He said ever since he was a kid he wanted to be a pastor — part of a personal mission to give God glory and help people out.

“For our worship, what we want is for people to come in and feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves,” he said. “We want people to walk in with whatever their circumstances are or whatever their walk of life is and feel like they’re a part of something.”

Rambo said church services at Amazing Grace have a “family feel.” He said he preached about God’s unconventional love for everyone last week. His sermons have focused on topical issues but in the future he would like to preach more out of specific passages of the Bible.

“I don’t want to do anything outside of God’s word,” he said.

Rambo said that, being fresh out of school, it was a challenge to find his first job as head pastor.

“Not a lot of churches would take a look at me. A couple churches turned me down for different positions. For this church to take a chance on me was just a brilliant opportunity,” he said.

“The church really wanted somebody to come in and feel like they were a part – just make the congregation come alive. I really feel like that’s been happening,” said Rambo.

“When I came in it felt like a big breath of fresh air for everybody,” he said. “We’re trying to keep a hold of that. We’re still moving. We’re not losing our ground, we’re gaining ground in our church and our community.”

Rambo said the church used to be called Maple Heights Assembly of God and prior to that if was known as First Assembly of Charles City. Rambo said Tony Slinger’s grandfather founded the church more than 50 years ago. Slinger is a chiropractor who practices in Charles City.

For now, Rambo said, the current place of worship for Amazing Grace is a perfect fit. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like to see his church grow.

“For me personally, I’d like to see our church get really big,” he said. “God has given you a specific flock to pastor. Not losing sight of that but at the same time wanting more people to come into your church.”

Rambo, who is single, traveled to Charles City before taking the job at Amazing Grace to check out the town.

“I drove up here on my own initiative and I toured the town a little bit. My first impression was the river,” said Rambo. “It’s just a beautiful river. What I could see is Charles City really cared about their city. I just really felt like this was a place I could call home.”