Dustin Guthrie didn’t ever think he’d be a preacher, let alone run a church by himself as senior pastor.

Since 2007, he had settled in at Radiant Church’s central location in Colorado Springs as worship pastor, playing guitar and guiding the faithful in singing their hearts out in praise.

But God had other plans, and now Guthrie is saying “yes” to a new spiritual challenge.

“I had confirmation after confirmation that God was leading this in every way,” he said.

The church he’d led since 2018, Radiant Church Woodland Park, a satellite campus of the mother ship in Colorado Springs, left the nest nearly two years ago and became Radiant Woodland Park.

At the Sept. 13 service, the church will rebrand as Rampart Assembly, an independent congregation but still affiliated with World Assemblies of God Fellowship, the world’s largest Pentecostal Christian denomination.

Unexpected circumstances led to the change.

Radiant Church Woodland Park began in 2013, when initial organizers absorbed another congregation, Peak Life, into its fold, according to Todd Hudnall, lead pastor over the two campuses of Radiant Church in Colorado Springs.

The fledgling group initially met in a renovated building by the high school but quickly outgrew that space, he said.

The congregation then purchased a building across from the town park on Henrietta Avenue.

That location had housed the first church in Woodland Park, Guthrie said, originally a Methodist denomination. But the space only accommodated 80 people and Radiant congregation needed room to grow.

In 2023, it relocated to “church row,” as locals call the series of churches on Rampart Range Road.

Radiant bought the building at 1061 Rampart Range Road from Dayspring Christian Fellowship, a nondenominational church that closed permanently.

“While the Woodland Park campus had become increasingly autonomous, it remained under the oversight and financial support of Radiant Church in Colorado Springs,” Hudnall said.

A year later, Guthrie’s congregation found itself facing another potential move or even closure.

In 2024, Radiant Church added 28,000 square feet in a two-story expansion to its northeast site at 8630 Scarborough Drive in Colorado Springs. The old building became a children’s ministry center.

A lobby with a welcome center and cafe connects the new and existing buildings, and the sanctuary now seats 550 people with expansion possible to 900, according to Building God’s Way, a Utah company that handled the project.

The construction was done in January 2025, but not before unforeseen issues drove expenses higher, Guthrie said and Radiant needed more funding to finish the job.

“They were just three months out from completing the building,” he said.

To offset the increased renovation costs, church leaders in Colorado Springs decided to sell the Woodland Park building.

Guthrie was dismayed.

“I had developed a heart for this community,” he said. “I asked Pastor Todd (Hudnall) if we could secure a loan and buy the building. He said that’d be great.”

Guthrie and Hudnall discussed the idea in September 2024, and in October of that year, the Woodland Park congregation voted to buy the property.

A lender provided the exact amount needed, Guthrie said, which he interpreted as further proof that God was at work behind the scenes.

Radiant Church sold the property to the existing congregation for less than half the property’s appraised value, Hudnall noted.

“The arrangement allowed the Woodland Park church to become fully independent while providing resources that helped Radiant expand its ministry in Colorado Springs,” Hudnall said.

The transaction included all the furniture and equipment.

“Just seeing God’s heart and hand has allowed us to focus on God’s community,” Guthrie said. “We’re trying to be a historically based church that focuses on the truth and the reality of the power of the Holy Spirit and all God is calling us to do.”

Four months ago, the personable Guthrie — who’s admittedly more comfortable in front of his congregation in jeans and a flannel shirt than a dressy outfit — started a sermon series titled “On the Rampart.”

The word refers to not only the mountainous Rampart Range, where his church lies in the foothills, but also its new Rampart Assembly name.

“Rampart” appears in several passages in the Bible to describe physical defensive city walls and as a metaphor for God’s protection.

“A rampart is a fortified structure, a fortress, a place of safety where people can come, a reason for preparing the way for what God wants to do,” Guthrie said in a recent sermon. “As we step into our new identity, what kind of church is he asking us to be and what is he asking us to do as a church?”

Member Galen Armstrong said Guthrie is the reason her family came to the church and stayed.

“He’s down-to-earth and level-headed and that translates to his sermons,” she said. “Everything is well thought-out, he spends time in prayer, and his messages are applicable to what we’re going through. You can really see Dustin’s heart.”

Guthrie said he’s worked hard to build a safe place where people can find community, healing and God’s grace in their lives.

Hudnall said Guthrie has “always been an exceptional leader” who “continues to grow and flourish in his leadership” to fulfill the new Woodland Park church’s “calling to impact its community for Christ.”

When Guthrie took the job in Woodland Park eight years ago, the weekly Sunday sermon was delivered via video from Radiant Church in Colorado Springs.

But you know small towns, Guthrie said. People wanted live preaching.

“I don’t like watching a video of a pastor on the screen,” churchgoers told him.

In September 2024, he began leading the Sunday services in front of the congregation.

“I wasn’t super comfortable with preaching and teaching — I didn’t see that as a career path — but if that was what made other people comfortable, I was willing to do that,” Guthrie said.

It’s gone better than he expected, which he attributes to God and the Holy Spirit.

“I stepped out in faith. He helps us do things we can’t do.”

Since then, weekly attendance has doubled to 150 to 200 adults and children.

“God has showed us we do have a place here,” Guthrie said. “We have a niche and a need we are fulfilling.”

Now that he and his family are rooted in the mountain community and his leadership role, Guthrie said he can feel excitement rolling through congregants as he prepares them for the possibility of what God might do.

“We’re the same church, but we’re coming into our own name and identity.”