Ministry Description

Merch has been working with the Dios con Nosotros (God With Us) Baptist Convention in Baja California, Mexico since 2002. Her ministry in Baja includes leadership development for new church planting, teaching at the Seminary, and work with short-term mission groups from the United States. Her ministry area includes Mexicali, Tecate, Ensenada, San Luis and Tijuana.

New church planting can mean many things. For Merch, it has meant leaving the old wineskins and discovering new ones. It has taken her down the road of dialogue about the value of tradition and innovation. She has learned to frame the terminology of new church planting with phrases such as cooperating churches, sponsoring churches, partner churches to help reshape the traditional structure, and reflect a more relational approach when it comes to new church planting.

These ministries vary from a group meeting under a tree to a house church meeting in an urban neighborhood, to a traditional church plant meeting in the mountains. The planters also range from idealistic new couples to seasoned leaders post retirement. Most of them target children, but many are also targeting broken families in need of healing, and single parents and families dealing with unemployment and poverty. All of these church plants have the goal of transforming their communities with the power of the gospel.

Mercy also encourages different types of outreach, like a breakfast program for transients and homeless people in one of the city squares, to breakfast for people who are taking care of family members at a local hospital.

Mercy is part of the faculty of the Dios con Nosotros Seminary, located in Mexicali, and associated with the Dios con Nosotros Convention. We teach courses on church planting, church history and ecclesiology (from a Latin American perspective) as well as pastoral ministry and discipleship. As intentional bridges between Baptist churches in the U.S. and the Baptists of Baja California, she also helps shepherd short-term mission teams and facilitate continuing-education for church leaders, adapting materials where appropriate.

About Our Family

Mercy is part of the faculty of the Dios con Nosotros Seminary, located in Mexicali, and associated with the Dios con Nosotros Convention. She teaches courses on church planting, Church History, and Ecclesiology (from a Latin American perspective), as well as pastoral ministry and discipleship. As intentional bridges between American Baptist churches in the U.S. and the Baptists of Baja California, they also help shepherd short-term mission teams and facilitate continuing education for church leaders, adapting materials where appropriate.

She balances their ministry duties with family duties. They volunteer at school, and parent their children to the best of their ability. She lives with husband Rick in El Centro, California, 12 miles north of the border, and her children are Aida, Rich, and Joshua.