Mercy Community Church

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Atlanta, GA
Mercy Community Church

Give here: https://givebutter.com/mercychurchatl

Donation information: mercyatl.org/give. Come see us sometime–our doors are open and you are welcome here!

We are a grassroots community of action and worship, located in downtown Atlanta, just off the bustling boulevard that is Ponce de Leon Avenue. Mercy Community Church is a grassroots, ecumenical, open and affirming congregation that meets in the back parking lot and patio of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA. We believe that God desires life, health, dignity, and sanctuary for us all.

Whether you are in housing or not, whether you live in our neighborhood or come from far away, whether you love the church or have ever felt left out, we want to welcome you to come see us anytime as we work to build one another up in beloved community. We are open multiple days of the week for prayer, worship, study, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the sharing of food, clothing, and hospitality. Sun: 9:00am - 1:00pm

Wed: 8:00am - 12:00pm
*Yoga from 12-1:30pm

09/08/2026

Good friends just get better with the years.

It was a joy to welcome Jeremy back to the streets this past Wednesday! (And Sunday, too!)

Pretty sure everybody should make a Mercy/DragonCon twofer trip a part of their annual itinerary!

And it was good to have Nikki back home again, after some much needed time enjoying the ocean depths and all of its tantalizing treasures in South Florida!

Plan a fabulous getaway yourself—or just a intown outing—and experience a little Mercy joy too!

09/03/2026

Sometimes the gospel looks like John 3:16.

God loves all that God has made.

And God acts to save it.

And so God does, surprisingly and scandalously, in the person of a poor man from Galilee.

But sometimes the gospel looks like the invitation to follow that poor man.

Taking up his cross.

Facing the worst of empire and finding life, boldly.

Joyfully.

That’s the truth of Christian community.

That’s what happens when we gather together, whether it’s in a sanctuary or on the street.

We face the worst of empire—and we find life.

Together.

By loving one another.

And serving one another.

By making room for one another.

And sharing with one another.

That’s taking up the cross—and saying yes to the good news that God loves everything God has made.

It’s what we do in the face of the worst of empire.

Because we are in on the secret, you and me:

That empire’s cross has become God’s table.

Where everyone belongs.

And that invitation is good news indeed.

09/01/2026

An overcast morning gave us just enough shade to take the sting out of the heat—though the damp humidity was there aplenty.

But more plentiful by far, was the palpable joy as our community and partners gathered together once again for MercyFest.

We enjoyed laughter and song, sumptuous summer fare, refreshing showers and clean changes of clothing, as well as further care for our minds and bodies through the compassionate offer of herbal medicine.

This is what community is all about, y’all.

We’re so grateful for all our friends and partners and the folks who like to do a little good with their Saturday.

Special thanks to Winfred Sneed and Helping Hands, who make us fresh sandwiches and bring us water each week for our Wednesdays on the streets.

Marvelous cooks all, they fried the fish, served up the coleslaw and fries, dished the hot sauce and tartar sauce, and filled our bellies with homemade cakes and sweets.

And you know we couldn’t do it without, Marie-Lies and the fine folks of Fleur + Forage Fleur + Forage Atl, Pastor Maurice Lattimore and Dennis providing showers Feet on the Street Ministries, and Pastors Marquette and Joy at Edgewood Church, who always extend to us the authentic hospitality of space and welcome.

Thank you, Jonathon Ansah, for bringing out your keyboards and making sweet melodies for us.

Thank you, Virginia Sowell, for your lovely photographs and being part of our ‘Alternative MARTA’ of drivers.

Thank you, Lloyd Dinwiddie, for always kindly lending your vehicle and driving services, too, making sure our community can get back and forth, as we move around our neighborhood and city.

Gracias to one and all!

08/27/2026

“Though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other.” (Romans 12.6)

It takes all of us.

Working together.

Sharing what we have with one another.

And somehow, always, God’s grace is more than enough.

Pastor George Tatro, a good friend of our community, invited a member of his community to come and hang out with us this summer.

That’s how we met Hudson.

On summer break from Rutgers, back home in Atlanta, Hudson took Pastor George’s counsel.

And he showed up.

Out on the streets.

With us.

And he kept showing up, week after week, helping us on Wednesdays.

Serving.

Listening.

Asking questions.

Hanging out with us.

That’s how community comes together, and we discover that we belong to one another.

Learning to love one another, as Paul urges, like ‘members of the same family.’

Thanks for hanging out with us this summer, Hudson.

And blessings on the year ahead.

We’ll be praying for you.

08/26/2026

Sunday, Jerome said, “Does Paul mean we shouldn’t set our minds on getting rich when he tells us not to ‘mind high things?’”

Yes.

That’s exactly what he means.

In fact, the very next sentence exhorts us to ‘associate with people who have no status.’

Just like Jesus, Paul is flipping the script.

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

That’s not a call to class warfare.

It’s a revolution of love that transforms not just us but the world we live in.

Not upward mobility but a Jesus-following ‘downward mobility,’ as Henri Nouwen called it.

Paul invites us to not keep on living ‘conformed to the patterns of this world’—like greed and constant accumulation, prejudice and status-chasing, violence and vengeance.

He exhorts us to renew our minds after the ways of Jesus and to bring another world in view.

Not one where we fight one another, clinging to a rung on a ladder.

But a world where ladders have been broken down and tables built.

Tables where every child of God has a seat.

That’s what a gospel community is all about.

No Big I’s and Little You’s.

But an ‘Us’ where we all belong.

08/20/2026

As a preacher, there really isn’t anything in the world that compares to preaching in our community.

It’s pure joy.

It’s a rich meal that leaves me both deeply satisfied—and hungry for more.

Sunday we read Isaiah: The God who gathers the outcasts of Israel proclaims, ‘There are still others that I will gather who have not yet been gathered.’

Steve said, ‘God’s going to strike out [that word] outcast.’

Daniel commented that American poverty seems luxurious when compared to the deep deprivations suffered by people around the world.

Pastor Sid reminded us that this is because all of us live within powerful systems that transfer wealth, creating a destabilizing imbalance that favors a few at the expense of everybody else.

We noted that our own country is obscenely wealthy, especially when viewed on the world stage.

And yet many of us still bed down on hard concrete every night.

But human suffering isn’t on a sliding scale.

Pain is pain to the one who suffers.

We observed the human tendency, even when suffering, to look around and see if we can find someone else worse off than ourselves.

We may be on the lowest rung of the ladder, but we still find ways to look down on those who can’t even reach the ladder.

Somebody more outcast.

The problem, of course, is the ladder itself.

God prefers tables.

Where everybody can feast and there’s a seat for all.

Praise be to the God who gathers the outcast.

NOTE:
Sorry, y’all: we’re a little light on photos of our Sunday worship this week. The photographer-in-chief also happened to be this week’s preacher! Thanks, Daniel, for letting us use your beautiful photos.

08/18/2026

It’s hot out, y’all.

Jesus said something to us about giving a cup of cold water as an act of hospitality and discipleship.

I’m also reminded that Jesus met the Samaritan woman in the scorching heat of the noon day sun as well, asking her for water to drink.

He got thirsty, too.

But it isn’t just bread and water that satisfy human longing.

A conversation ensued between Jesus and the woman that rocked the world.

There are wells on these streets, too.

Places that draw the thirsty and hungry.

Where water and the kind of good food that satisfies human beings are shared.

Along with loving conversations.

And y’all, the world is still being changed by it.

08/13/2026

Three o’clock in the morning Jesus—and walking on a storm-tossed sea?

Yeah, I would be terrified, too.

And that’s just me and my own handy collection of assorted fears, without the way these fisher-folk thought of the sea to add to the terror.

Of course they figured Jesus had to be a ghost.

For them, the sea was haunted—they were traipsing across a a literal graveyard of drowned seafarers and lost ships.

Plus, this dangerous water was untamed, unchecked chaos, a swath of murky, monstrous depths—as likely to bless you with a catch as to steal your life with a mere change of the wind.

And that’s why their astounded, worshipful acclamation that truly, this Jesus must be the Son of God, sails right past us.

It seems ho-hum to us.

Yeah, of course.

Sure.

We say something about that in our creeds.

But we miss the point because we aren’t quite as afraid today of the mysterious seas and their dangerous chaos.

But do we not still experience untamed, unchecked malevolent chaos in our world?

Have you scrolled the news lately?

In that terrifying moment, they recognized a God far bigger, far more powerful, way more With-Them-And-For-Them than the considerable chaos surrounding them and threatening to overtake them.

As we go out to make peace in the midst of violence,

To open doors where others build walls,

To share a table, full of good things to eat, where greed and avarice hold court,

To care for the sick and the dying and the imprisoned and the suffering,

To stand with the targeted and tortured—

As we go out into such a sea of malevolent chaos, threatening to swallow us and drag us to the depths,

We go out knowing our God walks on water and stops the storm.

Truly, this Jesus, crucified and raised from the dead, can save us and our chaos-threatened world.

This is the With-Us-And-For-Us God we are called to follow.

Even out on the water.

08/11/2026

Loving one another ain’t rocket science, y’all.

Sometimes it’s as simple as just getting together.

Sharing a meal.

Playing some games.

Sitting back and taking it easy.

Listening.

Laughing.

All of these are ways we love.

And experience love in return.

For churches, it can be as simple as just opening our doors.

We’re so grateful for our friends, First Christian Church Decatur (First Christian Decatur GA ), for opening their doors to us a few weeks back for a joyful summer evening cookout!

08/10/2026

I had a great time joining in worship and preaching for our friends and partners at Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church two Sundays ago.

Here’s a rough paraphrase of the conclusion of my message about Jesus’ feeding the hungry crowds, re-written for all of us:

I’m not here to tell you to do more.
I’m not here to make you feel guilty.

No, I’m here to stand beneath this word
of compassion and abundance with you.

There’s no guilt.

But there is a charge to keep in this good news:

Jesus says, ‘You do something.’

‘You give the hungry multitudes something to eat.’

Don’t send the hungry away.
Don’t send the sick away.
Don’t send the harassed and powerless
and suffering in our community away.

Don’t turn them back
to the false promises of a failing empire.
For all empires, then and now,
live in scarcity,
live in fear,
live by an economy
where food and shelter
and care for when we are sick
can only be had if we have
money enough to pay for it.

No, Jesus, says to us and to them:
Don’t send them back to empire.

You do something.

But Jesus, we say, we don’t have enough.

We only have five loaves and two fish.
What is that before such a multitude?

What is one sanctuary before so much homelessness?
What is one meal before so much hunger?
What is so little before so much need?

But the beauty of this charge
is the grace of it.
And the grace of it
is that Jesus says,
‘Bring what you have to me.’

Whatever we have—
even though it isn’t enough by any measure—
we bring it to Jesus.

And there will be more than enough.
There will be plenty.
There will be baskets-full left over.

Human beings can be satisfied.

Now, that’s a different political order.
That’s not empire.
That’s God’s kingdom.
That’s a new way of doing things.
A new way of being human.
A way of compassion.
A way of sharing.
A way of abundance.

And it springs up even in the wilderness.

Because we take what we have and we bring it to Jesus.

That’s our charge.
And that’s the grace of God that saves us.

Address

1410 Ponce De Leon Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA
30307

Opening Hours

8am - 10am

Website

http://mercyatl.org/

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