The history of Mercy Church dates back to January 5, 1958, and the first service of a new church plant in Sioux Falls–Good Shepherd Mennonite Church. Although the congregation changed its name to Good Shepherd Community Church in March of 2002, it remained a member church of the Mennonite Church USA (previously the General Conference Mennonite Church). Then in January, 2008, fifty years after its inception, Good Shepherd and a recent church plant of The Christian and Missionary Alliance–Mercy Church, merged. The two congregations, which had been sharing Good Shepherd’s facility, determined to become a conjoined church retaining membership in both of their parent denominations, and took the name, Mercy Church. This arrangement continued until June, 2017, when the church voted to retain membership solely with The Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Although no longer an official Mennonite church, the congregation of Mercy honors its Anabaptist legacy and continues to cherish and welcome the Anabaptist emphases of peace, reconciliation and justice, and the necessity of attesting one’s faith in Christ with public confession and a life of “acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Above all, Mercy Church gratefully celebrates its heritage, received through both its Anabaptist and C&MA roots, of exalting the centrality and primacy of Jesus Christ, as the message of the Scriptures and the essence and totality of the Christian life: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen!” (Romans 11:36)
