Since 1999, MERCYhouse has blossomed not only into a church but a network of churches whose goal it is to encourage the planting of 50 churches in the Pioneer Valley by the year 2020.  See our 2020 website for more details - www.2020network.org

2020 Vision Campaign

MERCYhouse is a sending church.  On average, 30 plus students graduate and are sent out all over the world every year.  There continues to be a growing network of MH alumni who have faithfully walked beside MERCYhouse with prayer and financial support and it continues to be an essential part of how MERCYhouse continues to operate.  For this we are grateful. 

As MERCYhouse looks toward the future, we are dreaming of further expansion of collegiate ministry at the Five Colleges and of church planting in the Pioneer Valley.  In regards to campus ministry, we hope to have staff and interns on the ground at each of these campuses.  This year we are prototyping an intern program with 2 interns who will be ministering to students at Amherst College and Hampshire College.  Our hope is that a more on-campus presence in partnership with campus ministries who are already there will further expand the influence of the gospel in the lives of collegiates.  

In concert with this vision to expand student ministry, we also hope to expand church planting.  MH has so far been able to plant 3 other churches in our area and our goal to to be a catalyst for a total of 50 church plants by 2020.  Our valley is one of the most unchurched locales in one of the most unchurched regions (New England) in the country.  By our estimates, about 1-2 percent of the population in our valley attend a gospel centered, bible teaching church.  We believe that church planting is the primary catalyst through which God will reach and make disciples of the students and others who live here. 

So what's all this going to require?  A tremendous amount of praying, going, and giving.  Planting new ministries and churches in a place that has long since rejected the good news of Christ, has not been easy and we don't expect it to become so.  We do think that our church and it's plants have been called by God to spearhead a movement that will be used of God to change the hearts and lives of many.  We think part of the reason for this is that a church that is made up of students and other young adults has been given the energy, vision and creativity that it will take to reestablish a foothold for the gospel in this region - and the exciting thing is that this is already happening.   

Raising Funds

One of our greatest challenges remains finances.  Being a young church that continues to be about 2/3 collegiates, the offering plate is only part of how we resource our ministry.  Last year we spent about $350,000  and $140,000 of that came from Sunday offerings.  This was actually up from previous years by about $40,000.  As you can see, alumni and other outside donors are a very important part of how the "miracle of MERCYhouse" has continued through the past 12 years.  

Recently, a group of MH alums from different years and different colleges came together with the hopes of encouraging even more alumni to participate financially in the ministry of MERCYhouse.  Their hope is to help accelerate both student ministry and church planting by raising $500,000 over the next 4 years which amounts to about $10,000 per month.  The money would be used in the following ways:

1.  50% for planting churches (seed money for new planters, recruitment of new planters, development of a church planting center)

2.  25% for student ministry staff (funding staff and internship program)

3.  25% for updates on current facility (more usable for student ministry and as  a church planting center)

Getting Involved

We know that everyone has a different ability to give, so from the get go we want to say that the most important thing is for you to get involved.  If this means $10/mo or $1000/mo or something in between, we are grateful for your participation.  The goal is that we band together as alumni to pray for and support a movement that will significantly make a difference in New England and in the lives of students at the Five Colleges.

As the team looked at the numbers, they came up with the following giving pyramid.  It's merely a suggestion, but will hopefully give you an idea of what it will take to reach the goal. 

Please pray about how you can participate in this opportunity with a monthly donation.  For more information, you can contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it :

Those who are donating from outside the United States or would prefer to use paypal, use our paypal account: