5 Year Anniversary Service

Celebrating life together through His Faithfulness

By New Mercy Community Church

October 16^th, 2015

All of us take time to celebrate important stages in life and the cycles of nature around us - from birthdays, marriages, to changing seasons or times of harvest.

It provides us moments to reflect upon the growth, the challenges and the changes that have come over time.

On Sunday, October 11th - New Mercy Community Church united across sites and generations to celebrate everything God has done in and through our humble community over the past five years. This celebration was a time uniquely dedicated to praise, reflection, prayer, sharing and calling out to our faithful Father to bring our church deeper into His kingdom-building plans.

5 Years in review

“Over the past five years, God has taken us from 100 regular attenders to 300 (including children). We have close to 80 boys and girls in our children’s ministry. After the first three years, we were able to plant another site in Edgewater, which now is thriving and reaching many people in that region. God has taken people who barely knew about God and grown them into faithful servants of the church, some of them being ordained as deacons and elders and some of them even becoming pastoral interns and seminarians. We have small groups throughout the week spanning Bergen County. Our counselling ministry reaches hundreds of struggling people and couples within our church and from other churches in the area. And the rate at which our missional efforts via Mercy Local and Mercy Global have expanded to places like China, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Ivory Coast, and beyond is a testament to the activity of the Holy Spirit in this body. In fact, the number of people we send on missions has increased manifold every year, so much so that the growth took even Pastor Hudson by surprise.”

- Pastor Kee Won Huh

Below is a small glimpse of all the things that happened over the years as shown during our service. It truly is amazing to see how God has been so faithful over these years.

Note: as the slideshow comes to an end, the lingering note is the very note the praise team kicked off the service!

Before we get into the service itself, we'd like to thank all those who worked tirelessly in making this event MEMORABLE.

From the volunteers, both those who helped on the day of the service, to those part of the 5-Year Anniversary Service committee who met for hours on end, those who helped record footages and interview people of their testimonials, the hands that prepared our beautiful cake and meal for the afternoon, the prayer warriors in our congregation praying for God’s hand over this service and all the other services, those who shared during the service of God’s faithful character, and to God, all the glory given to you.

History walk-through

One unique thing about this service was the “History Walk-Through“ allowing viewers to walk through the lobby and to see the changes New Mercy has gone through over the years.

The one that stands out the most was Pastor Kee’s infamous “maroon suit”.

“Being a part of a first-generation Korean church—where suits wreathe ‘uniform’ required for men—there was little flexibility regarding attire for our pastors and leaders. Believe it or not, this suit was worn on multiple occasions by Pastor Kee until the ridicule from its appearances drove the suit further into the depths of his closet at home and ultimately into the basement.

But all joking aside, launching as an independent church allowed for even what seemed to be a small change to help with a cultural shift. It provided congregants and members the freedom to truly come as we were—even in how we dressed—as God’s sons and daughters, immensely loved and accepted despite our differences.”

Faces of new mercy

“Faces of New Mercy“ is a visual representation of the community at New Mercy. The idea that each person is “the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). The use of a black and white monochromatic shade was selected to show uniformity. Colors are emphasized through the logo and show that it is Christ who brings and holds us together as one body, one church, one community—that is New Mercy.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Though Not all Congregants are pictured in the mural above, this mural gives us a sense of who we are as a church.

From all different ages, cultures and backgrounds, not only was New Mercy able to celebrate the diversity of our congregation, but also being one as a church as we are unified by the blood of Christ. We were able to hear from a few members of our church of what God has been doing in their lives and how they’ve come to the church.

Write your story here. (Optional)

"the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion...

Write your story here. (Optional)

…It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity.

My dear brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”

-Thomas Merton

Food and fellowship

Though the World of Wings is actually a venue that exhibits all the different types of butterflies, it was difficult to pass up the idea of ordering chicken wings for lunch and fellowship. Over a thousand wings were ordered, and thankfully consumed that day.