WHAT IS MILITARY MINISTRY?

At Mercy’s Door, “military ministry” is a broad term that encompasses the sum of all ministry activity pertaining to the pursuit and care of active duty serviceman and their families while they are stationed at Scott AFB, as well as reservists and veterans in our community.

Mercy’s Door is located in the small town of Mascoutah, less than 3 miles from Scott Air Force Base.

Typically, half of our members are locals, while the other half are active duty military. And just as half our congregation has military involvement, likewise, half of our pastors come from a military background as well, as two of our four pastors are retired from the armed services.

We care deeply about our neighbors on Scott Air Force Base and wish to extend the care of Jesus to them while they are with us.

4 Pillars of Military Care

ARRIVAL

At Mercy’s Door, we understand that active-duty military families are on a timer from the moment they arrive. Some of our active-duty church members arrive on assignments as short as one year, while the average is 3-4 years.

So we recognize the need to remove barriers to making quick connections with a new local church. We aim to help active-duty military families fully integrate into the life of Mercy’s Door as quickly as they desire. We host newcomer’s lunches every month, membership classes every three months, and gospel community gatherings each and every week.

Once new members are connected with the community, opportunities to serve abound. We want to help you find your place in the church to be part of building up the body and serving the Lord and others.

TOUCH OF FAITH INITIATIVE

Mercy’s Door holds a midweek evening worship service in the Scott Air Force Base chapel on the third Thursday of each month as part of the chapel’s “Touch of Faith Initiative,” which invites local protestant churches to minister to families stationed on Scott AFB.

DEPLOYMENT

As if being reassigned to new locations every few years isn’t disruptive enough, we also understand the impact that short and longer-term deployments/PCS can have on our active-duty church members.

At Mercy’s Door, we want our members to feel connected with us while they must be away from home. We take special care to check in regularly with those who are away, persisting in prayer for them and maintaining discipleship relationships from a distance when it is necessary.

We stream our services live online so that our deployed members can join us remotely as they are able, and we post all our sermons to the church podcast for listening later as necessary. We load the message text and sermon notes to the Bible App so that our members can follow along and take notes from anywhere.

For longer deployments, we do what we can to prepare our members to see their temporary station as a mission field, and to live with kingdom-minded purpose while they are there. If we can get our members connected with a local church while they are away, we will assist with that as well.

FAMILY CARE

At Mercy’s Door, we know the burden that spouses, children, and other family members can carry in those long seasons when their loved one is deployed/TDY. We desire that the family members who are waiting for an absent relative to come home would be well-loved and well-served by the church.

Sometimes, that means taking care of the things that the deployed church member usually handles at home: lawn care, vehicle repairs, giving a ride to a kid’s sporting event, whatever it may be! Other times, it means stepping into the gap for childcare or providing meals. In all cases, it means caring for families when they miss their loved ones who are away.

SEND-OFF

At Mercy’s Door, we want to be good at goodbye. One of the beautiful but sad things about planting a church next to a military base is that our members are being sent off to their next station all the time. When that day comes, we want our members to feel like it is their church that is sending them, not just the military. That it is Jesus sending them, not just Uncle Sam.

We help our departing members find their next church in advance. We help them think intentionally about how the Lord might be calling them to live on a mission in their next city or on their next base. We follow up with them after they leave until they land safely with a new church family. And we send them off with love, support, and often, our tears.