Mercy Community Church Atlanta

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Bear One Another’s Burdens,’ is a new original composition by Chad Hyatt, one of the pastors in our community. It is a jubilant reminder that the law of Christ is love—and love is as practical as helping one another in our common struggles. Pastor Chad says, ‘[Love is] the reality that we all need help sometimes, and so we help each other… We’ve been talking on this channel in recent weeks about God’s “alternative politics.” Well, that’s just my language for the kingdom of God—the preaching and the practice of Jesus, the way that he modeled God’s love in this world. And y’all, that’s our model. We’re called to take up that mantle. We’re called to take up that cross. And follow in the ways of Jesus to create communities—however small, however struggling, however imperfect, however messy—where we help one another. That’s the call of God. That’s the vocation of being a Christian. That’s what this song is about.’

Pastor Holly Reimer recaps our community conversation from this past Sunday as we took a look at 1 Thessalonians 1.1-10. Already in this greeting, in perhaps the first of his letters and maybe the earliest writing in the New Testament, Paul sets a tone of encouragement for a suffering community. Pastor Holly says, ‘So many times when we think about faith, when we think about faithfulness in terms of spirituality and theology, we have thus closed-minded view of it being something that we have to check off. In order to be faithful, we have a list of tasks to accomplish. Paul is not talking about requirements and rituals. Rather, it is a faith that is demonstrated in works, not words. It’s not about what Paul says or what he accomplished when he was with them. It’s about the community and who they see Paul to be, most transparently… When we really care about one another, people know. People know when you really care about them or when you are bluffing or want something from them.’

Bear One Another’s Burdens’ is an original composition by Chad Hyatt, one of our pastors. An upbeat and joyful call for justice and mutual love, this catchy tune reminds us that love is as simple as lending a helping hand—because we will all have our struggles. 

We’re celebrating 15 years of worship and work, hospitality and community on the streets of Atlanta. If you would like to know more, check us out at mercyatl.org. We’ll be sharing songs that have shaped our community over the last fifteen years—and some new ones we’re writing, too—as a way of giving thanks for God’s abundant goodness to this mustard seed community.

Pastor Chad


Chad is pastor and founder of Mercy Community Church, a grassroots community of worship and action—a group of people who believe Jesus wants the hungry fed, strangers welcomed, and every child of God housed.

Originally from North Carolina, in the fall of 1986, he made the move to Atlanta to attend Emory University.  Following graduation,  Chad enrolled in Candler School of Theology, graduating with a Masters of Divinity in 1993. That same year, Chad was ordained and began to serve as an associate pastor at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Atlanta.

Chad and his wife Camille began Mercy Community Church in August, 2005.  A small circle of friends gathered for simple worship, sensing a call to begin an intentional community in a congregational form with an unmistakable preferential option for the poor at the heart of its worship and life.  Today Mercy makes it home on the campus of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church, serving meals, sharing clothes, talking about the Bible, welcoming strangers, and trying to build a diverse and faithful community with over a hundred people a day, five days a week.

Chad is an Associate of the Missionaries of the Poor, a Catholic religious order that embodies a daily commitment to the spirituality of Matthew 25.  He and Camille and their two sons, Matthew and Levi, live in Scottdale, Georgia

Contact Chad at chad@mercyatl.org.

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Pastor Brittany


Brittany grew up in Jacksonville, Arkansas.  She first learned about God and what it means to be a church community that loves and cares for one another from First Presbyterian Church, Jacksonville, AR.  Brittany graduated from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. After teaching abroad and working for a travel company, Brittany began her studies at Columbia Theological Seminary, taking steps to answer a call to ministry that she had felt since her childhood.  Upon moving to Atlanta, Brittany’s passion for being present with those on the margins led her to volunteer at Peachtree and Pine’s Taskforce for the Homeless and to become a pastoral intern with Mercy Church.  After completing her MDiv at Columbia, Brittany began a PhD program at Emory University, but left to answer God’s call on her life to full-time ministry as a pastor to our community.  Brittany was jointly ordained by the PC(USA) and Mercy Community Church in 2018.  Outside of Mercy, what gives Brittany life and joy is spending time with her husband Cooper and daughter Emi, traveling via plane, train, and foot, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and nerding out over Karl Barth.

Contact Brittany at brittany@mercyatl.org.

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Pastor Holly


Holly grew up in Ocala, Florida where she was nurtured by her faith community and encouraged to find ways to be a leader in the community.  Holly graduated from the University of North Florida with a degree in Psychology.  After a period of discernment, she was called to a church community in Lady Lake, Florida where she served as the Youth Director for over six years.  She began her seminary career in 2014 at Columbia Theological Seminary where she earned her Masters of Divinity and Master of Arts in Practical Theological (Pastoral Care).  During her time in seminary, Holly began attending Mercy Community Church where she fell in love with the community.  Upon graduation, Holly served for two years as a Chaplain Resident at Grady Memorial Hospital and specialized in pastoral care through the lens of behavioral health.

In her free time, Holly loves to exercise, travel, spend time with her family, read, and organize.

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Pastor Lattimore


In May of 2020 Mercy Community Church ordained Pastor Maurice Lattimore to ministry in his own organization, Feet on the Streets Ministries. Before and throughout the pandemic Pastor Lattimore has worked alongside the other Mercy pastors to care for our community through his Empowerment and Recovery groups, pastoral care, and by connecting people to invaluable resources. He continues to serve and support the Mercy community while also pastoring his own community and creatively and compassionately supporting those experiencing homelessness across the city with showers, community, empowerment, and the love of Christ. Mercy is thankful for Pastor Lattimore’s partnership with Mercy as well as his own faithful work—here is Pastor Lattimore’s story:

My name is Maurice Lattimore and I'm a 62 year Black man and native of Atlanta Georgia, I'm the oldest of five siblings and the last one standing, and I'm the one that did it all wrong. I was raised in the projects during some very racist and discriminating times. With the bias that developed in me during those times I quickly got off to a bad start. I was 12 years old when I did my first piece of real drug, and from that point the next 35 years of my life were like a rollercoaster of drugs, incarceration, and eventually homelessness. What a vicious cycle! A change of events did come about in 2004 in Phoenix Arizona in a jail cell--I found Christ, Amen! The best and freest years of my life until then were lived in that prison. This is what accepting Christ as my personal Lord and Savior did for me. Today I am in the life of my daughter and my grandchildren, and God saw fit to give me a wife. At the ministry that God has entrusted me with, Feet on the Streets Ministries, as well as here at Mercy Church, today I get and give service to a community of brothers and sisters whose lives I can identify with on a personal level. Glory be to God the father and our Lord and savior Jesus Christ forever and ever Amen!  

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Pastor Tracey


Tracey grew up in the Chicagoland area with a small but close-knit family. Her mother was Catholic, her father Lutheran and she was brought up in a household that always acknowledged God. She attended Northern Illinois University and graduated with a B.S. in Family and Social Services in 1997. Before she earned her college degree, she also attended the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago and graduated with a baking a pastry certificate. Throughout the past 20 years Tracey lived in a variety of places including Michigan, Seattle, India, and Brazil. She has called Atlanta home since 2016 where she lives with her daughters, Riley, and Shayla. 

Tracey chose to care for her young family on a full-time basis until 2019 when she began her studies at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. She graduated with a Master of Divinity in 2022 and was ordained as a pastor by Mercy Community Church that same year. Tracey’s call to seminary was rooted in a deep desire to lead and live through her faith in God. She attended seminary with a hope of learning what that could mean while also knowing her path was not clear. As she served as an intern at Mercy Community Church for two years throughout her seminary studies, she began to discern that pastoring this community was a call she wanted to accept. Tracey loves to engage with the community through artistic expression, pastoral care and cooking delicious meals. She is honored to be a member of the Mercy community. 

When she’s not with the Mercy crew, Tracey loves to dabble in all things creative, hang out with her fabulous teenage daughters, spend time with her pets, and run a few miles while contemplating the meaning of life.

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