The world and the Triad area can certainly use some extra prayers right now, so it’s a good thing that Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro – one of the fastest growing churches in the country – is opening a new campus.

The church held a ribbon cutting this week to celebrate the opening of the campus at 1317 Pleasant Ridge Road.

The “Ridge Campus” seats 1,500 people and according to church leaders it will “allow Mercy Hill to continue its mission to make disciples and multiply churches throughout the Greensboro area and beyond.”

Mercy Hill Church is highly active in attempting to help battle societal ills such as drug addiction and homelessness – two very bad problems in the Triad area – as well as many other challenges people face in their daily lives.  The new Ridge Campus is meant to help the church expand those services.

Lead Pastor Andrew Hopper attributed the church’s success and rapid growth to none other than the Lord Almighty.

“God has blessed our church immensely over the past 12 years!” he said of the opening. “We’re praying that our new home and hub, the Ridge Campus, will be a launching pad for seeing marriages restored, addictions broken, adoptive and foster families raised up, new campuses launched, and missionaries sent out across the world.”

Currently, Mercy Hill Church operates five campuses across the Triad region, including a Spanish-language campus.

According to church officials, the church exists to “make disciples and multiply churches through both community partnerships and church planting.”

Mercy Hill also believes strongly in the importance of restoring divided families and it focuses heavily on raising up adoptive and foster care families in the Triad.

The church is planning a host of special Easter events starting on April 13 and running through Easter.

Mercy Hill was established in 2012 by a group of 30 Christians.

Church leaders say it was through God’s grace that Mercy Hill has seen such rapid growth, which is obviously continuing with the opening of this new campus.

In what he says is in response to God’s blessing, Hopper always remains positive.

“We praise God and pray for more,” Hopper said.  “We praise God for changed lives and pray for God to do far more than we can ask or think. Mercy Hill is centered on the Gospel and has a radical commitment to the nations. Our desire is to make disciples and multiply churches.”

The church’s website offers extensive information about the various beliefs of the Christian church.

 For instance, on the Scriptures, the site states: “The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”