About a month ago Jen & Evan Hopkins along with their children Christian & Katelyn relocated to Charlotte, NC to join the Mercy Church launch team.  We asked the Hopkins to share some of their journey with us.  

We loved Raleigh…

But we never felt led to stay here long term. Charlotte had been on the forefront of our minds for years but we weren’t in a huge rush to make the move. We heard about Mercy Church last year, but hesitated to jump in because we didn’t think we were spiritually ready to be launch team members.

God qualifies the called.

Early in 2015, JD began preaching through the book of Judges. One of his main points was that God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. That made us start thinking more seriously about Charlotte and we started to pray more extensively about the possibility of joining the Mercy Church launch team. During that period it felt like everyone we met was connected either to Charlotte or the Mercy Church team. The more we prayed and learned about Mercy Church the more we sensed this was God’s call for our family.

Taking the plunge.

Committing to the team in March was exciting and a little bit scary. But soon after we started to see some pieces fall into place. Within a month of committing to the launch team we purchased a house in Charlotte, shifted both of our jobs to work remotely and moved to the Queen City! We couldn’t be more excited about our community in Charlotte. Most of our neighbors have been in the neighborhood for less than a year and many have kids, so there’s lots of opportunity to connect through hospitality and teach our kids what it looks like to live on mission. Six months ago we never dreamed God could use us to plant a church in Charlotte, but we’re excited to be a part of what our King is doing in Queen City.