About
Mercy MinistriesOur Story
We are all part of a much bigger story. It is the story that God has been unfolding since the creation of all things…it’s a story that brings hope that doesn’t disappoint. This story has one main character…his name is Jesus the Christ. This story has a main event in history, the crucifixion followed by the resurrection of Jesus.
It is in this story that Mercy Ministries finds its meaning and purpose. With a heart for the most vulnerable, ministries of mercy faithfully took place through Parkview Baptist Church in Phoenix, AZ. To remain among the most vulnerable, Parkview took the opportunity to relocate to downtown Phoenix and changed its name to the Church on Fillmore. By God’s grace, they planted roots and kept their presence in the midst of a changing neighborhood that would soon experience disinvestment and neglect, become run down, and lacking resources. Ministries of mercy remained a key vision for the church to fulfill God’s mission to love its neighbors, especially among the most vulnerable. It is in this rich history the Mercy Hill church plant team stepped in to see the Church on Fillmore strengthened and the Gospel of Jesus spread.
To give greater opportunity and further commitment to the ministries of mercy faithfully taking place, Mercy Hill Church established Mercy Ministries as a separate 501c3 to oversee and grow these ministries. Under the umbrella of Mercy Hill Church, Mercy Ministries became a separate 501c3 in May, 2018. Mercy Ministries is grateful for God’s hand on it to love and care for its neighbors in Jesus’ name. Alongside Mercy Hill Church, it is delighted to grow its ministries of mercy for the glory of God and good of our neighbors.
Vision
Mercy Ministries exists to befriend and serve those on the edges of society so we can see, hear, embrace, and live in the extraordinary goodness of Jesus – together.
Mission
We seek to be present in our community and collaboratively come alongside our neighbors in sharing our gifts, caring for the vulnerable, and seeking the shalom of our city. We seek to reverse the cycle of poverty through helping people develop in all areas of life.
Our Leadership
Ricky Aulds, MA Biblical Counseling
Ministries Coordinator & Pastor
Ricky is a native of South Georgia where he had the privilege of watching his dad faithfully pastor small local churches. Ricky lived and served in Alabama where he graduated from Southeastern Bible College. He then moved to North Carolina to pursue a Biblical counseling degree at Southeastern Theological Seminary. While in NC, he responded to God’s call to move to Phoenix, AZ to join the Mercy Hill church plant team. He made this move to Phoenix in August, 2014 and has been serving here ever since. Ricky has a heart for Christ, God’s Word, the local church, and making disciples.
Sherrie Aulds, LMSW
Executive Director
Sherrie is a Maryland native who joined World Gospel Mission on the Tohono O’odham Nation in 2009. There, she served alongside the churches and through the tribe’s Health & Human Services. With God’s leading, Sherrie pursued and completed a Master in Social Work degree. Ricky and Sherrie met and later married in 2018. They share a heart for behavioral types of ministry and are blessed to give leadership and serve together under Mercy Ministries in downtown Phoenix.
Jessica Voholetz
Admin Assistant
Grew up in Texas as a kid and moved to North Carolina with her family as a teen. With a sister and two brothers, life was never lonely or boring. Growing up believing God and seeking to follow Him, lead her on quite a journey. She attended college and received her associates in Fine Arts from Johnston Community College, then she attended East Carolina University where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History. After attending College Jessica went on a mission trip which changed the course of her life. While there, God called her to missions. She prayed over the next steps and found that God had desired her to go back to school. This time she went to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and received her master’s degree in Intercultural Studies. While enrolled at the seminary she felt the need to go on another mission trip this time to Arizona. She fell in love with the place and the people. The Lord gave her a desire for Evangelism, Women’s ministry through mentoring and discipleship and church planting. Through the years God made connections to those in ministry at Mercy Hill and He brought about her partnership with Mercy Ministries in 2021.
Jessica is currently serving Mercy Ministries by helping with administrative needs. By serving them in this way it helps lighten the administrative role so the leadership can attend to other responsibilities. Her desire in this role is to support pastors, church planters, ministers, to fulfil the call on God on their lives and His mission in the world. With this role her goal is to build relationships with existing churches and new church plants to advance the kingdom of God by providing much needed administrative helps to free up Pastors, Church planters and ministers to care for their congregations and communities.
Jessica is an evangelism catalyst with the Mission Service Corps and currently attends and serves at The Way Fellowship Church as a women’s discipleship and evangelism minister.
Would you like to learn more how God might use your gifts and abilities to serve through Mercy Ministries? Please contact us at [email protected].
Our Distinctive
Mercy Ministries’ holistic transformation is found in the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Our love for the word of God and our love for the world are not at odds, but work together in holistic mission. Fundamentally, to ignore the world is to betray the word of God which commissions us out to love and serve the world. To ignore the word of God is to have nothing to bring to the world.
“POVERTY is rooted in broken relationships, so the solution to poverty is rooted in Jesus’ death and resurrection to put all things in right relationship again.”
– Brian Fikkert
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And, what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
MICAH 6:8
Our Values
Quality & Integrity
We meet challenges with quality services while practicing integrity at every step.
Holistic View of Life
Every person is created in the image of God and is wonderfully complex.
Mercy & Justice
True justice creates space for love, growth, and truth.
Community & Connectedness
We exist with one another and for one another.
Transformation
Every life can be transformed through the Gospel and living according to God’s word.
Cooperation
We move forward and are better together.
Developing Leaders
Every person has influence. Leaders are developed through embracing servanthood.
Dependence & Prayer
We must depend on God to give us the creativity needed to reach the unreachable.
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:37-39