Why We Exist
History
Why Raleigh?
Merge exists as a community church because God has a mission for the world and He is calling people to join together to give their lives for His mission…
- To love God
- To love and serve our neighbors
- To share the good news of Jesus with all people
- To lead others to become followers of Jesus
Jesus desires for his Church to multiply and grow. That is why we believe he has us here in the Triangle… to expand His Church. It has been on our hearts for the past few years to plant a new church. We just didn’t know where that would be until about 9 months before we moved here. When some close friends moved back to this area after a brief stint in Memphis, TN, there was a sense in our hearts that this is where God was sending us.
We decided to visit them here to see the area for ourselves and to explore what needs existed in the community. After some extensive demographic studies of the area and much prayer… and with the support of family and friends - we made the move to Raleigh in July of ’05.
We spent the first few months getting settled in a new city. We started new jobs, got our sons, Ben and Alex, established in a new school and began to make new friends. We continued to work toward the adoption of our new baby girl, Miyah Sangita, from Kathmandu, Nepal. We brought her home to join our family on May 16th and we have loved every minute of it!
The cultural diversity and the blend of people from all over the country and around the world makes Raleigh the perfect area for what God has put on our hearts. We are looking forward to the months and years ahead as we merge cultures, generations and gifts with a community of new friends here in Raleigh.
To find out more about the Cummings family, see Bill's bio.
- Raleigh is the 57th largest city in the U.S. with a population of 316,802
- Raleigh is the 12th fastest growing cities in the US with a population growth of over 90,000 since 1990
- Metro area population of 1,105.535
- Estimated 375,881 un-reached people
- 60% Caucasian, 28% African-American, 7% Latino, 3% Asian, 2% other
- Median age: 34.5 yrs.
- 29,854 college students at 3 major area colleges (NC State, UNC and Duke University)
- Home to Research Triangle Park (RTP) the largest planned research park in the US – which employs 38,000 people in 31 companies
- Has the fastest growing Latino population (1180% increase since 1980) of any city in the US
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