Rev. Christopher Mergener

Christopher is a native of Grand Rapids, MI. He comes from a large family, having had five siblings.

He is a second career pastor and graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary in the spring of 2015. Prior to attending seminary, Christopher worked in the Jewelry Industry for 28 years as a buyer and manager.

Christopher served as an Elder for Mission at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids. His love for mission is what eventually led him to seminary and into Church ministry. It's a move that he says he will never regret.

October of 2015 was a busy month for Christopher. In one weekend he was married to his life partner, Ron Lehman. The next day he was ordained by the Presbytery of Lake Michigan and two days later they loaded up the trucks and moved to the Hampton's. His first call was as an interim pastor at the "Old Whalers Church" in Sag Harbor. Christopher and Ron enjoyed spending their days off at the beach, running their dogs by the ocean. They currently have two rescue dogs, Rory and Winter, a cat named Chester, and three birds, Hercules, Amelia, and Ollie. As you can see, Christopher is a lover of animals!

In the spring of 2018, Christopher took a call at Park Presbyterian Church in Newark, NY, where he served until he was called to First Presbyterian Church of Niles, Michigan and began work here on December 1, 2020. 

At Park Church he launched a church wide Matthew 25 Initiative. If you're not familiar with what the Matthew 25 Initiative is, ask him for the deatails, he loves to talk about it!  In his tenure at Park Church, he also served at the Presbytery level as a General Council member, as the Committee on Preparation for Ministry Chair and as the Co-Moder of the Committee on Ministry team.