Bishop Mervyn Hammond is the Deputy Chief Servant and Assistant General Overseer of Zion Ministries. He is also the Founding Pastor and Presiding Bishop of Faith Covenant Ministries based in St Charles, Missouri. For almost forty years, he has served in leadership in several churches ranging from twenty to over four thousand in attendance. His calling is to cross racial and denominational barriers to raise up and mentor leaders for the body of Christ.
Bishop Hammond began serving in various capacities within the body of Christ in 1971 and in 1973, at the age of eighteen; he accepted his call to ministry. He has a wealth of leadership experience & has filled numerous roles including: Youth Pastor, Sunday School Teacher, Bible Study Teacher, Television Bible Class Instructor, Minister of Music, Music Workshop Leader, Seminar/Conference Leader, Pastor’s Fellowship Counselor/Instructor, Interstate Association of Churches Music Committee Chair, Interstate Vice-President, City-Wide Pastor’s Fellowship Leader, & Associate Pastor of Worship and Arts
Bishop Hammond married Rose Mary Walls in December of 1974. To this union of over thirty six years, God has added nine children and fourteen grandchildren. In the midst of raising his children the Lord blessed him to earn a Bachelors of Arts in Secondary Education (emphasis in Social Studies) from Kansas State University in 1988. He taught US History, World History, & Economics in Wichita. KS and in Junction City, KS from 1988 to 1994.
In 1994, he was called to serve as the full-time Senior Pastor at Faith Covenant Christian Center in Junction City, KS. After serving as senior pastor of the church for ten years, in 2005, the Lord led Bishop Hammond to lead a group of ten families to the St. Louis, MO area to plant Faith Covenant Ministries in St Charles, MO. His calling as an Apostle and Bishop was confirmed by Archbishop Boyd and others in the faith in 2006.
In October of 2010, after leading the church for five years, he felt the Lord call to step out of the Senior Pastor position in order to answer God’s call to a larger field. His Associate Pastor (and oldest son) Michael was called to succeed him as pastor of the church.
Two months later, Bishop Hammond experienced a true miracle of healing. He entered the hospital with heart and kidney problems. After five days, he took a turn for the worst and was moved to ICU. His entire family was called in because he was not expected to live through the night. The doctors told the family that there was nothing more they could do for him. After three days, he was moved out of ICU and put in a room to just to keep him comfortable waiting for his heart to stop. He went completely unresponsive for over eight hours. On Sunday morning, January 2, 2011, God touched him and brought him back from the point of death. He went home from the hospital three days later.
