Instructor Profile: Dave Merck

Dave Merck teaching a course on Isaiah and church history.

Conversion

Dave was greatly blessed to grow up in a Christian home where there was consistent leading of the family in family worship and commitment to the local church and evangelistic efforts so that he was regularly exposed to the basics of the gospel. As early as age 5, he was for the first time convicted of being a sinner on his way to hell in a children's class during a Christian family camp week, and for the first time asked the Lord to save him. His parents were inwardly and wisely cautious in response to his excited declaration that he was now saved, and Dave struggled with assurance for many years, many times calling on the Lord to save him, especially after hearing a challenging gospel message. Gradually during his teen years, assurance grew—especially as he went back to Christ when he sinned, applying the direction and promise of 1 John 1:9 to himself. Today he is confident that he has been saved by God's grace alone, having been given ongoing repentance for his sins and faith in His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cross suffered the punishment which his sins deserved, has on that basis forgiven him, and given to him the hope of eternal life. He gives all praise to the sovereign and gracious God who alone saves sinners!

Family

The Lord has blessed Dave with a faithful and patient wife, Nedra, for 46 years as of 2026. He and his wife have been blessed with five children, four boys and one girl, who all profess faith in Christ and are now well into adulthood. Four of them are married to Christian spouses. Their family circle presently also includes twelve grandchildren, with one on the way. Dave and Nedra view themselves as being very richly blessed in this way by the abundant grace and mercy of the Lord alone.

Vocation

Dave has been retired from the pastorate since the end of 2022.

Hobbies

Walking/hiking, gardening, following the current world scene, both political and economic, and going on day outings and traveling to visit family members with his bride.

Church Ministry

Dave currently teaching Church History as an adult Sunday School option at Grace Immanuel Reformed Baptist Church, and ministering to different saints at the church. He also continues to be involved in international outreach by developing online biblical counseling training materials and promoting biblical counseling overseas through an online platform.

Ministry Experience

Dave served for thirty-five years as vocational pastor of Grace Immanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, MI, from 1987 to 2022. During twelve years of that time (2007–2019), Dave was formally set aside by the church to devote from 50% to 65% of his labors to overseas missionary work. But he was also engaged in such missionary labors on a more occasional basis from 1997 to 2006 and from 2020 to 2026, including some online teaching from 2020 to 2022. The primary foci of his missionary labors were the training of native pastors and pastoral aspirants for pastoral ministry, and training local church believers more widely in biblical counseling and other subjects. Those missionary labors took him to a total of seven different nations, with most of them involving multiple visits. David has been a level two certified biblical counselor with the Association of Biblical Counselors (ACBC) since 2013. Outside the years of more formal labors as a pastor, he was also engaged in occasional pulpit supply for his home church and other churches from 1979 to 1987, and continued engagement in U.S. based theological education of future pastors since retiring in 2022.

Education

Iowa State University (1970–1974): BS in Agricultural Education and permanent Iowa Secondary School Teacher's Certificate in Vocational Agriculture; Michigan State University (1978–1980): MS in Crop and Soil Sciences; Trinity Ministerial Academy, Montville, NJ (1984–1987): Certificate of Recognition; Reformed Baptist Seminary: MDiv granted in 2008 largely based on the Trinity Ministerial Academy work.

Publications

Maintaining Dating Purity. Grand Rapids: Truth for Eternity Ministries, 1996.

Teaching Experience

Reformed Baptist Seminary, Reformed Baptist School of Theology, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Copperbelt Christ Ministers' College (Ndola, Zambia); Lusaka Ministers' College (Lusaka, Zambia), Reformed Baptist Institute of Pastoral Training (Manila, Philippines), and three other overseas institutions which must remain unnamed here.

Research Interests

Biblical Counseling—especially Oppressive Lording (Abuse)
History of Calvinistic/Reformed Baptists - especially Modern Reformed Baptist History in the U.S.