Leadership Team

Born in Augusta, Georgia, Bishop Esaias Merritt attended the Richmond County Public Schools. At an early age, he acknowledged God’s calling on his life and diligently began his work in the ministry at New Testament Church of Jesus Christ under Apostle James Garner Glover. His passion for serving is evident though his work as a Youth Minister, Youth Counsel Board Member, Minister of Music, Christian Education Minister, Chief Musician & Director of Worship & Arts and a Single’s Ministry Overseer. Pastor Merritt was licensed in 2000 and was ordained in 2002 by Pastor Glasper Nero at Spirit Creek Baptist Church. After serving the Lord in assisting other Pastors and serving as a planting pastor, God elevated Pastor Merritt to the honorable office of Bishop. He was consecrated October 31, 2014 through Independent Churches United by the Honorable Bishop Howard E. Franklin as Chief Consecrator. He serves as Senior Pastor of Macedonia Church of Grovetown and 1st Assistant to the Presiding Prelate of Independent Churches United International, Inc.

His cutting-edge leadership skills were groomed in his 17 years in Corporate America where he worked as a general manager, an operations manager, business analyst, presidential liaison and an Executive Account Manager. He was noted for building aftermarket networks to support a $2.3B industry, reshaping a nation’s perception of a product line and countless other accomplishments.

Bishop Merritt attended Voorhees College; where he received a Bachelors of Science Degree in Organizational Management. He studied Music Education at Alabama State University; where he was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi Music Fraternity. He later continued his studies in Theology at the Augusta Theological Seminary, Erskine Theological Seminary, and graduated from City View Seminary with a Masters of Divinity. Bishop Merritt considers himself a life student and consistently furthers his education through symposiums and training with the Joint College of Pentecostal Bishops and Greater Atlanta Theological Seminary.

As a family man, Bishop Merritt is blessed with a beautiful & humble helpmate, Minister Greta Bennett Merritt and two amazing children, Zachariah, and Jade. His extended family includes all the young lives that he has touched during the growth of the Grovetown Ministry through powerful youth and teens ministry. He is affectionately known to some of the children as “Pastor Daddy,” a term coined by his daughter Jade and called Uncle Bishop a term coined by Caleb Murray.

Bishop Merritt believes in Kingdom building through Christian education, fulfilling the needs of the community and building families. Macedonia Church of Grovetown, established April 2009, is a ministry built on the foundation Jesus Christ for family, hence the ministry’s them: “Taking families for Christ and making families whole again”. The ministry’s goal is to become a community staple, where individuals of all ages can come, learn, grow, flourish and give back what they have learned. A place where everyone feels loved and knows this is a place of peace, comfort and enrichment. The ministry has touched over 800 families in its first decade, and fed more than 62,000 people since the start of The Father’s Hand Food Pantry in 2020 to 2022 and continues to serve the community. Due to the successfulness of its work, the City of Grovetown deemed November 1st as “Bishop Esaias Merritt Day.” In 2016, Macedonia completed its first building project by converting a 10,000 square foot warehouse to a sanctuary. There are future plans of acquiring property to develop a family campus to include a meeting space, a community training center, a 24-hour daycare, and many other community-based facilities. As a result of Pastor Merritt’s belief that God has greater plans for us all, he lives and embodies ministry from a Jeremiah 29:11 perspective, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” “The best and the rest is yet to come.”