Fort Worth’s Mercy Culture announces expansion with new churches in D.C., California

by Marissa Greene and Cecilia Lenzen, Fort Worth Report
December 21, 2025

As Mercy Culture prepares for national growth, the Fort Worth church is launching two new campuses, its first expansion outside of Texas. 

The church will plant a campus in Orange County, California, and another in Washington, D.C., founders and lead pastors Landon and Heather Schott announced during a Dec. 7 service, sharing the church’s vision for the future. 

Also in D.C., Mercy Culture opened a prayer house across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court for church leaders, congregants and elected officials to pray for the nation. 

The Fort Worth megachurch is known locally for its overt political activity, including the creation of an online training academy to prepare Christian conservatives to run for public office or get engaged in local government. 

The church’s expansion into the nation’s capital sets its leaders up to establish Mercy Culture as an influential force in politics, said Eric McDaniel, a government professor who researches the intersection of race, religion and politics at the University of Texas at Austin.

“They’re trying to make sure they are becoming an institution in American politics,” McDaniel said. “So you can think of them being very successful in the representative aspect of American politics, because they’re making sure that they are finding ways to make sure their voices are heard, and having something there in D.C. where you can regularly interact with elected officials, you can regularly interact with bureaucrats, that is a key aspect of representation.” 

Each room of the D.C. prayer house was designed with a specific purpose in mind, Mercy Culture elder Steve Penate says in a video that shows him touring the building. A room specifically intended for prayer displays a list of items to pray for: 

• Revival and reformation in America & the Nations.
• Abortion to be illegal in all 50 states.
• Every captive of human trafficking to be set free. 
• President Donald Trump to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

“We believe from this place, laws will be revoked and established,” Penate says in the video. “From these chairs, prayers and intercession will go all over our nation.” 

Neither Penate nor Landon and Heather Schott returned requests for comment on Mercy Culture’s expansion. 

Marco and Valerie Leardini are commissioned to lead the Orange County campus. The Frisco couple are ordained ministers and lead a ministry called Ekklesia Arise. The Leardinis were online members of the church before entering their new role. 

Jaco and Philipa Booyens will lead Mercy Culture’s D.C. campus. Jaco is the founder of a ministry focused on ending human trafficking. 

The D.C. and Orange County campuses are expected to launch May 24. That construction builds on Mercy Culture’s expansion efforts after opening campuses in east Fort Worth, Dallas, Waco and Austin. 

Heading into 2026, Mercy Culture leaders plan to capitalize on church pastor Nate Schatzline’s appointment to Trump’s National Faith Advisory Board. Schatzline, an outgoing Texas legislator, also leads For Liberty & Justice, Mercy Culture’s political nonprofit that is now partnered with the national board, Heather Schott told attendees at the December service. 

“When the church rises up and just goes and votes based upon biblical values, look, we own the future. The church owns the future, and so this is everything that Liberty & Justice is doing in partnership with the (National Faith Advisory Board),” Heather Schott said during the service. 

McDaniel likened Mercy Culture’s merging of religion and politics on the national stage to a saying from evangelist and Southern Baptist minister Billy Graham: “If you want to become a better American, become a better Christian. To become a better Christian, be a better American.”

“What you see coming out of a lot of this is that patriotism and piety become the same,” McDaniel explained of the rise of Christianity-driven conservatism. 

The Schotts joined the same board as Schatzline earlier this year. The group made up of pastors and faith-based organizations from around the U.S. was formed by Trump in 2021 and reinstated during his second term. 

The board’s strategy is to “get faith back involved in government in all parts of political society,” Landon Schott said during the church’s Dec. 7 service. 

The couple gathered with the group in the Oval Office in December to pray over Trump and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Church leaders’ success in marketing Mercy Culture, coupled with financial resources and influential connections, primed the church to forge into D.C., McDaniel said. He emphasized that few churches could afford real estate across from the Supreme Court. 

Penate’s tour of the prayer house showed off a kitchen, living space and several bedrooms, including the “Prophets Quarters” overlooking the Supreme Court Building. Penate, a Fort Worth-based Realtor, said he promised the property lender that Mercy Culture would never sell the house. 

“With everything in me, this boldness came on me, and I said ‘This house will never be sold but will be passed on from generation to generation,’” Penate said. “Mercy Culture, what God is doing in and through our church community is shaking the nation.” 

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.

Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.

News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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