Meet the man and the motive behind the message: You. Are. Amazing.

By Patrick Lalley, for Pigeon605

Rich Merkouris has something to tell you.

You’ll see it on billboards. It will show up in social media. And you’ll hear it on the radio.

You. Are. Amazing.

That’s it.

Just when it feels like we’ll never have a pleasant conversation that doesn’t involve politics or the pandemic.  When you just want to believe there’s some hope for mankind.

You. Are. Amazing.

Merkouris is a husband, father of three and the pastor of King of Glory Church, an unassuming place of worship on 17th Street just west of Cliff Avenue.

The pandemic forced most churches to depend upon virtual services. King of Glory was no different, including three months of no in-person worship.

It’s back to a hybrid version at King of Glory, but Merkouris and his team knew they needed to do something to connect with people in a post-pandemic world.

And they needed something to counter what he sees as a lot of noise in society.

“We’re really seeing a lot of discouragement, a lot of yelling,” Merkouris said. “We wanted something to help people understand their value and their worth.

“We are trying to find a practical way for people in our church reengage with people, to encourage someone else. We hope that people will use this to start interacting with people again.”

The result is a multimedia campaign with a very simple message: You. Are. Amazing.

It started a month ago with billboards encouraging people to go to YouAreAmazingSF.com.

At the site, you sign up for a gift card. You get an email with the choice of $5 to spend at Starbucks, Target or Amazon.

For that card, all they ask is you encourage someone else to do the same thing. But there’s more than just giving someone else a gift card.

You should tell them they are amazing. A short text, email or postcard, whatever works for you, with a URL and an affirmation. Not sure how to do that? You can get some samples of texts to send or a pack of postcards to use at YouAreAmazingSF.com as well.

So far, they’ve given away about 400 gift cards with a plan to continue until June 1.

The inspiration came from a series of sermons on the innate beauty of humanity, Merkouris said.

“Even if we don’t have the same belief system, your life has meaning,” he said. “Your life has purpose.”

It’s a back-to-basics teaching of the Gospel, not to mention the foundation of post-Enlightenment philosophies of self-determination.

And yet, it sure seems hard these days.

“It just goes against the grain right now,” Merkouris said. “If you have a different perspective on something, not only are you wrong, but I can treat you differently because you are wrong.”

Adjusting that thinking is a function of leadership, he said.

“At the end of the day, people still follow,” he said. “If the people who are leading us give us one model or example, it’s pretty easy to see that the rest of us are going to follow in line.”

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