Wel­come to Hen­nepin Avenue United Methodist Church!

If you are look­ing for a church where peo­ple are open to new ideas, respect­ful of other faiths, wel­com­ing of all peo­ple, and have great pas­sion for serv­ing the com­mu­nity, we think you will enjoy being part of the com­mu­nity that is Hen­nepin Church.

The church began in 1875 when an adult Sun­day School class wanted to live out its beliefs. Deter­mined to have a pres­ence in the city, our founders reached out to their neigh­bors and got every­one involved in min­istry – even rais­ing money for the first ambu­lance at the hos­pi­tal in town.

Today the story con­tin­ues through min­istries like Com­mu­nity Meals (which feeds over 250 peo­ple each month), the Dig­nity Cen­ter (an advo­cacy min­istry to help peo­ple get a hand up rather than a hand out), Steeple Peo­ple (a qual­ity used goods store which donates all of its prof­its to other char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tions), and many other min­istries that focus on the needs of the city and the needs of peo­ple to be in com­mu­nity and think intel­lec­tu­ally about their faith.

Hen­nepin Church also has a his­tory of stand­ing with justice:

• In 1956, when Bor­der Methodist Church, an African-American con­gre­ga­tion, had to leave its build­ing, Hen­nepin UMC invited the com­mu­nity to merge with them, cre­at­ing quite a stir nationally.
• In 1974 Hen­nepin hired its first woman pas­tor, Verda Aegerter, who remains a mem­ber of the church to this day.
• In 1994 Hen­nepin became a Rec­on­cil­ing Church, wel­com­ing all peo­ple in the LGBTQ com­mu­nity, and later held a protest ser­vice in oppo­si­tion to some of the United Methodist stances that work against inclu­sion and jus­tice. We are still work­ing to change some of the poli­cies of the United Methodist church.

Today the build­ing that pro­vides art and shel­ter to our var­i­ous min­istries is located in Min­neapo­lis just north of I-94 where Lyn­dale and Hen­nepin come together. With­out much nat­ural space in the city, we also have Koinonia Retreat Cen­ter, just an hour west of the cities, where we con­tinue to have camps, retreats, and week­end adventures.

In short, the Hen­nepin Church Com­mu­nity is an active community!

We invite you to explore the web­site to learn more about us, but we hope that you will actu­ally come through the doors and find your place in the com­mu­nity. Every­thing good that has ever come out of Hen­nepin occurred because peo­ple within the com­mu­nity made it hap­pen! We hope you’ll come and share your pas­sions and gifts so that together we can make a dif­fer­ence in this world.