Fourth Avenue wants to be a community reaching out in Christian love to our local community. To that end, we have several specific ministries of help:
- The Open Door Ministry- The Open Door serves lunches to our homeless or underemployed neighbors Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon to 1:00 p.m. Persons simply need to come to the St. Catherine Street entrance to the fellowship hall, and a friendly church member will hand them a bag lunch with things like a sandwich, a bottle of juice, cookies and chips.
- Saturday Fellowship Lunch- During the noon hour, a community Bible study is offered. Also, we sit down with any guest who wants to talk and try to help them in the ways we can. This includes mentoring on finding work, financial coaching, connecting them with local agencies, and often just listening. Additionally, a health partnership with medical volunteers is available once a month.
- The Healing Place (hotlink: thehealingplace.org) (THP) is a homeless shelter that incorporates a nationally-recognized drug and alcohol recovery program. At its men’s facility, founded in 1989, THP currently provides food, shelter and medical care to 300 men per day. The addiction recovery program begins with OTS (off the streets) where men start recovery classes and attend 12- step meetings. Those classes and one of the meetings are housed at Fourth Avenue UMC. Every weekday in the Fellowship Hall, these men begin learning about alcoholism and the road to recovery and hope.
- The Shalom Zone- Churches and Communities working together to rebuild and renew community life, the Old Louisville Shalom Zone is a United Methodist initiative for church and community healing.
- CLOUT- “ CLOUT stands for Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together. It is a coalition of 20 churches in the Louisville community organized for local justice concerns.
- AA- An active and large Alcoholics Anonymous group meets weekly in the Fellowship Hall on Tuesday evenings at 8 p.m.
- Tri-Covenant- Fourth Avenue is a part of a wonderful ecumenical partnership in the downtown area. Together with the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption and the Episcopal Christ Church Cathedral, we join together in worship, ministry and fellowship in our community. We have joined in partnership to offer an annual Blessing of the Animals service, a giant yard sale to benefit HELP ministries, Epiphany dinners and worship services, and local work projects. As our congregations intentionally get to know each other better, the witness of Christianity is strengthened in the downtown area.
- Refugee sponsorship- To date, Fourth Avenue UMC has sponsored over 70 refugees to the United States. We believe this is one way we are called to be good neighbors and supportive of our community in the name of Christ. (We will sponsor another family in 2009 and are currently gathering resources toward that end.)
- HELP Ministries- This is our local community area ministry, in which several local congregations take part. Fourth Avenue is active, sitting on the board and getting involved in fundraising efforts. Through HELP ministries emergency expenses are met, over-due rent paid, prescriptions filled, and food and clothing is donated.
- Art & Spirituality-a ministry that allows for the nurturing of the connection between the God-given spark of creativity in us and our lives of spirituality. To that end, we offer art classes, such as sculpting, watercolors and inspirational writing. We also have an on-going art show on display in our Central Hall of works by members and persons related to Fourth Avenue. For more information call the church office.
