SInce 2007, our church community has been gathering up broken lives and patiently removing the sharp edges so that people can create new images of themselves in our greater Middletown community.


Starting with seven homeless men in the basement of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Middletown, The Gathering has emerged as a spiritual and organizational leader in restoring our downtown neighborhood. We are committed to the hard work of life-restoration and development of our urban poor by offering relationships and programs that focus on providing a “hand up” instead of a “handout.” 

The Gathering is a faith community dedicated to eliminating homelessness, poverty, and substance abuse in our downtown neighborhood.


  • We help people change their lives by providing them the tools to achieve spiritual, emotional, physical, and relational health and helping them develop skills for lifelong economic, social, and relational stability.
  • We help people heal their lives by welcoming them into a life of faith and guiding them into healing relationships through one-on-one mentoring and small groups.
  • We grow the Kingdom of God by teaching formerly unchurched people what it means to follow Christ in the community and the world through passionate worship, relevant discussion, biblically-based studies, and messages that offer God’s answers for real life questions.

The United Methodist Church in Mission in Middletown