Minneapolis, MN

The church in Minneapolis (Download Report as PDF)

The Church in Minneapolis, MN began to meet in the 70’s and grew to around 100 saints. The Church passed through a significant storm in the 2000’s and many of those saints were lost. About 50 remained meeting in a nearby suburb, Brooklyn Park, MN. In 2010, a few faithful brothers in Minneapolis took a stand for the Recovery and the Ministry and the Church in this city was recovered.

Over the past 10 years the Church has grown from less than 10 meeting to about 40 adults and 20 children (average Lord’s Day attendance is ~30 adults and ~15 children). There are three older brothers helping to take the lead (along with some younger ones) but only ~10 saints meeting are over the age of 40. The Church is mostly composed of couples and single saints in their 20’s and 30’s. There are also 20 children 9 years old and younger (17 of those are 6 and younger). The Lord has steadily increased our enjoyment and exercise in the church life and church meetings. He has also kept us following the ministry closely and participation in the semi-annual live and video trainings has been good. He is also beginning to help us form the Church services and has begun to develop the group meetings.

The Church in Minneapolis does not currently have a meeting hall, Lord’s Day meetings are held in a community center at Van Cleve Park, which is near the University of Minnesota. The church also blends often with the Church in Brooklyn Park which has a meeting hall where conferences and other larger events for the metro area are usually held. There is a burden to purchase a meeting hall in Minneapolis eventually and there are also funds set aside for this.

Seeking Increase

• Campus: There is a huge campus of ~50,000 students about one mile from our meeting place (University of Minnesota). We have about a half dozen students on the campus and currently have two full time serving ones and another brother who is serving part time.
• Children: We have had a Saturday children’s meeting for a few years which has born fruit and we hope to continue this practice to raise up our second generation.
• Shepherding Warm Doors: There are also dozens of saints that do not meet anymore but are warm and could be recovered with our shepherding and visiting.
• Gospel in the Community: We are also burdened for outreach to begin in the community but have not had the strength to do too much at this time with the other areas of burden above taking priority.

Church-life and Blending in the Twin Cities Metro Area

The church in Brooklyn Park is about 20 minutes away and there are about 60 saints meeting there. There is a lot of blending between the localities. We blend for the Lord’s Table monthly (every other month in Brooklyn Park, every other in Minneapolis), we do the same thing with the prayer meeting. The leading brothers from both localities also come together monthly. We are endeavoring to enter into the one accord with both churches laboring for the Lord’s interests in this metro.

We also regularly try to blend with those churches which are within a 2-4 hour drive. (this includes Rochester, Eau Claire Wisconsin, Milford Iowa, Fargo ND, Madison WI. In the fall we hold a conference for churches within the 5 state area.

Migration Need

• Saints: We welcome all migrating saints and there is need for more families and generally more saints from all stages of life.
• Students: We have a few students, but the current core would be strengthened if more students with a heart for the Lord could move here to attend the University of Minnesota.
• Serving Ones: We have one older brother and one young sister serving Full Time as well as one brother in his 30s serving Part Time on the campus. Adding some younger brothers and sisters to serve would give us a strong team and could help the campus labor take off.

Contact: Zach Gunderson: zachlovesjesus@gmail.com | 612-986-3372 Michael Lisi: mlisi.email@gmail.com | 612-500-8357

Strategy for Housing

The preferred area is near the University of Minnesota campus. The recommended neighborhoods specifically are Prospect Park, Marcy Holmes, Lauderdale, and Como. These four neighborhoods are low crime, near campus, near downtown, near where we meet, and there are saints already living in there. Recent real estate listings for these areas show an average price of $330,000 for 3 bedrooms with approximately 1600-2000 sq. feet. As a general rule the Prospect Park and Marcy Holmes area runs at about $197 per sq. ft for purchase and $1.84 sq. ft for rental. Lauderdale and Como are running at $170 sq. ft purchase and $2 sq. ft for rental.

There are also saints living in nearby suburbs. If the saints desire to live in the suburbs we would recommend the following places based on proximity to the city and the other saints, as well as other practical factors like low crime, good education, and affordable housing: New Brighton, Falcon Heights, St Anthony. We encourage the saints to reach out with questions as the brothers are knowledgeable about the area and would be happy to fellowship more details based on the specific needs/burden of the migrating saints.

Minneapolis and the Twin Cities Metro

1. Minneapolis has a population of 422K and is the central hub of the Twin City Metro Area, population 3.6M. The Twin Cities is the 16th largest metro in the US, ahead of Denver and St. Louis and just behind Seattle.
2. The Twin Cities is the largest metro in its geographical area (there is no larger metro North of Dallas, West of Chicago, or East of Seattle. It is a key metro for this large portion of the country.)
3. The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis is one of the largest in the country (#6 just after the University of Florida and above UT Austin) with 51,848 students.
4. There are at least 14 other colleges and universities in the Twin Cities metro.
5. The economy in the Twin Cities metro is strong:
   • Minneapolis has the 5th highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country. In the Metro area there are 19 Fortune 500 companies including companies like Target, General Mills, 3M, United Health, Medtronic, Best Buy, US Bancorp, Cargill, Ameriprise Financial, Polaris, Land O’Lakes, Radisson Hotel Group etc.
   • Unemployment is currently 2.9%.
6. Demographics: Minneapolis is a typical American city from a demographics perspective:
   • White, 63.8%
   • Black, 18.6%
   • American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
   • Asian, 5.6%
   • Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, less than 0.1%
   • Persons reporting two or more races, 4.4%
   • Hispanic or Latino, 10.5%
7. Economy
   • Median home prices are low, especially compared to similar sized metros. Median home price: $242K. Median salary is $56K.
   • Minneapolis has the #1 public park system in the US. There are many beautiful trails and parks to enjoy.
   • Minneapolis is called the city of lakes (the 7 country metro has 833.) There is a lot of natural beauty in this area, much of which is centered around its lakes, Minnesota has over 11,000 of them!
   • For those who enjoy being outdoors and active, Minnesota offers countless opportunities for camping, hiking, boating, kayaking and exploring in its many forests, rivers, lakes and streams.
   • In general, Minneapolis is a great place to live. In 2019 it ranked #6 in the US News World Best Places to Live Report.
8. Education
   • Minneapolis is an educated city, ranking 6th among cities for population % with a four-year degree and also 6th for advanced degrees (CityLab via US Census).
   • As a state Minnesota is ranked 12th for K-12 public education and there are many good schools in the metro area.
   • The Minneapolis School District has an open enrollment policy which means that about 9% of the student population is currently enrolled in a school not in their immediate neighborhood. There are a number of top-rated schools in the Minneapolis District.
   • For school ratings check out greatschools.org
   • In January there is a Minneapolis School Fair where parents and students can meet representatives from schools in the Minneapolis area.