A Faith Community Older Than the City
Plymouth Congregational Church has stood on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis for more than a century and has been part of the city for nearly two of those. Founded in April 1857 by eighteen people who believed faith required action, Plymouth was already a working institution before Minnesota was a state - the first building, at Fourth and Nicollet, was dedicated on December 22, 1857, nearly five months before statehood. Within a year, the congregation fired its first minister for not taking a strong enough stand against slavery, and that instinct - to read the gospel against the grain of its own moment - has shaped Plymouth ever since.
Today Plymouth occupies a full city block bordered by Nicollet, Franklin, LaSalle, and Groveland Avenues, at the meeting point of four Minneapolis neighborhoods: Stevens Square, Whittier, the Wedge, and Ventura Village. The current building has stood at the corner of Nicollet and Franklin since 1909, expanded in stages - the Chapel in 1948, the Howard Conn Fine Arts Center with its proscenium theatre in 1968, Jones Commons in 1995, and the 2007 remodel of Jones Commons and expansion of the Education Wing. The congregation numbers roughly 700 members, based all over Minnesota and around the world, and operates on an annual budget of approximately $2.9 million.
Plymouth is progressive, independent, and Christian - and holds those three together deliberately. The church is affiliated with, but not a member of, the United Church of Christ, and is a member of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. There is no creed to accept and no dogma to affirm. Members are bound by covenant, drawing on the Salem Covenant of 1629: a voluntary promise to walk with one another in all of God's ways, as God is pleased to reveal them. That structure of self-governance has shaped Plymouth into a congregation whose decisions on welcome, witness, and justice are made by its members rather than handed down from outside.
The church acknowledges that Plymouth sits on Dakota homeland and recognizes the Dakota people as the original stewards of the land, with whose forced removal - through broken treaties, violence, and displacement - the congregation's presence here was made possible. Plymouth shares the place today with Dakota, Ojibwe, and other Indigenous nations and communities who continue to call the Twin Cities home.
Sundays at Plymouth: Two Services, One Community
From September through May, Plymouth offers two Sunday services that share the same room but differ in feel. The 9 AM service is led by jazz pianist and First Service Music Director Laura Caviani with the Plymouth Jazz Trio, a more contemporary and intimate gathering shaped by instrumental improvisation. The 11 AM service features the full Plymouth Adult Choir and the Holtkamp pipe organ under Organist-Choirmaster Philip Brunelle, who has shaped the music of this congregation since 1968 - making him only the third person to hold that role at Plymouth since 1900, and one of the longest-tenured church musicians in the country. Between the two services, at 10 AM, Plymouth's program year offers adult Spiritual Formation classes, Church School for children and youth, and other learning gatherings.
During the summer - from Memorial Day through Labor Day - Plymouth consolidates to a single 10 AM service, with adult education offered at 9 AM beforehand. The summer schedule keeps one service rather than two so the congregation can gather around a single table through the warmer months.
All services are offered in person and online via livestream on YouTube and Vimeo. Bulletins for the current Sunday are posted in advance, and past sermons are available to watch, listen to, or download as a PDF. Children fully participate in worship at Plymouth; during the program year, families worship together, with quiet activities and designated spaces available for younger children who need to move. The Sunday Forum at 10 AM brings in speakers on faith, justice, and current events throughout the year.
Visitors are met at the door. Plymouth's welcome committee greets newcomers, helps them find their way, and offers to pair them with a member who can serve as a guide on a first visit. There is no pressure to become a member and no expectation of any kind - many people participate fully in Plymouth's life for years without ever formally joining.
Music as Central
Music is not background at Plymouth - it is central to worship, central to community, and central to who the congregation is. For more than 165 years Plymouth has cultivated a musical life of extraordinary depth, on the conviction that the arts are one of many paths to the sacred.
The instrument at the heart of it is the Holtkamp pipe organ, installed in 1981 and widely regarded as one of the finest in Minnesota - equally suited for hymn playing, choral accompaniment, and solo repertoire. Plymouth has had an organ in every sanctuary since its founding, with earlier instruments built by Hook & Hastings and Aeolian-Skinner.
Philip Brunelle leads the 11 AM service and the Plymouth Adult Choir, an auditioned 50-voice ensemble that sings for the 11 AM liturgy. Beyond Plymouth, Brunelle is the founder and artistic director of VocalEssence - originally the Plymouth Music Series, launched in 1969 from this building and now one of the world's premier choral organizations. VocalEssence still calls Plymouth home, with its rehearsals, offices, and many of its performances here, and its programs (including WITNESS, celebrating Black composers and artists, and ¡Cantaré!, bringing Mexican composers into Minnesota classrooms) keep the partnership alive in the wider community.
The musical life extends well beyond the Adult Choir. The Chapel Singers, a non-auditioned adult ensemble, draws on contemporary and jazz traditions. The Plymouth Adult Handbells perform in worship during the fall, winter, and spring. The Summer Choir opens to anyone who wants to sing in June, with no audition required. For younger singers, the Young Voices choir (ages 3-5) explores early musical concepts through movement and song, the Fire Tree Singers (grades K-6) build ensemble and music fundamentals, and the Youth Choir (grades 7-12) performs monthly in worship. A constellation of soloists - soprano Maria Jette and Kathryn Rupp, alto Lisa Drew, tenor Dan Dressen, and bass Jim Bohn - appear regularly with the Plymouth Choir, alongside Assistant Music Director Marie Scholtz and Assistant Organist Sonja Thompson. Meredith Wallace directs the handbell choir; Mary Laymon directs the Chapel Singers; Ann Tandy-Trieber serves as Music Librarian. The Plymouth Choir sings music from the Baroque and Classical eras as readily as it commissions and premieres new work, and Philip Brunelle welcomes new composers as readily as he revisits the established canon.
That tradition spills out of the sanctuary and into the wider musical life of the Twin Cities. Plymouth has hosted the U.S. premiere of Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio and presents choral works, jazz, handbell concerts, and collaborations year-round. Jazz Meets Gospel is a recurring program that brings together the Plymouth Jazz Trio and the gospel tradition. The Advent season offers Evensong; Lent brings its own Lenten Evensong and Lenten Meditations, written each year for anyone who wants them.
Children, Youth, and Families
At Plymouth, children and young people are fully engaged members of the community - not the church of tomorrow, but the church of today. Children, Youth, and Families programming nurtures faith, belonging, and curiosity from early childhood through high school, with dedicated offerings for every stage.
Church School runs during the program year on the second floor of the Education Wing during the 10 AM programming hour. It offers children and youth opportunities to explore faith, build relationships, and develop as members of Plymouth - with plenty of room for intergenerational connection along the way. Programming is organized by age groups: 2-5 year olds, 3rd-5th graders, and 6th-8th graders meet separately, with high school youth engaged in their own gatherings. The Rally Sunday Festival each September marks the kickoff of the program year, with food trucks, inflatables, face painting, a stained-glass selfie station, and a blessing for students and educators in both Sunday services.
Confirmation at Plymouth is a season of honest inquiry - scripture read closely, Plymouth's history examined, inherited beliefs held up to the light - walked alongside adult guides from the congregation. Doubt is not a failure of the process; it is the process. At the end, each student decides for themselves whether to join. Both answers are honored.
Nina Jonson directs Children, Youth, and Families. She grew up in this church, was married in the Sanctuary like her parents, and her daughters were baptized and confirmed here. Before joining the staff, she oversaw education and training at myHealth for Teens and Young Adults and directed enrollment and outreach at Minnesota Independence College and Community, and her approach to faith formation is joyful, hands-on, and unafraid of a little glitter. Parents can sign up for a regular newsletter from Nina that covers Sunday programs, special events, learning opportunities, and family support.
Beyond Sunday mornings, the Children's and Youth programming calendar is rich: Young Voices, Fire Tree Singers, Youth Choir (Grades 6-12), midweek youth gatherings, multigeneration events, summer programming, and Plymouth's tradition of intergenerational service projects.
Adult Formation and Spiritual Life
Plymouth's adult education programming is rooted in the belief that faith is not static - it grows, shifts, and deepens through curiosity, conversation, and community. Offerings span contemplation, theology, current events, and justice, and are designed to meet people wherever they are on the journey.
The Sunday Forum brings in-depth conversations on faith, justice, and the world during the 10 AM programming hour - recent and upcoming forums have addressed the Minnesota Truth Council, climate and environmental justice, and poetry as a mode of healing. Small Groups meet around shared topics and interests throughout the week. Book discussions, including the Heart of Christianity Book Study, gather around shared reading. Scripture Study meets on Thursday afternoons during the program year. A Re*Vision Writing Workshop supports writers working in faith and justice.
The contemplative life has a real home at Plymouth. Several cohorts of Contemplation in Action meet on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays through the week, drawing on the practice of putting contemplation into action in the world. The Contemplatives, a Wednesday-evening group, gathers for meditation and reflection. Tuesday Meditation meets weekly. Plymouth also offers retreats and dedicated space for meditation and prayer.
Kate Taber, Director of Spiritual Formation, guides the ministries that help people deepen their spiritual lives at every age and stage. She came to Plymouth by way of a ministry that has ranged widely: college chaplain in South Carolina, Presbyterian Church (USA) mission co-worker for peacemaking in Jerusalem, minister in an urban congregation, and congregational organizer with Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative - the affordable-housing collaborative Plymouth helped launch.
Special observances and seasonal studies round out the calendar. Plymouth gathers Lenten Meditations each year as a free collection of short readings to keep company through the season; readers can use them in any way that fits. Advent offerings and the Advent Evensong anchor the approach to Christmas. The whole education program runs through a calendar that anyone can subscribe to via Apple, Google, or Outlook.
A Building That Works for the City
Plymouth's building occupies a full city block in south Minneapolis, and the building does not belong to Sundays alone. Theater companies rehearse here. Choirs fill its halls. Recovery groups, community organizations, and neighbors gather in its rooms all week long. Many of Plymouth's Community Partners are also tenants in the building, and the spaces the congregation has built to do its own work are available to outside groups and individuals when the church calendar permits.
The Sanctuary seats 650, including the balcony, and has been host to book releases by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and poets, a Beyoncé Mass, comedians, and world-renowned musical artists. It is supported by full production-quality audio-visual services and staff. The Chapel, a smaller worship space on the main level, suits gatherings that want the room to carry some of the weight - memorial services, weddings, recitals, and quiet services where a large sanctuary would feel like too much room for too few people.
Jones Commons, Plymouth's main gathering space on the main level near the Sanctuary, is the building's largest open floor at just over 3,000 square feet - perfect for a reception, a community meal, a vendor or resource fair, a registration area, or the hour after a concert when 200 people need somewhere to stand and talk. It works equally well alongside larger bookings: a wedding or performance in the Sanctuary or Conn Theatre with the reception in the Commons, handled as a single reservation.
For smaller gatherings, Plymouth offers meeting rooms from twelve seats to two hundred and eight, across two levels. The Nancy Baltins Room (lower level, sized for forty) suits a board retreat, training session, class, or community meeting. The Parsons Room (twelve seats, main level) handles an interview, committee, or planning session, and is also available for lease to a single-practitioner office. Room 215 (second level) works well for meetings that want to avoid the building's main traffic. Jackman and Lenmark (lower level) can be booked alone or together as the building's most flexible large gathering space, with Lenmark built for banquet layouts, conference setups, or standing receptions. Fireside (second floor, roughly 900 square feet) is the largest room on its floor. The Bovey Room, which holds Plymouth's archives, suits a committee or board meeting that would rather gather in a space with a sense of the building's story. The Ross Room is the smallest main-level meeting room; the PWO Room sits across the corridor.
Parking is free across several nearby lots, including Plymouth's own 144-space lot and a 50-space lot at Mall Center on Groveland. Accessible parking is available in the Plymouth lot; a current disability hang tag or official notice is required to use designated accessible spaces. The main accessible entrance is at 1919 LaSalle Avenue (Door 1). The Conn Theatre has its own accessible entrance at 1900 Nicollet Avenue (Door 3). The building is physically accessible, with an elevator and accessible entrances on two sides of the block. Visitors who need help on arrival - someone to meet them at their car, walk with them to the entrance, or simply be aware they are coming - can call any time, for any reason. Plymouth's safety and facilities team, led by Director Malcolm Williams, is on-site around the clock, year-round, and treats safety as an extension of hospitality rather than a barrier to it.
Plymouth is served by Metro Transit routes 2, 17, and 18, with all stops within easy walking distance of the building. Bike parking is available on-site, with easy access from the Midtown Greenway and the surrounding neighborhood bike infrastructure. Plymouth is easy to reach by bus, bike, or car from anywhere in the city.
For organizations that need an address rather than a date on the calendar, four spaces are available to lease: the Elaine Marsh Library (roughly 900 square feet on the main level, available to a long-term tenant with the existing shelving removable for an office, therapy practice, or small nonprofit); the Parsons Room and One Groveland (each rentable by the event until leased); and the entire Education Wing - a self-contained second floor of 8,462 square feet, with ten rooms from 193 to 783 square feet, six classrooms, an early childhood room, a workroom, two private offices, a kitchenette, restrooms, a dedicated stairwell, and elevator access. Rooms in the Education Wing lease from $386 to $1,566 a month.
The Arts at Plymouth
The Howard Conn Fine Arts Center is one of the city's hidden gems. Its centerpiece is the Conn Theatre, a 200-seat proscenium house that has been home for years to Youth Performance Company and Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company, and that hosts concerts, plays, dance, film festivals, readings, forums, podcast tapings, comedy, and the occasional small circus. The Theatre's 32-foot proscenium, 26 feet of stage depth, and 15-foot-9 ceiling accommodate a wide range of productions; three accessibility seating positions are integrated into the house. Touring artists and ensembles find a working theatre, complete with an Allen & Heath QU32 console feeding QSC mains and a working mic locker of Shure and Sennheiser dynamics, a 7,000-lumen laser projector and three 1080 PTZ cameras for livestream and capture, and an ETC Element 40 lighting board driving a mixed inventory of LED and conventional fixtures, including two followspots.
Just outside the Theatre, the Conn Gallery presents rotating exhibitions of visual art by local and regional artists throughout the program year - work that challenges, comforts, and inspires. Admission is free; the gallery is open during church hours and events, and is also available as an event space. Recent exhibitions have ranged from Amy Warner's portrait drawings of her 97-year-old mother, to John Kaul's Indigenous Water Protectors portraits honoring twenty-one Indigenous women water protectors and featuring art by five of them, to The Passion of Art: Creating and Collecting, a multi-artist exhibition on view through October 2026.
Plymouth's permanent collection includes four monumental seasonal embroideries - Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer - designed by British illustrator Pauline Baynes and stitched over four decades by 130 volunteer Needlers from the congregation. The panels rotate on and off the Guild Hall wall on a preservation schedule recommended by textile conservators, with rest periods between exhibitions. An Embroidery Endowment funds conservation, safe storage, and the specialist expertise that keeps them on view for future members and visitors.
The Board for the Arts oversees Plymouth's artistic life - visual, performing, literary, and decorative arts - through committees in Music, Gallery, Theater, Performance, Literary Witnesses, Embroideries, Decorating, and Tours. The Literary Witnesses series brings regionally and nationally known writers to Plymouth for readings and conversation; recent programs have included poetry readings such as All Night, the Lillies. Plymouth also offers four guided tours of its building each fall and spring - What's Where and How to Get There; Stained Glass Windows; Art and Architecture; and Nooks, Crannies, and Fun Facts - free, all but the last fully accessible.
Justice and Outreach: Faith Put to Work
Plymouth's justice work is not a program or a committee - it is a way of being in the world, rooted in the covenant and expressed through direct service, sustained advocacy, and genuine partnership with the communities most affected by injustice. The church was founded by people who believed faith required action, and that instinct has shaped Plymouth for more than 165 years. The congregation organized and acted during Operation Metro Surge, when ICE enforcement came into the streets of south Minneapolis, including the Alex Pretti Prayer Vigil, a public witness of solidarity and grief; Project Brown Bag, which delivered food directly to residents who could not safely leave their homes; collections for the Little Free Pantry and Groveland Food Shelf; MONARCA observer trainings; and the Emerson School Food Packing Project.
The Board for Justice Action carries Plymouth's public voice for justice, uniting the church's work for immigrant justice, racial justice, LGBTQ+ justice, housing justice, and climate justice in one shared effort. These are understood not as separate causes but as one struggle for the dignity of people and the planet. The Board for Justice Action's committees include Immigration Justice and Reimagining Community Safety, which works for constitutional, non-discriminatory policing and accountability that holds - engaging public officials, writing to the City Council and to the press, and hosting forums that bring city leaders, organizers, journalists, and neighbors to the same table. Plymouth is also proud to be an Open and Affirming congregation, an explicit and unwavering welcome for LGBTQ+ people that is visible in worship, governance, and public witness.
The Board of Outreach connects Plymouth to the organizations doing sustained work in the neighborhood and across the city. Members serve meals through Simpson Housing, prepare and share a hot meal in Plymouth's own building each month through the Third Sunday Meal, pack weekend food for local students through Every Meal, steward the orchard at Good Courage Farm, and join Habitat for Humanity build weeks across the metro. Plymouth also stewards a Community Fund, and during Christmas and Easter, special offerings direct the congregation's generosity toward food security and housing. Point-of-contact assistance is available through the church office year-round for neighbors facing urgent need.
Many of Plymouth's community partners were either founded at Plymouth or have Plymouth as their institutional home. Groveland Food Shelf was founded here and has made its home in the basement of the church ever since - growing from a neighborhood act of care into one of the area's essential food resources. Eligibility is a single sentence: if you need food, you are eligible. Groveland operates a client-choice model where guests shop for what they like and need, because food assistance should come with dignity, not a pre-packed box. A refrigerated van rescues fresh food daily from local grocers and bakeries. Plymouth's doors open early on the coldest and hottest days so no one waits outside, and Plymouth members serve here week after week, year after year.
Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative began as the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation with the creation of supportive housing at Lydia Apartments, across LaSalle Avenue from the church. What started as one congregation's project has grown into a collaborative of more than sixty congregations putting their faiths into action through leadership, advocacy, organizing, and service - today one of the leading developers of deeply affordable housing in the Twin Cities.
Other community partners include Stevens Square Community Organization, the resident-led neighborhood association that makes its home in Plymouth's building; VocalEssence; Family Tree Clinic, Plymouth's neighbor since 2021; zAmya Theater Project, which uses theater to advance housing justice; MONARCA, supporting immigrant communities in the Twin Cities; Immigrant Defense Network, providing legal support and advocacy for immigrants facing detention and deportation; Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity; Backpack Project MN, providing backpacks filled with daily-use personal care items to young people experiencing homelessness; Simpson Housing Services; Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative; and Good Courage Farm. Plymouth also hosts the Annual Homeless Memorial March and Service each December in partnership with Simpson Housing Services - a public witness to the lives of those lost to homelessness that draws hundreds of community members every year and has done so for more than four decades.
Free community meals are available each Sunday from 5:00 to 6:00 PM at downtown Minneapolis congregations in rotation: the first (and fifth) Sunday at Hennepin United Methodist Church, the second at Plymouth Congregational Church, the third at Plymouth Congregational Church, and the fourth at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Plymouth's Second Sunday Meal and Third Sunday Meal are free tables open to anyone - member, neighbor, or stranger. No questions asked. Guests are offered items like soap, toothpaste, socks, and other necessities, and a health care professional provides a listening ear, answers questions, and suggests additional community resources.
The Plymouth Drop In Center
For more than fifty years, Plymouth has kept a standing appointment with joy. The Plymouth Drop In Center is a safe, welcoming, and genuinely fun community for low-income adults living nearby who are experiencing mental health challenges or other special needs. While other county drop-in centers exist, Plymouth's program is distinctive in its warmth and its deeper sense of spiritual community. Participants go places and do things they might not otherwise have access to, including an annual trip to Camp Knutson over Labor Day week.
The calendar runs deep: crafts and games, off-site outings and transportation to get there, Sacred Bingo on the fourth Wednesday of every month (one of Drop In's most beloved events, drawing a large crowd), and a steady rhythm of gatherings throughout the year. The heart of Drop In isn't the activity list - it's the friendship. Volunteers help run whatever's on the schedule, but mainly they offer kindness, respect, and genuine companionship to neighbors who too often meet the opposite out in the world. No skills are required; the ministry is showing up.
Barb Vellecillo serves as Drop-in Coordinator. Anyone interested in volunteering, donating prizes for Sacred Bingo (gift cards of $5-$10, personal care products, notebooks and journals, socks, candles, mugs, and small craft projects are always welcome), or simply visiting can reach out through the church office.
Care and Community Life
Congregational Care at Plymouth exists to ensure that no one in this community walks alone. Whether facing illness, loss, a life transition, or simply needing someone to talk to, the care network is led by trained staff, volunteer lay ministers, and a community that takes seriously its covenant to care for one another. Birdie Cunningham, Director of Congregational Care, coordinates the full range of care ministries available to members and friends of the congregation. She came to congregational care after two decades in public health work that taught her that healing happens in community, and her path has included hospice care and training as a death doula, accompanying people and families through life's hardest thresholds. She is pursuing a Master of Divinity in Interreligious Chaplaincy at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.
Pastoral Care is available for prayer, conversation, and presence - in the hospital, at home, or over a cup of coffee. The Caregiver Support Group meets on the second Thursday of every month at 10 AM in the Plymouth Chapel and is open to anyone caring for an adult partner, friend, or aging parent - no registration needed. Engaging with Aging, a quarterly group, explores the challenges everyone faces as they grow older: senior housing options, estate planning, mental and physical health, hospice and palliative care, yoga, meditation, spirituality, and more. The Grief Support Group meets Saturday mornings at 10 AM through Plymouth's partnership with the Downtown Coalition for Grief Support, offering weekly sessions for anyone navigating the loss of a spouse or partner, family member, or child. Each meeting includes an educational presentation or a personal story of grief and recovery, followed by small-group discussions led by trained facilitators who understand grief from personal experience. Mental Health Connect partners with Plymouth on education, support, and access to care, working to end mental health stigma.
Community Life at Plymouth happens over coffee and donuts, around tables, and in unhurried conversation. The Welcome Committee greets visitors at the door and can pair newcomers with a member guide before their first visit. Coffee Fellowship gathers after worship. One More Chair, Plymouth's welcoming and fellowship ministry, builds community through social events, shared meals, outings, and informal gatherings, with small groups for nearly every interest - book groups, bridge, golf, gardening, ukulele, breakfast and lunch tables, and easygoing conversation - many meeting on weekday mornings and afternoons. Midweek Mingle is a Wednesday-evening supper for members and friends. Other recurring gatherings include a Tuesday Men's Group, a Tuesday Meditation, a Soul Circle Men's Group and Soul Circle Women's Group, OMC Men's and Women's Book Clubs, the Heart of Christianity Book Study, Knit-A-Bit, Gentle Yoga, Focus on Sobriety meetings, and Creative Quarterly workshops such as Theatre of the Spirit.
Governance and Membership
Plymouth is a Congregational church, which means the congregation governs itself. The members, gathered in congregational meetings, are the church's highest authority - they approve the budget, call a minister, amend the bylaws, and elect members to leadership. Between those meetings, the Deacons hold the church's spiritual and governing trust: they set the Purposes of the Church and tend to the congregation's spiritual life and long-range direction. The Leadership Council, made up of the chairs of each board, the Moderators, and the Council's own officers, brings the working parts of the church to one table so the boards can plan and act in concert.
Seven boards do the actual work of ministry: the Board for the Arts; the Board of Community Life; the Board of Finance and Administration; the Board for Justice Action; the Board of Outreach; the Board of Spiritual Formation; and the Board of Worship. Each is supported by committees, task forces, and work groups that carry specific assignments within it. Every one of these roles is filled by members of the congregation.
The Purposes of the Church are stated plainly. Within: Plymouth finds sanctuary for the spiritual journey, seeks the sacred in itself and in others, cultivates its capacity for love, and lives in the hope of renewal and transformation. Among: Plymouth walks together in community, cares for one another, honors many pathways to the sacred, and nurtures a culture of genuine welcome. Beyond: Plymouth puts faith to work, investing time, talent, and treasure in service to people in need - advancing human rights and social, economic, racial, and environmental justice. All people are welcome at Plymouth: individuals and families of any sexual orientation, gender identity, race, national origin, socioeconomic status, age, mental or physical health, or ability.
Membership at Plymouth is not about belief. There is no creed, no doctrine one must affirm, and no test to pass. Membership is a covenant - a voluntary commitment to walk with this community, to contribute to its life, and to hold oneself accountable to its shared values. Becoming a member means joining that shared responsibility. It also means belonging - one's name is known here. Plymouth offers a series of informal classes for anyone curious about Plymouth, typically running in the spring and fall and concluding with New Member Sunday, when those who choose to formally join are welcomed into the congregation. Members govern the church; visitors and friends are welcome in every part of Plymouth's life without formal membership.
Generosity and Stewardship
Every gift to Plymouth does real work in the world - sustaining worship and music, nurturing families, funding direct care for neighbors in need, and powering justice work in the city and beyond. Plymouth's understanding of financial stewardship begins not with obligation but with abundance. Each fall, Plymouth conducts its annual appeal, and the annual pledge underpins the operating budget that makes possible everything from Sunday worship and pastoral care to children's programming and justice work.
There are many ways to give. Online giving is available through Plymouth's Realm giving platform, with one-time gifts or recurring giving that can be directed to specific funds including the General Fund, the Benevolence Fund, or Community Fund Offerings. Checks can be mailed or dropped off at the church office. Gifts of appreciated stock or securities can be made through Plymouth's accounting team. Plymouth also accepts IRA charitable rollovers for donors 70½ or older, qualified charitable distributions of up to $100,000 per year that are not counted as taxable income. The Flame Society recognizes members and friends who have included Plymouth in their estate plans through a bequest, trust, or other planned gift, with wishes for anonymity always honored. Legacy gifts may be designated to either the Legacy Fund, which supports Plymouth's ongoing ministry and operations, or the Endowment Fund, which provides long-term financial stability for Plymouth's mission.
The Benevolence Fund provides direct financial assistance to individuals and families in need, members and neighbors alike - one of the most direct expressions of Plymouth's covenant commitment to care for one another and the wider community. The Third Sunday Meal fund supports Plymouth's monthly free meal. The Embroidery Endowment ensures that Plymouth's monumental Pauline Baynes embroideries are conserved and preserved for future generations. Community Fund Offerings during Christmas and Easter direct the congregation's generosity toward community organizations doing economic, environmental, and social justice work.
Welcome and Logistics
The best entrance to use is 1919 LaSalle Avenue, where the welcome desk is staffed and ready to help with questions or with navigating the building. Free parking is available in the lot south of the church and in the lot at the southwest corner of the block, with accessible parking in the Plymouth lot. Sunday morning parking is available across both lots; vehicles in either lot without a valid Plymouth permit are towed at midnight every night.
There is no dress code. All are welcome, and Plymouth means it - guests will see casual, business casual, jeans, suits, and dresses, all on the same Sunday. Services are offered in person and online via livestream on YouTube and Vimeo. Children fully participate in worship; quiet activities and designated spaces are available for younger children who need to move.
Building hours run from 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM seven days a week during the summer (June through August) and from 8:30 AM to 9:30 PM Monday through Saturday and 8:30 AM to 9:00 PM on Sunday during the program year (September through May). Plymouth is served by Metro Transit routes 2, 17, and 18, and bike parking is available on-site with easy access from the Midtown Greenway.
Plymouth's neighborhood is one of the best places to eat in Minneapolis. Within a short walk or drive are Cajun Boiling, La Mama Restaurant, Copper Hen, French Meadow Bakery & Café, Christo's, Maria's Café, Rainbow Chinese Restaurant, Quang Vietnamese Restaurant, and Black Forest Inn - many of them along Nicollet Avenue's Eat Street corridor.
Plymouth's lead minister is Rev. JT Smiedendorf, who joined the congregation as Intentional Interim Minister in March 2025. Ordained in 2001, he has served churches in Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and Colorado, specializes in guiding large congregations into their next chapter, holds an MDiv from Iliff School of Theology, and carries ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ. He is known for grounded presence, thoughtful preaching, and a commitment to justice for people and planet. Plymouth's annual budget is approximately $2.9 million, and its congregation totals about 700 members based all over Minnesota and around the world.
Anyone curious about Plymouth is welcome to reach out: by phone at (612) 871-7400, by email at churchinfo@plymouth.org, by signing up for the weekly email, or simply by showing up on a Sunday. There is always room for one more.