Tempe First UMC sits in the middle of a vibrant and growing downtown area. As new residential condos go up in downtown Tempe, our church will once again be a neighborhood church for many people. As we consider the future of our congregation, Tempe First UMC is committed to reaching out to our new neighbors, and to finding ways to be an active, vibrant, and meaningful part of the downtown community.

If you are interested in helping us to develop a stronger presence downtown, please do let us know. We would love to hear from you.

We're trying hard to connect with other churches who are facing similar questions. To that end, we'll be hosting a conference for urban church leaders on April 3-5, 2008. This will be a national conference sponsored by the United Methodist Church for pastors and staff of downtown church settings.

A variety of topics will be covered in this conference: addressing staffing and financial issues, ministry to young adults, engaging the downtown community, building and sharing a vision for long term, successful ministry. Our focus will be to provide resources and learn from each other in ways that sustain, revitalize and grow downtown churches with our unique and important ministry to the city.

For registration forms, please contact us.