Who We Are

The Gathering of Men offers opportunities to men of all ages (out of high school and older), from all backgrounds and experiences, no matter where you stand in your faith journey or beliefs, to participate in and help shape the faith community of men at Meridian Street United Methodist Church.

We are a group of men modeling the servant leadership of Jesus Christ to grow spiritually with a focus on leadership, discipleship, fellowship, stewardship and worship.  We are committed to helping men develop and strengthen their personal spiritual lives through social and service opportunities in our own community, our surrounding community and the world community.

Events and Activities

The Gathering of Men will have a regular schedule of events and activities that will support our purposes, including:

• Monthly meetings/Activities: We meet most months to engage in a variety of activities for study, or fellowship, or service (generally in the local community of Indianapolis).  Meeting times, dates and activities will be announced from the pulpit, in the bulletin, e-mails, and on the webpage.

• Mission/Service Projects: We will participate regularly in service projects supported by Meridian Street and which the Gathering will identify.  These include serving at Interfaith Hospitality Network, helping with home repair and maintenance for those in need through Neighbor to Neighbor, and serving meals at Roberts Park UMC homeless outreach.

• Social Activities:  Our monthly meetings will include guest speakers.  We will also identify social activities that will help build the bonds among the men of our congregation.

Community Events

Gathering of Men and School 43: Rapping with Riley

School 43 is known as the James Whitcomb Riley School, after a man who is also something known as the Hoosier Poet. One hundred years ago he was the most famous poet in America for a twenty year period. This year marked one hundred years since he passed away. He is buried on the highest point in Indianapolis, just miles from “his” school, School 43.

The Meridian Street Gathering of Men introduced a contest to the students of School 43 called Rapping with Riley. James Whitcomb Riley wrote his poems in the local dialect and his poems had a strong natural cadence. The idea arose to challenge School 43 students to use rap and historic literature to commemorate Mr. Riley, Rapping with Riley was born.  The goals of this project are to build school identity, school pride, and a change to be innovative in a modern way. The contest was promoted and judged by the school staff to promote students to participate, the Gathering of Men supplied money for the prizes as well as certificates. The contest was introduced to students in early June, in which they had to adapt a Riley poem to Rap and post it to YouTube. The winner of the contest was announced October 7, on the birthday of James Whitcomb Riley. Congratulations to Damia’a Porter, the winner of Rapping with Riley. Be sure to check out her wonderful project here.