Since 2005

Doing Justice

Loving Kindness

Walking Humbly with God

Downtown Fredericksburg congregations have been involved with the community’s homeless population since the late 1980s, when they opened their church buildings as shelter space and provided meals to those in need. As that original initiative evolved, however, many people who lived chronically on the street found themselves ineligible due to unmedicated mental illnesses, disabilities, criminal backgrounds and other barriers. With no other place to access shelter and support, they found themselves literally sleeping on the street and they turned to the local churches for help.

Congregations initially responded through the development of various ministries in their individual churches. But after a community effort to help the original shelter find a permanent location in 2005, the downtown churches coalesced around a new vision for assisting those whose needs were not being met. 

Doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God, as things the Lord requires of us (Micah 6:8), became the foundational values for forming the collaborative effort that the churches would eventually call Micah Ecumenical Ministries. To this day, nine downtown congregations claim part of their missional identity in Micah, working together to cultivate community and care for neighbors. As recognition that the body of Christ can always do more together than it can ever do apart, the clergy of these churches guide the organization and nominate members from their churches to the board of directors.