At the most recent meeting of Nashville Presbytery, the elders welcomed two new ministers. One is from California; the other is from Texas. The additions seemed particularly fitting, given that California and Texas are two of the top states people are leaving for Nashville. It remains one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country. Even the city’s namesake, General Francis Nash, wasn’t from the area.
Nashville Presbytery is one of the fastest-growing presbyteries in the PCA in terms of overall membership in its churches. It has five churches whose membership exceeds 1,000: Christ Community, Christ Presbyterian, Covenant Presbyterian, Midtown Fellowship, and West End Community Church. The increase is the result of organic growth in new members joining existing churches.
The city is made up of neighborhoods with distinct cultures and names like Green Hills, 12 South, Wedgewood Houston, Music Row, and many more. Even Nashville’s surrounding communities — Franklin, Murfreesboro, and Mount Juliet — have taken on lives of their own. Every year, it becomes more difficult to tell where Nashville ends and the suburbs begin as it develops into a sprawling metropolis.
Before the growth took off, Nashville was part of the Tennessee Valley Presbytery, which covers most of East Tennessee. In 1994, the PCA’s General Assembly carved out Nashville and surrounding counties into a separate presbytery.
The April meeting took place on a Tuesday at West End Community Church, a congregation that began 30 years ago in a middle school and now has over 1,500 members and a 44-acre campus on the western edge of downtown. Starting at 9:00 a.m., Pastor John Bourgeois and the music team from the church led the opening worship service. As you would expect in Music City, the musicians and vocalists seemed professionally trained and highly skilled.
The sermon was delivered by Tom Gibbs, president of Covenant Theological Seminary. He used Numbers 10 as his text and reminded church leaders of the unique temptations we face when serving God’s people. He encouraged the elders present to avoid Moses’ mistake of trying to put his strength on display. The service concluded with the administration of the Lord’s Supper.
Connection and Accountability
After a break, the presbytery reconvened to work through its docket of business, led by Teaching Elder Kenny Silva as moderator and TE Ryan Hudson as stated clerk. TE George Grant presented a report from the presbytery’s Facilitating Committee after leading the presbytery in singing “Happy Birthday ” to TE Mike Fennema.
One of a presbytery’s duties is annually reviewing the records of the churches within its bounds. At this meeting, the presbytery formally approved a new review method. The new committee will be composed of one elder from every church. As the committee produces a report and cites a session regarding its minutes, the committee is encouraged to consult with that church’s session representative to seek clarity where needed. Though it isn’t stated, it seems likely that this step may help the presbytery avoid unnecessarily citing a session.
When presbyteries need to discuss sensitive issues, it is common for them to go into executive session. During the executive session, all visitors must leave the room, and the matters discussed are kept confidential except for reporting any actions that may have been taken. Executive sessions can often involve sensitive situations or information not fit for public consumption.
Nashville Presbytery went into executive session for over an hour during its meeting. As a visitor, I left the room along with around 15 other people. We still don’t know, nor need to know, the contents of this part of the meeting.
Multiplication and Ministers
Nashville Presbytery is trying to improve its church planting efforts. It has partnered with the Tennessee Valley Presbytery, which has its own church-planting movement, to provide some support. The goal is to plant 15 new churches by 2030. Evan McCarthy shared an update at the meeting about his progress in the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood.
The presbytery welcomed two ministers who were transferring in to serve Nashville churches. They also examined and approved a new candidate for the ministry. The presbytery’s Relational Health Committee announced a special fellowship for elders to take place on a weeknight at a local establishment. The presbytery seems to make a concerted effort to get men together apart from presbytery meetings.
With the growth of the presbytery and some of its prominent churches, the presbytery has found itself in the spotlight whenever one of its ministers or churches is accused of wrongdoing. Though no specific situations were discussed at this particular meeting, the presbytery discussed a guide it has developed to assist churches when responding to media inquiries. It also recently concluded an inquiry into the practices and procedures of its own Shepherding Committee.
Looking Forward
Though it doesn’t have as many churches as its neighboring presbyteries in Tennessee, the churches of Nashville Presbytery have more members and worshippers than either Tennessee Valley and Covenant Presbytery. Everything is bigger in Nashville, from the honky tonk restaurants on Broadway to the PCA churches scattered across town.
By the end of the meeting, the attendance had dwindled from the 75 in attendance when business started to around 35 remaining at the time of adjournment. Nevertheless, those who stayed were treated to encouraging reports on the 30th anniversary of Reformed University Fellowship at Belmont and a report from a Mission to the World missionary serving in Germany.
The meeting adjourned at 3:08 p.m. with the doxology, and the ministers made their journeys home, whether to local neighborhoods or outlying towns like Columbia and Cookeville.
It has been said that while driving through a city, you can gauge its growth by the number of cranes you spot across the skyline. If there’s any truth in that observation, Nashville will continue its rapid growth for some time.
Andy Jones is the editor of byFaith.