Why A Tennessee Congregation Sold Its Building And Moved Into A School
New Garden Church meets in a middle school auditorium in Hermitage, Tenn. (Photo by Ted Parks)
HERMITAGE, Tenn. — The New Garden Church is not a traditional Church of Christ.
Then again, it’s not trying to be.
The church plant — which grew out of the Hermitage Church of Christ, a half-century-old congregation that closed in 2018 — seeks to reach a new generation with the Gospel.
Located about 20 minutes east of downtown Nashville in Hermitage, New Garden meets in a middle school auditorium. A member of the praise team strums a guitar. Women as well as men speak from the stage.
“We often say that too many churches are known for what they’re against, but we want to be known for what we’re for,” lead minister Michael Clinger explains in a video on the church website.
“We may be small in number, but we are a group of people from different generations who are committed to being in relationship with God, with each other and with our community,” adds Madeline Clinger, Michael’s wife and a part-time ministry staff member.
In just a few years, New Garden — which averages Sunday attendance of about 70 — has become known for serving its community.
Five times a year, the church feeds hundreds of neighbors through a large mobile grocery giveaway.
Members provide back-to-school supplies and volunteer as mentors at DuPont Tyler Middle School, the low-income school where the church worships.
In addition, New Garden organizes holiday meals and year-round snacks for the teachers and helps with special events for the community.
“I truly cannot say enough about what a blessing they are to our faculty and staff,” assistant principal Dawn Roberts said. “The love of Christ most definitely shines through in all they do.”
Growth and decline
The Hermitage Church of Christ formed in the 1940s on the outskirts of Nashville.
By 1967, when members opened a large new building at a busy intersection, average Sunday attendance approached 500.
“The building site chosen by the Hermitage congregation is considered by planners to be one of the most ideal church locations in the Nashville area from the standpoint of accessibility and growth potential,” The Christian Chronicle reported in February 1967. “The Hermitage community, which will be served by the congregation, is one of the fastest growing areas in Davidson County.”
Eventually, the Sunday count topped 800, said Andy Borchers, a former Hermitage member who made the transition to New Garden, about a half-mile away.
But by the mid-2010s, Hermitage — like a lot of churches nationwide — found itself in decline.
The flock grayed. The membership number fell to a few hundred. The cost to maintain the half-century-old facility rose.
“We were looking at $3,000 a week just to open the doors and not really seeing a lot of ministry,” Borchers said.
“We had maintenance issues. We had roof leaks. We had mold in the building,” he added. “We were just scraping by, and the bank account was always tight.”
The Hermitage church faced tough decisions about its future, said Blair Bryan, board chairman for Heritage21, a consulting ministry that helps congregations with financial and legal issues.
“Instead of waiting until the congregation had lost all momentum and could only serve itself while their building slowly deteriorated around them,” Bryan said of Hermitage leaders, “they determined to be proactive and become a congregation that could effectively impact their community for Christ.”
Reinvesting resources
Hermitage closed in 2018 and sold its building for $1.65 million in 2019 to the Mount Gilead Missionary Baptist Church, according to property records.
The congregation used the proceeds to benefit various ministries, Borchers said, from Kairos Church Planting to World Christian Broadcasting to Healing Hands International.
And Hermitage reinvested some of the funds to launch New Garden, including spending $100,000 to renovate the DuPont Tyler school auditorium, he noted. In exchange, the school district gave the church five years of free rent.
The new cushioned seats replaced old wooden folding chairs that were in poor condition.
“It’s a win-win deal,” Borchers said. “So now the school has band concerts in a nice place. And we have a place on Sundays for church.”
After its former minister took a new job, New Garden became a branch campus earlier this year of Nashville’s Woodmont Hills Church, which also has a heritage in Churches of Christ.
“We did not have a strategic plan to seek out additional campuses,” said Jeff Brown, Woodmont Hills’ lead minister. “We do, however, hold the crucial commitment to pay attention to what God might be up to.
“When New Garden approached us about a partnership, we listened through that lens,” Brown added. “At every phase of discernment, we found ourselves leaning in to know more. … We decided we can do better work together than we can apart.”
Josh and Olsa Whitson serve as the shepherding couple assigned to the New Garden campus. The former Hermitage members made the move to New Garden.
“That was a tough journey to go through,” Josh Whitson said of the transition from Hermitage to New Garden. “But I think we’re a healthier church on this side than we were on that side.
“We’re not too big,” he added. “But that doesn’t always mean you’re a healthy church. We’re very close-knit. We’re very active in this community and in this school.”
Innovative or unscriptural?
New Garden’s approach — including instrumental music and increased women’s roles — concerns leaders such as Phil Sanders, speaker for the national television ministry “In Search of the Lord’s Way.”
Such innovations depart from Scriptural teachings, those leaders believe.
“I can just see lots of problems … with regard to how they worship,” Sanders said. “Even if they’re baptizing according to the Scriptures — for the forgiveness of sins — their worship is going after the modern way and not after the Scriptures. I only see it as accommodating culture.”
John Mark Hicks, a retired Bible professor at Lipscomb University and an expert on the Restoration Movement, offers a different perspective.
While some of New Garden’s practices vary from more traditional churches, the congregation represents “an authentic heir of what we call Churches of Christ,” Hicks said.
“This is a new expression of the trajectory of Restoration churches,” Hicks said. “Few of those churches want to disconnect from the original heritage of congregationalism and the believer’s baptism and the weekly Lord’s Supper.”
Instead, he suggested, leaders of such churches look at the older tradition and say: “I value that because I grew up in it. It formed me. I love the people there. … But the mission of the kingdom has led us to seek a new expression of that old common ground.”
Over the past 20 years, Kairos has worked with 40 church plant projects across the U.S., executive director Bruce Bates said.
Church planters view innovation as a means — and a necessity — to fulfill the Great Commission in the modern era, Bates said.
“I think those approaches that New Garden and other churches are bravely trying have Matthew 28 at the heart of them,” he said. “I’m proud to stand with them.”
But Sanders said “Search” receives calls each week from seekers — including young people — drawn to the same simple teachings that helped Churches of Christ grow decades ago.
“The thing that is so interesting,” he said, “is that more often than not, it is the distinctive doctrinal things that we are teaching that are attracting them rather than pushing them away.”
This piece is republished from The Christian Chronicle.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for ReligionUnplugged.com and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.