Over the past six years, God has been working in our lives and creating a longing in our hearts for the restoration and redemption of the local church. During this time God has given us the desire and vision to see this happen in East Nashville. As a result, we are constantly awakening to the site of extreme poverty, brokenness, and hopelessness. It is our dream to see East Nashville changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was from this dream that East Nashville Community Church emerged.
Mission:
Love East Nashville
Vision:
Individually and Corporately worship God by fully pursuing, obeying, and proclaiming Jesus to the hurting, depressed, cynical, under-served, and confused of East Nashville and our extended community.
We fulfill this by:
- Loving without condition as Christ loves us (John 13:35, John 15:13, 1 John 4:19)
- Accepting people as they are with no prejudice (Galatians 3:28, )
- Giving hope to the hopeless (Jeremiah 29:11)
- Forgiving no questions asked (Matthew 18:22, Colossians 3:13, Psalm 103:8-13)
- Encouraging everyone we meet (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
- Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus without shame or fear (Matthew 16:15, Romans 1:16)
- Growing and helping others grow more and more into the likeness of Christ (Matthew 28:19, Proverbs 27:17, Hebrews 10:24, Luke 2:52, John 15:2)
- Meeting people’s physical, spiritual, and emotional needs as God meets our needs (Psalm 23, James 1:27, Matthew 6:26, Luke 10:25-37)
- Including and reflecting the whole community, relishing how our differences make the whole complete (Hebrews 10:25, Romans 12:5)
Core Values:
Community
– We believe that all people are created in the image of God and are meant to live in community with one another. God exists in a perfect community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and created men and women to also live in that same type of community. We seek to model this particularly in the community of East Nashville. It is our belief that this community is the area in which Christ has called us to transform and redeem by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our community is not limited to the area we live, but to the Global community at large. (Genesis 28:3; 1 John 2:10; James 3:17; Philippians 2:1; 2 Chronicles 31:18)
Service
– We believe that Jesus Christ patterned for us a life of serving others. We believe that meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of those around us is a vital component to our ministry. We honor His plan and mission by doing the things that glorify Him. Living a life of service is a crucial component in our testimony of transformation in Christ. (Matthew 25: 41-46; 28:16-20; Ephesians 2:10; James 2:14-17)
Authenticity
– We believe authentic Christians are willing to be open about their strengths and weaknesses. Hypocrisy is the death of the church’s effectiveness. This means we encourage Christians to be on guard against living a double life. Relational authenticity is vital to the life of the community. Truth-telling and Biblical conflict resolutions are essential to relational authenticity. Being authentic is the key and the crucial process that shows and tells of transformation in Christ. (Matthew 26:38ff, Ephesians 4:25-26, 32, Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:29; Hebrews 12:1; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3)
Risk-taking
– We believe risk-taking brings change and quality improvements that will positively impact the world around us in order to glorify God. We recognize that God often calls His disciples to uncomfortable, different, and unknown environments and atmospheres in order to accomplish His will. Our hope is that we are often stretched outside of our comfort zone, challenged physically, mentally and spiritually to faithfully follow Christ. We want to be pushed beyond our routine church commitments and into places that we would never be if not for our desire to follow Christ. Wherever Christ is moving, we want to be there. We hope that through obedient, often risky, service both in our local and global communities we will make Jesus known. (Matthew 9:20; Luke 8:48; Hebrews 11:6; 2 Corinthians 11:23)
Worship:
– We believe worship is the only appropriate response to God and His gracious redemption of His people through Jesus. Because offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is our spiritual act of worship, all attempts to honor God are worship. We believe that worship is not only expressed through music, teaching, and creative arts, but also is expressed through the extravagant art of living as a new creation in Christ. We encourage the use of all music and the arts as expressions of worship as well as service, giving, study, prayer, self-discipline, and kindness.
