Bobby Ross Jr.
It’s not your grandfather’s Church of Christ.
Then again, it’s not trying to be.
The New Garden Church — which grew out of the Hermitage Church of Christ, a more traditional congregation that closed in 2018 — seeks to reach a new generation with the gospel.
Located twenty minutes east of downtown Nashville in Hermitage, the church meets in a middle school auditorium. It's a relaxed environment where women as well as men speak from the stage and a member of the praise team strums a guitar during service.
“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 people — has become integral to the 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, 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,” Dawn Roberts, the school's assistant principal, 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 and thrived for decades.
By 1967, when members opened a large new building at a busy intersection, average Sunday attendance approached 500 people.
“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 attendees, said Andy Borchers, a former Hermitage member who made the transition to New Garden, about a half-mile away.
But by the mid-2010s, the Hermitage location — 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. 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, they determined to be proactive and become a congregation that could effectively impact their community for Christ," Bryan said of Hermitage church leaders.
Moving on and starting over
The Hermitage Church of Christ 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, including Kairos Church Planting, World Christian Broadcasting and 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. 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 and 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.”
This article was reprinted with the permission of The Christian Chronicle.
