Who We Are

The Acklen Avenue Church of Christ was organized in January 1934. It moved to its present location in 1955 after meeting in nearby houses for more than two decades. God has changed the makeup of our congregation several times in our history. Since the late 90s, we have experienced an infusion of young families.

Today, we remain a purposefully small congregation, averaging between 110-125 people for Sunday morning worship. We are a young congregation, counting more than 60 young children and teens as an integral part of our number.

We Believe

• We believe in the God who created the heavens and the earth, continues to sustain his creation, and will ultimately redeem it.
• We believe Jesus Christ came to the earth as God in the flesh. We believe Jesus is the Messiah who died for our sins and conquered death and sin by rising from the grave.
• We believe the Holy Spirit indwells God’s people, both individually and collectively as the church.
• We believe God inspired the Bible, the story of God’s relationship with humanity. We believe the Bible is central for our life together as a church.
• We believe God changes us to be more like Jesus. In baptism, God acts to forgive our sins and to empower us with the Holy Spirit. Baptism is an initiatory rite of passage into the kingdom community, which begins a lifelong journey of transformation into the image of God.
• We believe God calls believers into the church, an outpost of his kingdom. We believe the church is a worshipping community united around the table of the Lord, nourished by its participation in the body of Christ, and anticipating his return.
• We believe God calls all believers to service or ministry based on unique and specific God-given gifts empowered by the Spirit. We believe ministry is equally shared between all members of the body. We do call elders and deacons to serve the congregation through specific ministries of pastoral guidance and service.
• We value intergenerational community and seek to resist age segregation. We value times when all ages can listen to and learn from each other as they all pursue Christlikeness.

We believe the kingdom is God’s new reality, a way of living in the world. At Acklen Avenue, we embody this reality in the following traits:

• We value the community we share with each other in Christ. We don’t measure community by agreement but by commitment to God and each other. We enjoy free and open dialogue. We value a communal approach to the interpretation of Scripture.
• We value children. We support parents as the primary spiritual nurturers of their children. For us, this means involving our children both in worship and acts of service.
• We value simplicity. We value substance over style. We take a minimalist approach to church programs.
• We value our religious inheritance in the churches of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement and, more specifically, the Churches of Christ.
• We value our local community. The majority of our congregation lives and works in Nashville. We connect with the community primarily through our involvement with our Acklen Partners: community non-profits and ministries where our members work and volunteer. Our worship services and ministries are open to all. We embrace the biblical command to show hospitality to strangers, exiles, and the poor. From November through March, we have a weekly commitment with Room in the Inn. Also, we are involved in missions in Central America, Haiti, and Africa.