Predominantly Black and White Seventh-day Adventist Congregations in Nashville, Tennessee, Hold Joint Worship Events

Two predominantly Black and predominantly white Seventh-day Adventist congregations in Nashville, Tennessee, are seeking ways to worship together at a time of heightened racial discord and tragedy across the country. The effort is called “Imagine Nashville.”

The first event took place September 30, 2017, at Riverside Chapel Church in the South Central Conference. A follow-up event was held October 28, 2017, at the Madison Campus Church in the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference. During each gathering, activities encouraged people of various ethnicities to interact, and dialogues conveyed a simple message: people are more alike than they are different.

Pastors from churches in both conferences asked attendees to “imagine” how much more good they could do for the kingdom of God and for their communities if they worked together, much like Jesus asked His disciples to do. Furman Fordham, pastor of Riverside Chapel, said in an interview before the October event that Jesus said people would know His disciples by their love for one another (John 17:21).

Local media paid attention to the first event because a deadly church shooting had taken place about a week earlier in a neighborhood just outside Nashville. The Imagine Nashville events were planned weeks in advance, but they took place amid a national backdrop of church shootings and racially charged rallies. Church leaders say this makes their message of unity more relevant.

Ken Wetmore, pastor of Madison Campus Church, said Christians often say that when God does something, Satan makes a counterfeit. “Well, I think when Satan tries to do something, God brings around the real deal, and this is the real deal,” he said. “This is about loving each other, and it’s long overdue in our community.”

Organizers say the idea grew from a request by the conference presidents to bring all the churches together for an evangelistic meeting. Some pastors suggested going further, to “really talk about being one, instead of a temporary kind of thing that will pass,” Fordham said. “And so, it literally all started from this challenge to come together for an evangelistic meeting, and us saying we think it needs to go further than that.”

Wonder Drake, an elder at Riverside, said she was glad to see the events. “I was very excited to see that my Caucasian brothers and sisters truly wanted to be united in Christ,” said Drake, who attended both events. “And, I was very excited to see that the African-Americans wanted to extend that love.” James Livingston, a member of Nashville First Church in the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, said the joint events caused him to imagine even more what Heaven will be like. “We’re all going to come together as one big family,” he said.

Moving forward, pastors plan to hold a variety of activities and training events each month. Frederick Crowe, a 102-year-old former Riverside pastor and retired conference treasurer, called Imagine Nashville a “good example” of what true unity should look like. “The church has come a long way,” Crowe said. “This is another step in the right direction. And, the more we do this, the better.”

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