Trinity United Methodist Church Nashville TN

Trinity United Methodist Church is a United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

We are a fellowship of believers, made in God's image and called as disciples of Christ to share the Good News with everyone through learning, listening, praying and working together actively to reach out to our communities.

We are a place to believe, belong, and become!

 

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Methodism at Trinity UMC

For more than 150 years Trinity United Methodist Church has served the spiritual needs of the people of East Nashville. The congregation originated about the year 1850 in a log cabin, used as a School House and near the present church, facing the old Dickerson Road. Dr. J. B. McFerrin and a Rev. Fountain E. Pitts preached occasionally to a small congregation, this was the beginning of Trinity Church. In 1852, a school house was built at the site of the present church. The school served as both a church and a school. It was in this building that a Sunday School was organized with Mr. Jackson B. White, a Presbyterian, as the superintendent. During White?s tenure as Sunday School Superintendent a "church society" was organized with fourteen charter members.

While using the school building, the Society was served by the preachers from Hobson Chapel. It was not until 1859, however, that the Society was reorganized as a church and received its first pastor, William Burr, by appointment through the General Conference. The lot on which the church now stands was contributed to the congregation about 1855. The first church building was constructed under the leadership of a local missionary, the Rev. J. A. Ellis, between 1855 and 1859, although pastoral services continued to be contributed by a succession of preachers from nearby congregations. William Green succeeded William Burr as pastor in 1861, about the time of the outbreak of the Civil War. During the war the pulpit was filled very irregularly. Some of the time church services were held only in private homes.

Although the appointment process became more systematic following the Civil War, appointments were generally of short duration for only one or two years. At times Trinity was part of a circuit and at others stood on its own. During the early part of the year 1903 the original Church building was destroyed by a tornado. The congregation worked on the rebuilding of the church and during the intervening period held services in a local school. In April 1905 the present brick structure was completed. The Centennial celebration of the founding of Trinity was held in 1952 when the congregation was at its zenith. It was also in the 1950s that the educational wing of the church was built.1

During the 1930s, ?40s, and ?50s Trinity was one of the more vital churches in the Tennessee Annual Conference, but in the 1960s and ?70s the East Nashville neighborhood began to change. Membership began to decline through the eighties and nineties and into the 21st Century. At the same time the average age of church members increased substantially and at the 2007 session of Annual Conference the congregation could report an average worship attendance of only 38 persons with no children or youth on the Sunday School rolls. Despite its beautiful historic sanctuary and large multi-storied educational wing, Trinity United Methodist Church seemed be in a state of institutional decline.

Fast forward to the end of November 2007 with the declining congregation determining that it needs to make a difference in the community. In partnership with the YMCA, and the Salvation Army, Trinity UMC has become a major part of an effort to improve the lives of children and youth in zip code area 37207. Most of the church?s large second floor will house the East Nashville Synergy Center?a clustering together of YMCA programs and the offices of other agencies working to make a difference with East Nashville families.

J Lawrence, Executive Director, YMCA Urban Services Center, in proposing the Synergy Program to his Board, indicates what the program is all about: "Webster defines synergy as a cooperative action taken in such a way that the total effect is greater than the sum of the effects taken independently. Utilizing the concept of synergy and applying it to the power of the Holy Spirit, the idea of creating a place that brings a variety of agencies and organizations together to perform "Good works" and share the love of Jesus is the foundational ideology behind the East Nashville Synergy Center."