Nashville, TN
Overview
The church in Nashville was established with the Lord’s table meeting in December 1984, and the church continued gathering in a brother’s home until 1992. At that time, a four-acre permanent meeting facility was purchased in the city’s southeast area, located at 6105 Nolensville Road, Nashville, TN 37211. (Because several families were living in Murfreesboro, 35 miles south of Nashville, more families from other places eventually migrated there and established the church in Murfreesboro in June 2014). Today over 50 brothers and sisters plus children meet as the Lord’s testimony in Nashville. The church comprises 46% Caucasian members, and the remaining 54% are a blend of Chinese, Burmese, Korean, African American/Black, and Hispanic.
Location, Transportation, Climate, and Health
Nashville is the capital of Tennessee and nearly at the state’s center, making it efficient for businesses to set up home offices in the area. Interstates I-40, I-65, and I-24 converge in Nashville with an inner loop, I-440, and an outer loop, I-840. These interstate highways make it most convenient to commute to the Nashville International Airport, which serves 17 airlines with 238 average daily departures to 88 destinations.
Nashville’s public services provide transportation throughout the city, several tourist attractions, and the Nashville International Airport; transportation costs are very competitive versus driving. For more information, visit nashvillemta.org.
Nashville typically enjoys a mild and pleasant climate, with only a few days of the year having very hot or cold conditions. Rainfall in the city is primarily within the spring months, but a shower throughout the year is not unusual.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center: Is ranked number 20 on the Best Hospitals, Honor Roll. It is nationally ranked in nine adults and ten pediatric specialties and rated high performing in four adult specialties and 16 procedures and conditions.
Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital: Is high-performing in 11 adult procedures and conditions.
TriStar Centennial Medical Center: Is rated high-performing in six adult procedures and conditions. (US News)
The Blending Church Life
With the church life in Nashville being in a central geographical location, blending with nine other churches within a 250-mile radius is ideal: Murfreesboro, TN 35; Huntsville, AL–111; Chattanooga, TN–135; Knoxville, TN—180; Birmingham, AL–193; Memphis, TN—212; Lexington, KY–217; Kennesaw, GA–226; Atlanta, GA–250.
Demographics
Nashville is the capital and second-largest city in Tennessee and the fourth largest city in the Southeastern US. Nashville’s location is in Davidson County, Tennessee, with a 2022 population of 689,447. Within 13 surrounding counties, the metro area is home to two million people, making Nashville’s metro area the largest in the state. The racial makeup of the Nashville Metro area is 63.5% Caucasian, 28% African American/Black, 3.7% Asian, and 5.8% varied or other. Approximately 12 million people live within a two-and-a-half-hour drive of the city.
Economy
Although Nashville is known as the country music capital and many song artists have made the city a place for music production, others like engineers and nurses, accountants and developers, dental assistants, and robot designers provide diversity within the employment market. Nashville is ranked number one in economic growth for 2021. Between 2011 and 2012, the Nashville metro area experienced job growth of 3.9 percent, more than any other metro area with a population of more than one million. Nashville was named the second-hottest job market in America in analysis from The Wall Street Journal and Moody’s Analytics (Nashville Business Journal).
Fortune 500 companies within Nashville include Bridgestone, Ernst & Young, Community Health Systems, Dell, Deloitte, Dollar General, Phillips, Tractor Supply Company, and UBS. The area’s largest industry is health care, and Nashville is home to more than 300 health care companies, including Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the world’s largest private operator of hospitals. According to the Nashville Business Journal, the top employers in the city are
| #Employer | #of Employees |
| 1 Vanderbilt University Medical Center | 28,300 |
| 2 State of Tennessee | 26,733 |
| 3 U.S. federal government | 13,707 |
| 4 Nissan Americas | 11,000 |
| 5 HCA Healthcare | 10,600 |
| 6 Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools | 10,281 |
| 7 Vanderbilt University | 8,822 |
| 8 Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County | 8,700 |
| 9 Ascension Saint Thomas | 8,335 |
| 10 The Kroger Co. | 7,813 |
| 11 Amazon | 5,000 |
| 12 Asurion | 4,260 |
| 13 Bridgestone Americas Inc. | 4,110 |
Places of Interest
Top travel location: National Geographic just named Nashville number one on the top of their list of places to travel to in June 2022 (Fox17 News).
Science and nature: Adventure Science Center, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville Zoo, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens
Arts and culture: Frist Art Museum, The Parthenon, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Tennessee Agricultural Museum, Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, Ryman Auditorium, and The Grand Ole Opry
Professional sports: Nashville Predators NHL (Hockey), Nashville Sounds (Baseball), Nashville SC (Major League Soccer), Tennessee Titans NFL (Football)
Tennessee attractions and vacation destinations: Great Smoking Mountains, 56 nationally recognized state parks with five lodges, 36 campgrounds, 372 cabins, and 80 plus waterfalls (TN State Parks). For more listings, see visitmusiccity.com/.
Christians
Nashville has been called the Buckle on the Bible Belt because it has more churches per capita than any other city in the US. There are 504 churches in Nashville representing 45 denominations. Approximately 59.6% of people in Nashville claim a religious affiliation. The dominant religion is Christianity, comprising 57.7% of the population. There are 12 Christian affiliations, with the top three being Baptist (20.6%), Catholic (6.2%), and Methodist (5.6%).
Universities and Colleges
Schools
Public Schools: Metro Nashville Public Schools offers neighborhood and magnet schools with a wide range of programs and opportunities. Magnet high schools require a longer application process for admittance. Hume Fogg Magnet High School and Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School are ranked number three and four in Tennessee and number 70 and number 170 nationally (US News).
Williamson County Public Schools’ 10 non-magnet high schools are ranked within the top 70 of 402 Tennessee schools, with Brentwood High number five, Ravenwood High number six, Franklin High number seven, and Nolensville High number nine in Tennessee (US News).
Private Schools: Nashville has many highly-rated private schools.
Homeschooling: Homeschooling is permitted in Tennessee. Many Christian families consider this option the best for educating their children. Some families in the church life in Nashville have had their children homeschooled very successfully.
Housing
Nashville offers a variety of housing types at a wide range of prices. Most of the saints live in the suburban parts of Southeast Nashville. The table below provides suggestions of some neighborhoods where saints now live with some primary data about those neighborhoods. The map below the table shows the locations of the meeting hall and where the saints live.
| Neighborhood | Median home price / rent |
Families Nearby |
Minutes to Mtg Hall |
Public Schools |
Family Friendly |
| Antioch | 350,000 / 1,316 | 10 | 5-15 | NA | NA |
| Brentwood | 655,400 / 2,085 | 6 | 5-15 | A+ | A+ |
| Holt Rd / Edmondson Pk |
688,000 / NA | 2 | 5-8 | NA | NA |
| Nolensville | 455,700 / 2,263 | 2 | 8 | A+ | A+ |
| Hendersonville | 266,100 / 1,173 | 1 | 45 | A | A- |
Comparisons of Cost of Living and Tax Burdens (Nashville Chamber of Commerce)
| City | Cost of Living | City | Tax Burden |
| San Francisco | 194 | Louisville | $9,028 |
| New York City | 190.1 | Kansas City | $8,725 |
| Seattle | 156.8 | Los Angeles | $8,157 |
| Boston | 150 | Atlanta | $7,871 |
| Los Angeles | 147.7 | Indianapolis | $7,795 |
| Chicago | 123.9 | Birmingham | $7,034 |
| Austin | 101.8 | Charlotte | $6,806 |
| Atlanta | 101.1 | Nashville | $4,051 |
| Raleigh | 96.9 | ||
| Nashville | 96.7 | ||
| Tampa | 95.8 | ||
| Charlotte | 92 | ||
| Indianapolis | 91.1 |
CONTACT INFORMATION
Larry VanBrocklin
lvanbroc@aol.com
615-753-4588
Jim Zhang
jimzhang02@gmail.com
615-957-1677
John Sparks
sparks834@gmail.com
615-473-7460