The First Presbyterian Church of Dickson can be found less than an hour from Nashville’s center in the rolling verdant hills of a small town of 14,000 people. The building itself is 110 years old, with green and gold stained glass, a powder blue ceiling, and a handful of original oak pews that slope down to a humble corner altar.
The church is made up of about sixty people who gather for worship. Since bringing on Pastor John Smith, they’ve begun to grow again. Just last month, they added 10 new members. This influx of people is due to several factors.
God Is Already at Work Here
First, the church is healthy. God’s love for them and their love for one another pours out to visitors. Second, local churches are splitting over LGBTQ issues, and some affirming Christians are finding a home at FPC. Third, and notably, Pastor John has been empowering the session and other members to use their gifts.
For example, when Matt asked Pastor John if he could start a recovery group that was safe for his fellow LGBTQ community, Pastor John got behind him immediately, offering space and support. Over the past year since its inception, the recovery group has grown from two members (Matt and his sponsor) to thirty-five members meeting three times per week. Addicts are driving from hours away to attend an LGBTQ-safe recovery group.
Pastor John knew that the church would encounter some challenges as it grew. In anticipation of this, he led the session in appointing a mission committee of fourteen people to discern the future of the church. At that time, the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee decided to pay for five churches to receive Full Circle assessments. FPC Dickson was the first to raise their hands. I was appointed as their Full Circle Guide, at which point I sent each of the committee members a How Healthy Is My Church? Quiz.
Their results showed that this was a church that, despite its age, was far from closing. Their strengths in leadership development and mutual caring relationships meant quite the opposite–they were growing steadily.
Our First Meeting
Having planned out an agenda with Pastor John and my team of fellow Guides, I flew from Michigan down to Nashville for the last weekend of August to join this congregation in discerning a fresh vision for their future.
We divided the assessment into two three-hour meetings. The first was on Saturday at ten o’clock in the sanctuary. Leaders shared what they loved about the church. They love the family feel, the support they give each other, the way they pray, the way they serve the community, and the history and connectedness of the church.
Then I used some of their survey results to ask more pointed questions about areas of concern. This helped us uncover more specific pain points. The group was lively. They shared openly, occasionally touching a nerve from an unresolved conflict of the past, and laughing often. They have a rich history together.
After sharing lunch, they gathered around tables to create depictions of the things they felt were keeping their church’s imagination locked in prison. It was inspiring to see these leaders stand in front of their peers. They shared the things they treasured most about God’s mission at their church, as well as the things they felt were holding them back.
After our first session, I called Rob Douglas, who helped me debrief. One of the nerves that was struck in this first session was around leadership development, which we did not expect to be an issue at all for this church. Instead of sticking with our agenda, we decided to adjust our plans for the next session to make time to circle back to the issue and do some work around it.
Sunday Worship
The next morning at eleven o’clock, I joined them for Sunday worship, in which about fifty people were in attendance. Some brought produce from their backyard gardens, some came early with tools to fix one of the pews, and the small sanctuary was abuzz with chatter and rehearsal music.
During the service, the singing was loud, the sermon was clear, and people proudly shared their updates. The choir was starting up soon, the recovery group was meeting soon, there were new people to introduce, and people voiced prayer requests. The congregation is alive. They have strong relationships and a faithful missional presence in the community. After lunch, we gathered in a sunny and large conference room at the church offices.
Our Second Meeting
We began the second session by pondering how we had seen God at work since we last saw each other. People shared a renewed excitement about being a part of this church, and about being on the same page as each other. People shared answers to prayers, reflections from the prior day, and moments of grace.
The rest of the day was extremely productive. The committee generated three hundred ideas for welcoming new people. They generated two hundred questions around what evangelism looked like for their church.
They created, from scratch, a four-step discipleship pathway for incorporating new people into leadership. And they created a seven-part discovery process for how to share Jesus’ love in word and deed with their neighbors. In the end, they were each given an opportunity to make personal commitments for the next steps of this process.
In the next few weeks, the leadership at FPC Dickson will get a full report of everything they accomplished during their weekend assessment. It will include notes from their meeting, assessment results, further insights, as well as a series of detailed recommendations for their church with goals, timelines, and milestones.
The most important thing, however, is that this church demonstrated that when they show up together, bringing their gifts and experiences to the table, they can accomplish anything. As I told them in our final minutes together, “Everything that this church needs is here in this room, provided by God.” I am excited for the new opportunities God is laying before them, and how they choose to innovate faithfully into a hopeful future.
Taking the Next Steps
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