GracePointe Church is a

non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. Overview The term has been used in the context of various faiths including Jainism, Baháʼí Fait ...

evangelical church in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

, United States. Established in 2003 in Williamson County, the church received attention in 2015 after allowing

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

people to become full members of the church. Following a drop in attendance and revenue, GracePointe moved to a rented venue in Nashville in 2017.

History

GracePointe was founded in Williamson County in 2003 by Stan Mitchell. In 2015, GracePointe extended full membership privileges to

people. Previously, members of the church who were not

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

could not be on the church board or lead

worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...

services or other church groups. LGBTQ members could be

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

and receive communion but were unable to get married or have their children dedicated in church. Following the changes in 2015, these restrictions were lifted. The church was one of the first evangelical

megachurch A megachurch is a church with an unusually large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities, usually Protestant or Evangelical. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant C ...

es in the US to openly support full equality for LGBTQ people. Within two months of this announcement, six out of the church's twelve board members had left; average weekly attendance, previously between 800 and 1000, dropped by a third, and the average offering dropped by half. As a result of falling revenue, connected to their change in stance on LGBTQ issues, GracePointe sold its building to another evangelical church in 2017 and relocated to Nashville. Mitchell later said in a 2017 interview that he felt he should have given the church more input in the decision to change its stance on LGBTQ membership. In 2019, Stan Mitchell stepped down as lead pastor of the church and was replaced by Josh Scott.

Beliefs

GracePointe advocates a version of

progressive Christianity Progressive Christianity represents a post-modern theological approach, and is not necessarily synonymous with progressive politics. It developed out of the liberal Christianity of the modern era, which was rooted in the Enlightenment's thinkin ...

, which believes that the teachings of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

should be applied to the modern world by reinterpreting and re-examining historical teachings which reflect the time in which they were written. This includes acceptance towards LGBTQ people and same-sex relationships, as well as being willing to draw from sources of wisdom and spirituality from outside Christian teachings and trying to create an inclusive community. In 2021, Josh Scott taught in a sermon that Christians should not think of the Bible as the word of God but rather see it as "a product of community, a library of texts, multi-vocal, a human response to God, living and dynamic." Subsequently, the church posted a summary of the sermon on

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which received mostly negative reactions from those who engaged with it. Scott expressed his surprise at the strength of the reaction to his sermon but responded by defending his position, arguing that some of the Bible's content includes material that contradicts the character of God.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 35, 57, 55, N, 86, 50, 05, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Franklin, Tennessee Churches in Tennessee Christian organizations established in 2003 Churches in Williamson County, Tennessee LGBT and Christianity