Lessons from Nashville's Urban Core: Leadership in a Changing Community feat. Aaron Bryant
Join Mike Glenn, president of the Engage Church Network, as he sits down with Aaron Bryant, pastor of the Church at Avenue South. In this episode, they discuss practical insights on leading a congregation in Middle Tennessee, the challenges of urban ministry, and the journey of pastoring multiple generations within the same church. Hear how Aaron’s calling to Nashville’s urban core led to the planting of Avenue South and the surprising growth that followed. This conversation offers valuable lessons for pastors and church leaders on staying engaged with their community and adapting to change.
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Mike Glenn: Hi, I'm Mike Glenn, and I am the president of The Engaged Church Network. And the purpose of The Engaged Church Network is to deal with pastors and churches throughout the Middle Tennessee area. And so we want this podcast to be very, very practical in its orientation, uh, about how we do what we do in very real ways and in the real time that we have to do it in.
So joining me today is a long, longtime friend, uh, and that I've had the privilege literally of watching him grow up, uh, Aaron Bryant. Uh, Aaron is the pastor of Avenue South, the Church at Avenue South, which is now celebrating its new, its new facility on Acklen, and we'll talk about that in a few minutes.
Uh, Aaron grew up in the Brentwood area, in Brentwood Baptist Church, came, uh, to serve on our staff as a middle school minister- Right ... [00:01:00] a long time ago, and from there has been part of our campus strategy and has now been the pastor at Avenue South for, gosh, we're going double digits now? Yeah, it's almost
Aaron Bryant: 11 years now.
Wow. Wow, wow.
Mike Glenn: So, uh, he and his wife, Amy, have three kids, two boys and a beautiful little girl- Yeah ... who runs the world. She does. And, uh, and, and- She does ... and we love them dearly. So I, I have had the opportunity to work with Aaron for a long time. And, uh, and one of the things that has impressed me, uh, and from my very first conversation with Aaron about how Aaron saw his future happening and how we as a church could come alongside of Aaron and prepare him for that future, uh, he always expressed a calling to the urban core.
He wanted to be as close to downtown as he possibly could be. The thing at the time was Brentwood Baptist Church was a suburban church- Right ... and we didn't [00:02:00] have a whole lot of connections back toward the inner city of Nashville. But from the very beginning, and to his credit, he has never wavered from that commitment.
And lo and behold, as the Lord would have it, we ended up starting a, um, a congregation on 8th Avenue. That's right. Uh, and couldn't find a place. That's right. And then the Lord had a place, and now you've been there 11 years. Right. So let's talk about how you began to understand that original community- Sure
that made up the, the... Now, now you've been at long enough there for there to be two or three different congregations- Right ... uh, at the Avenue South address.
Aaron Bryant: Yeah. Y- A phrase you've used throughout- Mm-hmm ... the years is if you stay in one place long enough, you pastor multiple congregations- ... at the same address- Mm-hmm
as things turn over. So yeah, we've seen two or three of those different seasonal changes. And when we planted over 11 years ago out of Brentwood Baptist in Brentwood, Tennessee, there were, uh, a launch team of 80 adults and 15 [00:03:00] children. Uh, and I'd say about 45 to 50% of our launch team lived in Davidson County, which is the county where Nashville is.
So we knew demographically about schools, we knew about, you know, patterns of life and hobbies and activities. Did all the demographic studies, you know- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm ... that you can do ahead of time before you move into a neighborhood. So we did all those things as best we could. But for nine months, while we met as a launch team within Brentwood Baptist, we did that on Sunday nights, and on Sunday mornings, we went and visited churches, and we asked our launch team to go spend time with their friends and get to know the community and the parks and the walkways and other places, the, the third space, if you will- Mm-hmm
where they could hang out and just kinda dust for God's fingerprints while seeing what he's doing so we could join him in that, but also appreciating and validating what we thought we knew about the neighborhood. So it's kinda the organic way. I mean, there, there was an intentional approach, but that's how we picked up on, you know, our assumptions and then- Mm-hmm
validated those things about [00:04:00] the area we were going to.
Mike Glenn: So do you remember finding out something- That you didn't know or something that you thought you did know that turned out not to
Aaron Bryant: be true? I think yes. I think consistently on the launch team, we thought people in downtown Nashville might be, um, might be opposed to the gospel- Mm-hmm
or offended by the gospel, and still 11 years to the day that we planted, we've- I've never met anybody who's offended by the gospel. I've met people that are apathetic to it- Right ... which in some ways is a, is a greater challenge. But we've found people that are open and willing to build relationships, um, over time.
So that has been encouraging to us. So, you know, in ways you think, like, if the Lord calls me to do something, he calls us to do something, it's gonna be daunting, it's gonna be hard. Sometimes we work up and anticipate challenges that, that, that are of our own making. Right. So I've been so pleasantly surprised by that.
So that's something that the Lord kind of surprised us with early on. Mm-hmm. So
Mike Glenn: you get to Avenue South, [00:05:00] uh, and you start walking around. Wh- what did you find out about that neighborhood? Well- Or neighborhoods. It's just not one ... sure. On
Aaron Bryant: 8th Avenue, very busy artery within downtown Nashville. If you're not on the interstate, and especially when the interstate's clogged up, you hop on 8th Ave South- Mm-hmm
and that's why it's the Church at Avenue South. And so very fluid, very, uh, upwardly mobile kind of corridor. A lot of college students, which makes sense. We're near three or four of the, the bigger universities in our city. And then you've got a lot of, uh, single adults, young professionals, uh, studio apartments going up.
And so we got there on the front edge of many young professionals moving into the community, and so that, that was something ... Somebody asked me early on, "Do you wanna plant a church that reaches or becomes collegiate and young professional?" And I said, "Well, sure." I mean, that's indicative of the area. Right.
I hope we're effective at that. But in the Book of Acts, you know, a church is all generations. Mm-hmm. And I knew we'd need seasoned and wisdom, [00:06:00] maturity of empty nesters and grandparents at some point, but they just weren't there on day one. So that's what we noticed about the neighborhood. And when you move into a neighborhood and you build relationships, you just start looking for the needs.
What is the local predicament or the issue in the community that we can address? So as you and I have talked about this before, some of that were issues with poverty- Mm-hmm ... education, healthcare, that we just tried to be very intentional about. But a lot of it was people in their mid to late 20s, early 30s, and not a lot of them had started their families.
That's what it looked like when we first got there.
Mike Glenn: And some of the opportunities that, that, uh... And, and this is what I've always loved about, about your work there, the, the investment in the community Before there was an outward evangelical approach. Now, don't- Right ... don't misunderstand. I don't want our listeners or, or, or watchers or viewers to, to misunderstand.
At no time were we ever ashamed of the gospel. Of course. At no time did we ha- But we made sure that there was some kind of [00:07:00] ministry that would then- That's right ... support the message that we came. And, and a lot of that happened with the local
Aaron Bryant: schools. That's right. We've just always felt that, uh, you know, when you read Jeremiah, and in Jeremiah 29, chapter 29, when the Lord tells his people- Mm-hmm
you know, "Pray for the city," um, "Desire for the city to flourish," 'cause as it goes, so it will go with you. We really took that to heart, and we had several educators. We had teachers. We had parents that are involved in PTA that were part of our, of our congregation those early days. So we just ... I looked on a map and said, "Where is the nearest elementary school to us?"
Mm-hmm. We've gotta be involved. And I had somebody introduce me to the principal because I, I, I've seen, probably like you have, churches that created programs or- Right ... brought a bunch of big ideas to a faculty, and then after kicking them off, the faculty was overwhelmed with them and the church was never seen again.
Mm-hmm. So we didn't wanna do that. So I got somebody who was kind of a gatekeeper in the community- Mm-hmm ... who knew us, knew our church, knew we'd be around for years, to vouch for us and, you know, set [00:08:00] up a meeting with the principal. And I said, "We want to help, and I'm not interested in, um, sharing what our ideas are, but if you wouldn't mind sharing some of your goals for the school year, I'll see if that matches up with our spiritual giftedness as a congregation and what, what our resources are."
And she said, uh, "We don't need winter coats and we don't need gift cards. We have those resources. We need people to show up and be reading buddies, math tutors, lunch buddies, serve at field day." And I said, "Now that we can do." Mm-hmm. And so we just got involved in education, and we found ourselves, um... And like you said, we love Jesus.
We want people to know Jesus, but we were very mindful. We were guests in the school, so we wanted to serve that opportunity well. Mm-hmm. But then we had families invite us in. We had families invite us into their homes when they had an issue, it was a crisis, or, "Hey, come celebrate this event with us." And we'd have never been invited in, Mike, had it not started with- The faithfulness in- We just-
in the local school ... yeah, we just want this school to succeed. That's right. Mm-hmm. So yeah, that's always been a desire of mine, for us to be involved in the city, uh, especially in education. And I think, you [00:09:00] know, when you look at what the Apostle Paul did, he always went kind of the city center because that's where everybody came to.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So our goal was never, "Let's go plant a church in a diverse area." It was, "Let's go into the urban core," and that's where the melting plo- pot of all walks of life are. Mm-hmm. And the variety of life, the experiences, that, that's fun. That's exciting. And so that, that's something that's always drawn my heart, and schools are a great representation of that.
Mike Glenn: Now- You established the, the community ministry. I mean, the local restaurants knew who you were- Right ... supported the work. May or may not have been believers, but liked you being in their neighborhood. Uh, and, and y- you be- you get established, you're doing great work, and then you start coming to me, uh, 'cause I was still serving as senior pastor, and going, "Things are changing."
Correct. What did you begin to see?
Aaron Bryant: We saw, I mentioned we had 15 children that were with us on day one- Mm-hmm ... in the whole church, all under second grade. Well, those kids started growing, and [00:10:00] families with older children started showing up. We didn't have a whole lot of space. You know this. We were in a rented facility.
We were big enough that you could shoehorn us in on- ... Sunday morning. Just big enough for the people of God, but there wasn't a whole lot to come back to during the week. Yeah. And, and the Lord was so good to us in, in that way, providing just what we needed for the length of time we were there. But we had families saying, "Hey, what's the plan in the future?
We, we don't need a huge church." Mm-hmm. "Like, and you can make disciples without a building, but Pastor, what's the plan? There's no room for kids." And then you had people that launched with us, uh, core members that started starting their families. And you'd watch parents show up on a Sunday morning and be hesitant to check their child in 'cause the, the rooms were full.
There's no, there, there's no room for the child to sit down. That's right. So- There really wasn't ... hey, look, if we're gonna have problems- ... these are the problems you want as a church. That's right. So we not only said, how will we address this quite literally, strategically, logistically, but our staff started saying, "Hey, I think some of these families are staying in the city."
It's not just young professional and college students. Mm-hmm. A lot of, uh, of those [00:11:00] individuals might be with us three or four years and then move to take a job in another state or move to another part of Middle Tennessee, but there were a lot more families staying and starting their families. And so that's what happened in the 1980s, uh, the early to mid-'80s- Mm-hmm
in our neighborhood, and then it turned over. It's turning over again here three-plus decades later. That's how we first started noticing things were changing. Um, and the median age went from about 28 or 29 to about 33 or 34.
Mike Glenn: And that's a different church. It's a different church. That's a different congregation.
It's a different church. Especially when you have your student ministry in the stairwell.
Aaron Bryant: That's right. That's right. It, it- Hey, hey, look, the, the student ministry- ... was meeting in a glassed-in stairwell. They thought it was awesome. Yeah. They could see people walking by the sidewalk and traffic, and they thought it was awesome.
Yeah. Parents, not so much. That, that's right, yeah. They were the ones that were like, "This is not tenable, Pastor." This is not gonna work. And, and that's where, um, you know, you get in your prayer closet and you pray, "Lord, what, what are You gonna do?" Mm-hmm. "And, and what is the long-term plan?" And you place those plans before Him, and you go back to those families and you say, "I, I know it, the growth [00:12:00] edge is at times uncomfortable.
Don't leave us. Stay with us and help us- Mm-hmm ... find a solution. Be those pioneers at the front edge to challenge those other families. God's doing something here. Let's be a part of that change." Those were challenging days, but those were sweet days, and the people who stayed with us to this day, I love them.
Mm-hmm. I'm so grateful for them
Mike Glenn: And the answer to a prayer was another congregation- Right ... r- uh, literally right up the road, uh, on Ackland Avenue there. And, uh, tell us a little bit about that story. Just- For
Aaron Bryant: sure. So we felt like the Lord was calling us to stay in the neighborhood, and the National Baptist Association and a lot of, um, great evangelical leaders were partnering over the last 10 to 15 years, declining churches that had buildings with growing congregations, like ours- Mm-hmm
that were out of space. And I watched, of all denominations, I watched these partnerships happen, and in order to make it, you had a building or a facility that was paid for in a different part of town. Mm-hmm. So where the congregation planted that was thriving, they left that [00:13:00] neighborhood to go take the keys to a building with no debt.
And look, if that's what the Lord called them to, uh, then, then we, we wanna be happy for them in that. I just didn't feel like that's what God was calling us to do, 'cause you immediately leave the zip code, you leave those relationships. And so we prayed, "Lord, if there's a way to allow us to stay in the neighborhood, that's our heart's desire."
Mike Glenn: And if, and if the church moves too far from its location, it literally extends the travel time for members and that kind of stuff, and you will lose people in that
Aaron Bryant: transition. That's right. Every, every neighborhood, every community needs as many gospel-centric churches as possible. So i- if you move and you reach people, great, but you will lose a lot of the people that came with you- Mm-hmm
to reach the people that the Lord called you to in- to begin with. And we were not called to leave that neighborhood, but we were told, "You will not," like, "you won't find it." Nashville is a very hot market. It was 10 years ago, five years ago. It is now more than ever. You won't find a building, and if you do, you can't afford it.
Yeah. That's what we were [00:14:00] told.
Mike Glenn: And you couldn't afford, you couldn't find it- Right ... because the developers jumped on every piece of property.
Aaron Bryant: It's not just anecdotal. And, and, yeah. There, there are investors from all over the United States, and probably the world- Mm-hmm ... that are investing in Nashville. So they might be able to make an all cash offer, where a church i- is just not gonna be able to do that.
Yeah. That's what we were told. Yeah. And then- Yeah, during the pandemic, uh, so during the pandemic bought us a little bit of time as we just kinda prayerfully considered what God was calling us to do. During the pandemic, there was an African-American church half a mile north of us that I knew of- Mm-hmm
and had met some of their staff members, but we didn't have a, a whole lot of conversations. Um, but they approached us, and they said, "During the pandemic, we made the decision, we are relocating outside the city. As the community's turned over these last five to 10 years, we've raised our families. We're in a good place.
We don't feel pushed out. We feel like we've raised our people, a lot of our families, and sent them off. We're gonna relocate outside the city." And during the pandemic, we watched a [00:15:00] lot of minority congregations sell and move, and then developers tear down their buildings. Mm-hmm So they said they had, you know, 12 to 18 months to watch that happen, and it grieved them.
And they said, "We heard you're looking. Don't know if it would be a match, but would you like to come look at our property? 'Cause when we leave, we don't want that to happen to us." And of course, you know, you go from being told from, from worldly wisdom- Right ... you'll never find a building to be able to stay in that neighborhood.
And these were all the experts. That's right. I mean, th- these were experts telling you. Oh, these are people I respect- Yeah. ... uh, that know what they're doing. City leaders and stuff- Well, sure ... going, "Hey." And, and, and you want them to shoot us straight. Mm-hmm. So I appreciate that. But to be told, "You won't find it so you can stay and continue doing ministry in this neighborhood, and if you do, you can't afford it."
Mm-hmm. And then to have a church come to us and say, "Would you like to look at our building? W- and, and leaving on, on a good note. W- we're thrilled what God's done." Mm-hmm. "He's got something else for us in store. We don't want that to happen. We want the gospel to go forth here." So y- you were with us during that time.
We went over, we looked. [00:16:00] We were able to, to partner with them. They sold our building to us. And what I tell our congregation, I pray we never forget this, you know, in a building campaign, because we wouldn't have been able to purchase that property. I mean, it doubled our parking, doubled our footprint, doubled our, our meeting space.
We wouldn't have been able to if it hadn't been for all nine of our campuses. And as you
Mike Glenn: celebrated, there's grass. There's grass. Well,
Aaron Bryant: in the urban core, you don't need a building or grass to make disciples, but for 11 years almost, we didn't have anywhere for kids to play. There was no grass. There was no
Mike Glenn: place.
Aaron Bryant: We never had a vacation Bible school. I mean, we, we- Mm-hmm ... weren't able to do things like that. So I, my jaw hit the floor when I saw they've got grass. They got twice the parking. Um, for sure. And you know, when, when they sold to us, they sold to us for half- Right ... of what they could have gotten from a developer.
Mm-hmm. And I tell our congregation, in any capital campaign to fund a, a building project like this, there's usually a lead giver. And we're always grateful for anybody who says, "Look, the Lord's called me to write this check or to help get us started." And I told our church- [00:17:00] That congregation that was there before us was the lead giver on this capital campaign.
The lead giver. Sure was. They quite literally left millions on the table to gift us that. And I said, "Look, wh- when the Lord does something like that, y- you have to give Him the credit for it. It couldn't happen any other way, but you have to be a good steward of something like that." Mm-hmm. "So God helping us, let's spend the rest of our time here until He returns leveraging this for His glory and to advance the gospel."
So what a great story. So that's where we are, and it embedded us where we were on a busy street. If, if you look around us, there were restaurants, there were shops- Mm-hmm ... car repair, restaurant, whatever. Now we're only half a mile away, still in the same neighborhood, but all around us, front porches, living rooms, families.
And we do, we have a playground on the property. And kids on bicycles. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And every day there is a family from the neighborhood, near- nearly every day, playing on our playground. And the first week when I pulled up to the parking lot one afternoon, they, they, they, they grabbed their stuff and s- tried to scurry away.
And I was like, "Whoa, whoa." I [00:18:00] was like, "Hey, I'm the pastor. Welcome." And they were like, "Sorry, we're leaving." And I'm like, "No," like, "we put the playground on the front of the property to say this is here for you." Mm-hmm. So what a neat thing to see. I mean, that, that's how much change has happened- Okay ... in the last 10
Mike Glenn: years.
All right, let's pick up on that, on that theme. Uh, y- you move to the new location, which is, you know, half a mile right down the street, but you move to the center of, of the residential area. So what changes now?
Aaron Bryant: Well, as I've knocked on doors trying to get to know my neighbors, we've been there officially 12 weeks, and the first week I just started, I just made myself a little map of the addresses of the homes, just started knocking on doors.
You just start to get to know people. And on all the houses on one side of the building, there's young families. Mm-hmm. And all the houses behind us across from the alley, there are empty nesters or senior adults. So the neighborhood's still turning over. Mm-hmm. And one thing that will always be necessary for planners, for [00:19:00] pastors, is that shepherding element of not only knowing the condition of your flock, but knowing what's going on in the neighborhood.
And so as I'm getting to know their stories, uh, and getting to know our neighbors, trying to identify what they're dealing with. So some of our senior, uh, adults that live around us have just briefly shared they're on fixed income, they're worried about the future- Mm-hmm ... or this is how you can pray for me.
How can we pray for you? How can we support you? Others are excited to raise their families in Nashville, and they moved here from California. Somebody right around us moved here from New York- Mm-hmm ... during the pandemic. So as you get to know their stories, um, they're telling me what's going on in their life, and so they wanna stay, they wanna be here.
So what's changing? People putting down roots. Demographically, it says that the number of middle schoolers and high schoolers in our neighborhood's gonna double in the next 10 years. So that's gonna speak into a lot of our strategy for how we do family ministry. And how we try to encourage parents Mm-hmm
I mean, parenting is overwhelming. How, how can we come alongside these families? Whether they want Jesus or not, how can we come alongside and say, "We're for the [00:20:00] family, and we're for you." Mm-hmm. "And we're here for you." So those are some things we're paying attention to that are changing over.
Mike Glenn: Okay. So the, the, the painful part of, of a process like this is you have to let go of some things so that you can do the new things that God is, is, is now showing you.
Th- that's not easy. Right. Because a lot of the things that you have to let go of were fun, they were creative, and they worked. Uh, but they have a very limited future. Right. So tell us about that, that, that process of, of you and your team, the leadership, working through that process of going, "Hey-" We're not gonna be able to take this to the new location.
Aaron Bryant: Well, I think, you know, we, we leveraged ... We were in a warehouse-type rented facility- Mm-hmm ... for 10 years, and so we were able to do a lot of events in a warehouse, turn it over real quickly, meet and greets. Uh, an- anything from art and, um, you know, [00:21:00] drama and some different things we did in that facility, that our new facility is more of a, of a, of a sacred space, of a sanctuary.
Mm-hmm. Uh, still can leverage the gospel through those, the arts and music and other things, but we're just not gonna be able to do the same stuff in the new building. So I told our team, "That doesn't mean we stop doing those things. We just need to reimagine how often- Mm-hmm ... we do them, what the delivery systems for those things are."
So those are a couple of things that come to mind for us. Uh, we quite literally had, in our last building, probably the best public meeting space in our- Oh, yeah ... part of the neighborhood. It was it was so cool. We had built the b- and so- It's so cool ... we, we hosted things for the local police department.
Mm-hmm. We hosted things for the Department of Child Services. We hosted a lot of things in our space where it was perfect to say, "We just wanna serve you." We can still do those things. Mm-hmm. So there's a lot we're still gonna be able to do, but the setup's gonna change and it's gonna be a little different.
So you have to start talking to your team about those. But as you asked that question, here's, here's what's on my mind and my heart right now. With moving [00:22:00] into a new building has come some, some growth. Um, we have space to grow with the families and with all the folks that are with us. There's a buzz and excitement about a new building, and so some de-churched individuals in the community- Mm-hmm
that were part of a church family and know Jesus but want to reengage a church, as well as unchurched individuals, people that are like, "I don't have a church family," or, "I'm exploring the claims of Christ." Like, we've seen a bump in growth. And things that are changing, Mike, that I've really had to work with our team on, and they're ready for this and they're hungry for this, is to say we have to stop thinking and behaving like we're a 400-member church, because we're already at about 550- Mm-hmm
and, and within the next 18 months it could be 650. Mm-hmm. And when you do that, following up with people promptly, taking care of needs, hospital visits, doing all the things that the local church is supposed to be doing while you're growing still have to be done. Mm-hmm. So challenging to say that's what's gotta change.
And so to circle back to your original question, to do all that well at a [00:23:00] bigger scale, you've gotta identify and equip leaders at, at an exponentially faster- That's right ... and greater rate. You also, some of the nice-to-do things, that's where some of the nice-to-do things, I won't list them all, but some of the nice-to-do things, we, we're not gonna be able to do those- Mm-hmm
because we've gotta, we gotta minister to a broader and larger congregation now. That's what's really pushing the change there. All
Mike Glenn: right. Let me ask you this last question. Okay. Uh, you went as a church planter. Now you are a, an, an established pastor. Okay, now, and I use those terms intentionally- Sure ... to kinda help our, our viewers mark, uh, the, the journey that you have been on.
What have been, uh, two or three of the markers for you, uh, your growth edges and, and, and things of you had to let go and learn and, uh, as you have pastored now two or three congregations at the same address?
Aaron Bryant: When I first started pastoring our [00:24:00] congregation, there were not a lot of pastoral care needs, and I, I say that sincerely.
They were there- Mm-hmm ... but, but they weren't rising to the surface, and some of that was- Didn't
Mike Glenn: do a whole lot of funerals. W- we
Aaron Bryant: didn't. We didn't do a whole lot of funerals. You got a young and growing- Mm-hmm ... you know, core of people, so we didn't do a lot of that. There wasn't a lot of hospital visits, and if it was, it, it was scheduled surgeries for athletes or- Mm-hmm
you know? Yeah. I mean, maybe the occasional child being born. Some of it, Mike, was people learning to trust me. I'm coming to this church. Mm-hmm. Now I view you as my pastor- We're having an issue in our family. Could you stop by the house? Mm-hmm. About three to four years into it, that, that increased exponentially.
And, um, I love preaching, but I also wanna pastor well. Mm-hmm. And I really enjoyed that, and I started realizing, like, I've gotta make margin and time for that. And so when those things pop up, a lot of times they're unscheduled, you then have to rearrange your schedule. So I think as your [00:25:00] congregation grows, some of the pastoral care needs and other things d- dictate that you are very disciplined, and you pay very much attention to the things that can't be compromised.
For instance, sermon preparation. Right. Um, can't compromise that in any form or fashion. And, and another thing I learned, so the second thing is, it was one thing when you a- used to ask me and invite me to preach for you, you know- Mm-hmm ... every six to eight weeks. It's another thing when it's coming every six days.
That's another beast, isn't it? And, and I'm pastoring now 11 years in, and my respect for you, my respect when you meet somebody that's pastored 30, 40 years- Mm-hmm ... and they've been faithful. They've faithfully taught the Word. They've faithfully loved the church, and it's been healthy, and it's been steady.
I have such tremendous respect for pastors who do it faithfully, and a lot of them in anonymity- Mm-hmm ... that, that nobody draws attention to, but they do it for the Lord and 'cause they love their people. Um, that has been something that I have learned in the doing. You can only learn it in the doing.
Mm-hmm. So you preach, and you learn, oh, my gosh, I can't wait. Those first few sermons when we [00:26:00] launched- ... I, I need to go back and tell those people, "Thanks for staying with us."
Mike Glenn: Yeah. I'm, I'm so sorry for what I did to you. So, so, so
Aaron Bryant: obviously that. But I'll also tell you this. About, um, I, I think at the five-year mark and now at the 10-year mark, and I wrote this in my journal last year, you hit a point where you grow, and then your people grow with you, and then you gotta open up what I would call- That's right
like, an opportunity wedge. Yeah, the leadership gap. Mm-hmm. You have to open up that gap because the, they won't outgrow you. Mm-hmm. And that doesn't make us a know-it-all. It's just simply, like, you've gotta be able to challenge and help them grow as well. And so there's been a couple of times, five years in, 10 years in, where I've had to challenge myself.
That includes who speaks into my life. That includes what I'm reading. Mm-hmm. That includes, like, what the Lord's teaching me. But that's been something. Like, if I quit growing, my ability to help lead our congregation is gonna diminish. So that's another thing- Yeah ... that's happened.
Mike Glenn: Okay. A lot of great stuff, Aaron.
So proud of your work. I'm grateful for you. And- Thanks for having me ... uh, enjoy, enjoying watching you at, uh, Avenue South. Uh, there have been so many, uh, you know, [00:27:00] the, uh, the word's overused, but you and I were there. We know the miracles that happened. Absolutely. We know the times people said, "There's no way," and then the Lord opened a door that, uh, that was just phenomenal.
K- still encourages me to this day. Uh, let's think about some of the things that Aaron said. One- If you stay at a congregation any length of time, you're going to pastor more than one congregation at the same address. There will be transitions in the church that you as pastor need to pay attention to so you can lead your church to their next opportunity, which means a new growth level for you, as he mentioned there at the end.
You have to keep that leadership gap, which challenges you as pastor to get into your reading, to get into your research and your investigating so that you can continue to lead your folks. And if you do that, you will have an opportunity to pastor people for a long time. And [00:28:00] as you know, if you stay there, that's when it really gets good.
He's Aaron Bryant. He is the pastor at the Church and Avenue South. And I'm Mike Glenn, the president of Engage Church Network. Thanks for being part of this podcast.
