Start Praying. Start Planting. The Church Needs You.

In this episode, Mike Glenn, President of the Engage Church Network, unpacks the explosive growth happening along the I-65 corridor of Middle Tennessee—and what it means for the future of the church. From Clarksville to Murfreesboro, Nashville to Huntsville, the opportunity for church planting is massive. But with nearly 750,000 unchurched people in just two counties, the need is even greater.

• Transcript

  Mike Glenn: Hi, I'm Mike Glenn, president of The Engaged Church Network. One of the dreams of The Engaged Church Network is to work with the churches and leadership in Middle Tennessee from the Kentucky line at the north, uh, to the Alabama line on the south to Dickson on the west and Lebanon on the east, just that I-65 corridor.

  Mainly because there is enough work in that corridor to keep anybody busy for the rest of their lives. So what are we finding out in the initial work of The Engaged Church Network? One, we are in [00:01:00] one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Now, it may bounce between, uh, 10 and 15, 15 and 20, depending on what survey, what year you're looking at.

  Uh, but the areas of Clarksville, the areas of Murfreesboro, uh, the areas of the greater Nashville area always rank as one of the fastest-growing areas, uh, in the nation. Now, these folks are coming here because they like the weather, they like the educational system, they like no taxes, uh, they like the job opportunities.

  What they're not coming here for is a church. In fact, for a lot of these people, church isn't part of their lives. What does that mean? That means we're having to reach, uh, a different type of people. We're having to reach a kind of person who is a good people, good people, healthy marriages, they're great parents, but church is not part [00:02:00] of their life.

  They just haven't seen the need for it. So your evangelism is going to have to be much more subtle and much more patient than we are used to dealing with. Not only are we dealing with a lot more people, we're dealing with a lot more different kinds of people. Friend of mine who pastors a church nearby said he looked up in his, in his congregation a few Sundays ago, and there were two full rows of Indians, people from the nation of India, who were sitting in his congregation.

  It's not unusual if you go to church in Middle Tennessee, uh, to see African Americans, uh, Chinese, Koreans, uh, Brazilians, uh, Hispanic. A lot of people are coming to the Nashville area. They're coming because they can be trained. They're becoming c- coming because of job opportunities. But they are now living in the Middle Tennessee area, and- They need a church to go to.

  So what does that mean? Uh, that means [00:03:00] churches in Clarksville, churches in Murfreesboro, uh, and places just outside these, these cities. Clarksville will soon be bigger than Chattanooga, and it will catch Knoxville. Murfreesboro continues to explode in its growth. In fact, the growth of Murfreesboro and Nashville is so strong that it's pushed all the way down to Lawrenceburg.

  And guess what? Huntsville, Alabama, is pushing across the state line. So we almost have a merging of Nashville and Huntsville along that I-65 corridor. We will need hundreds of new churches. We will need hundreds of new pastors. So what does this mean? This means every church should become a church-planting church.

  That means every pastor should be training another pastor. That means every person in every community should consider, "Is my house the site of the next Bible study? Is my house the next [00:04:00] beginning point of the coming church?" There are thousands of people. Let me give you one number in particular. There are about 950,000 people who live in Davidson and Williamson County, just those two counties.

  Of that 950,000, 750,000 of them are unchurched. Now, let me underline that number a little bit. 750,000 of them tell us they don't go to church anywhere. That doesn't count the number of people who go, "Yes, I go to church. I'm a member of such and such church," but in reality, they never go. You and I know there's a lot more of those than we can count in the survey.

  So what do we do to begin to engage this challenge in Middle Tennessee? One, start praying I'm serious. Not the lay me down to sleep kind of prayer, but some real prayer for revival and, uh, a, a [00:05:00] breakout of, of, of salvations and baptisms in, in Middle Tennessee. Start praying about the church you're gonna plant and whether or not you need to be part of that church plant.

  And some of you that are listening to me right now, you're gonna be the pastors of those churches. God is up to something in Middle Tennessee, and I want us to be part of it. So start praying, start planting, and let us know how the Engage Church Network can be part of that process in your life. I'm Mike Glenn, and I'm glad you joined us for this podcast.

  Thanks for tuning in to the Engage Church Network podcast. We exist to train healthy and skilled leaders for congregations throughout Middle Tennessee. If today's episode helped you, share it with a fellow leader, and don't forget to visit engagechurchnetwork.com for more ways to grow.