Proud of My Friend Mike Glenn

He’s a Bama fan and a Cubs fun, and at least one of those is good.

But Mike Glenn is a pastor and a dreamer and a preacher and he’s got a vision for helping in Middle Tennessee and it’s great to see that church get some attention for its vision and ministry:

The congregation of the former Lockeland Baptist Church has its own resurrection story.

A couple of years ago, the once vibrant Southern Baptist church found itself headed toward closure after more than 100 years in the heart of what is now one of Nashville’s most sought after neighborhoods.

The East Nashville church’s aging congregation had dwindled to about 20 people and was no longer reaching the community, said Terry Terry, who served for about two decades as its worship leader and later the interim pastor. Like thousands of other smaller churches, they faced the possibility of shutting their doors forever.

“We were almost in the ground,” Terry said.

But instead of continuing on as they always had, its members decided to make a drastic change and merge with the much larger Brentwood Baptist, a multi-site megachurch with an average weekly attendance of more than 6,100 people.

“It’s a rebirth of this congregation,” Terry said.

Nearly a year has passed since the Lockeland Baptist and Brentwood Baptist congregations voted to form a partnership that transformed the East Nashville church into a regional campus of the multi-site church. The merger came with a new name — The Church at Lockeland Springs — and more changes.

The Church at Lockeland Springs, located at the corner of 16th and Holly streets, is one of Brentwood Baptist’s six locations and its third church merger. It’s also a part of Brentwood Baptist’s ambitious Middle Tennessee Initiative to grow healthy churches as a way to address education, healthcare and poverty in communities, the areas where the church has historically reached people, said Mike Glenn, senior pastor of Brentwood Baptist.

“We live in a world now where the world is so cynical about the church that the ministry has to come before the message. They have to see something before they’ll listen to you,” Glenn said. “Did you make a real difference? Is some child’s life different because you’re here? Is some family different because you’re here? When they see that kind of difference then they’ll listen to you, but not until then.”