A Nashville nonprofit sued music icon Amy Grant, and it became a target of a Tennessee Attorney General inquiry into alleged nonprofit law violations.
Now, years after these high-profile court proceedings flew under the radar, controversy surrounding the Nashville Church of Christ is erupting throughout the community.
Nashville Church of Christ, which owns the property of the former downtown congregation Central Church of Christ, now finds itself fighting a public relations battle as much as a legal one. At the heart of the conflict is how the nonprofit is using the property, including a sanctuary and two parking lots, and the ministries it funds with revenue earned through the land.
Critics of the nonprofit and its director, Shawn Mathis, accuse Nashville Church of Christ of shady financial dealings. But the nonprofit defends its online-only ministry programs as legitimate and says a Tennessee Attorney General investigation is part of a conspiracy that infringes on the church’s religious liberties.
“The Attorney General has exceeded its authority…by investigating the Church on matters of church government as well as matters of faith and doctrine,” Nashville Church of Christ said in a July 15, 2021 court filing, which was part of a case to ensure the nonprofit’s compliance with the attorney general's investigatory demands.
Under the banner of Nashville Church of Christ and its address, the nonprofit and Mathis operate several businesses and says it uses income from the parking lots to support those ministries. The nonprofit earns an estimated $42,000 in monthly income from the parking lots, according to the attorney general's office in court filings.
“My clients deny any allegations of wrongdoing and would direct you to the documents filed in the public record,” C. Troy Clark, an attorney for Nashville Church of Christ and Mathis, said in a statement Wednesday. The attorney added his clients “dedicated to their mission and work tirelessly to teach and minister to individuals and organizations around the world."
The church called the attorney general’s investigation a ploy by former disgruntled congregants and Grant and her family to seize the property for their own monetary gain.
Grant and her cousin, Andy Burton, are co-administrators for a family estate that has power over the deed on the Rep. John Lewis Way property in downtown Nashville. Their great-grandfather founded Central church in 1925.
Grant isn’t shy about the aggressive means by which she’s fighting Nashville Church of Christ, but said it’s for altruistic reasons. Grant and Burton hired a powerful public relations firm, The Ingram Group, and came forward in a Wall Street Journal article to escalate their grievances outside their ongoing legal battle against the nonprofit.
“This year, downtown Nashville’s Central Church of Christ should be celebrating a 100-year anniversary of serving the community,” Brandon Gee, a spokesperson for Grant and Burton, said in a statement Tuesday. “Instead, it stands as a shuttered eyesore serving outsiders who preyed on a vulnerable congregation to gain control of the property.”
Allegations of nefariousness, on both sides
Court filings outline how Mathis incrementally assumed greater control over the congregation and the property it owned after he joined Central Church of Christ in 2017.
He became an elder within months, and within the next year led the full elder board to support a proposal to merge Central with a new 501(c)3 he formed called Nashville Church of Christ. The full congregation then voted in January 2018 to transfer control of Central’s assets to Nashville Church of Christ.
Over time, Nashville Church of Christ shut down Central church’s main operations, including its weekly service and other ministries. Also, the nonprofit launched new online ministries, Harbinger Theological Seminary and Aggos, while a for-profit company that Mathis led had briefly listed the property as its principal address. Following complaints from disaffected former Central congregants, the attorney general opened its investigation.
Nashville Church of Christ claims the inquiry is a consequence of a nefarious conspiracy devised by those former congregants. “When the factions realized that they likely would not be able to take property…they joined forces to make a collective strategic decision to spin their tale to the Attorney General in hopes that an investigation would bolster their attempt take the property,” the nonprofit said in its July 15, 2021, court filing.
A spokesperson for the attorney general said in a statement Wednesday the office "cannot comment about this ongoing matter."
But that same accusation of nefariousness is also directed toward Mathis, according to emails and other records the Tennessee Attorney General obtained as part of its investigation and that briefly surfaced in a different court case.
“I definitely believe we are starting to see a pattern by Shawn (Mathis) that he has no intention of there being a church on that property,” Burton said in a Aug. 5, 2019, email. “I am beginning to think his position is a front.”
Grant and family estate assert right to ownership
Even if Nashville Church of Christ’s ministries are legitimate, Grant and Burton argue the activity is not a proper use of the property according to its deed.
The estate of their great-grandfather can reclaim the property if the current owners are violating stipulations in the deed for the property’s use.
“The title and right to use said property herein conveyed shall forever remain in the trustees…that are members of the Church of Christ and also members of the said central congregation,” the1925 deed says, according to court filings.
This language is not uncommon within Churches of Christ, a loosely connected denomination with no centralized hierarchy and in which ministers lead local congregations, as a means of ensuring consistency with a congregation’s beliefs and practice.
There was a similar type of dispute involving area congregation Otter Creek Church of Christ to remove deed restrictions on its second campus, a case that’s cited in this ongoing dispute between Nashville Church of Christ and the Burton estate.
Grant and her cousin argue the absence of an in-person congregation at Nashville Church of Christ violates the deed. In its case against Grant and in other disputes with the Tennessee Attorney General, the nonprofit says participants in its online ministries constitute a type of congregation.
Still, Nashville Church of Christ originally sought to void the deed restriction, so it sued Grant and Burton. But the Burton descendants sued back and ultimately won the first of two legal hurdles. A chancellor and appeals court sided with the Burton family estate that the deed restriction is enforceable, and now the case is deciding whether Nashville Church of Christ violated that restriction.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media @liamsadams.