Jammin' at the Jail:
A Revolutionary Sunday Night Service

This past fall marked a very special Sunday night for the Trevecca Community Church of the Nazarene (TCCN). For Pastor Dwight Gunter and the TCCN congregations, October 14th made a new high water mark in their Sunday evening outreach events, with over 900 in attendance to their annual Jammin’ at the Jail Concert.

These Sunday night services, and a variety of other ministries started with the leadership of Pastor Dwight Gunter, have helped to identify TCCN as one of the few so-called “Revolutionary Churches” descr ibed by researcher George Barna. In his book Revolution, Barna singles out TCCN as the kind of church “where people who are dropping out of the church are inclined to go.”

Pastor Dwight explains, “People are leaving the church for a new reason. They are leaving to preserve their faith. It’s not a radical, individualistic issue of the church not giving them what they wanted. Barna discovered that there are seven facets of a revolutionary. They say ‘Well, this church is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, and therefore, I’m in line with this church.’”

The Sunday night services at the three area correctional facilities are only a part of this new approach to ministry at TCCN. In his interview released in the new book Best Practices for Growing Churches by Tom Nees (see sidebar on page 25 of this issue of GROW), Pastor Gunter describes some of the underlying reasons for their Annual Jammin’ at the Jail Concert and the other new innovative ministries.

Pastor Gunter says “The people at TCCN were hungry for this. I came in and said we need to reorganize… the whole idea was about creating a mission-centered church that in and of itself would achieve the desired end; that being the mission of God in the world.”

The reorganization plans for their ministry operations followed the strategies Pastor Dwight had studied and documented in his doctor of ministry dissertation on change and transition in local churches, and what it means to be about God’s mission in the world.

This new missional focus creates innovative ways for all the diverse groups of people who attend TCCN to interact and minister together. Tom Nees writes in his new book while “building bridges between worlds, TCCN is now home to university professors, staff, and students; residents of Trevecca Towers – a retirement community a block away; a cross section of Nashville citizens; and an increasing number of marginalized people for whom Murfreesboro Road is home.”

And it’s that kind of partnership in ministry that has enabled TCCN to conduct the Annual Jammin’ at the Jail Concerts. As the Outreach Pastor of TCCN, Pastor Tina Mitchell also is careful to mention “the cooperation and unprecedented support of the Davidson County Sheriff ’s Office.”

The special concert on October 14 started at 5:00 PM. Inmates of the Development Center in Nashville were brought out into fenced areas to enjoy the music or the TCC choir and orchestra. There were over 900 in attendance when the correction officers, choir and orchestra members and TCC members were all counted.

Pastor Tina Mitchell described it as “an amazing evening of worship. It’s an unforgettable experience to see 763 individuals locked behind fences with razor wire singing, ‘Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance. I just want to praise You. You broke the chains. Now I can lift my hands. I just want to praise You.’”

“The jail is located close to the Nashville airport and just a few minutes into the concert the jet stream from two airplanes created a cross in the sky. One TCC member commented how special it was to worship in a sanctuary with a 35,000 foot ceiling. Thank God there are no locks so strong or fences to high to keep Him from showing up anywhere there are two or more gathered in His name.”

And the l i fe t rans formations from this ministry are becoming more evident in the discipling ministries at TCCN. Pastor Tina has noticed “Each Sunday night, TCCN has the opportunity to minister in three different facilities at the correctional institutions. As a result of these outreach efforts over 100 recovering addicts are now regular attenders of the church. God is transforming lives!”