Faith and the Future: Brentwood UMC Celebrates 175 Years

Brentwood United Methodist Church commemorated its 175th anniversary on Sept. 20 with special homecoming services, honoring its history and looking to the future with faith, service and community.

Sunday’s celebration saw two morning services with guest sermons by Bishop James R. King Jr., who previously served as Brentwood UMC senior pastor, and an afternoon picnic.

“God has great plans for Brentwood,” James declared during his sermon.

In speaking with the Williamson Scene, Brentwood UMC Senior Pastor Rev. Davis Chappell called the anniversary “mind-blowing,” and the opportunity to lead the congregation during this milestone a “great privilege.” He noted that the church, founded in 1851, has endured through the American Civil War, two world wars, women’s suffrage, desegregation and two pandemics.

“To imagine that an institution like this not only has survived all of that, but has actually thrived through all of that by loving God and loving thy neighbor, that has never changed,” Chappell told the Williamson Scene. “The mission of the church has never changed, in spite of all the shifting winds of the culture that we've been able to hold, kind of hold our center in Christ, and lead from that center.”

The original church building was located on Frierson Street until it was damaged in a windstorm in 1884. Then a new building was established in 1886 on Church Street. In 1936, the church burned down after it was struck by lightning. The current church complex was built in 1972 on Franklin Road and recently underwent a multi-year renovation.

“We've always been known as the church across the street from Chick-fil-A. My vision is that the Chick-fil-A will be [known as] the Chick-fil-A across from Brentwood Church,” Chappell said jokingly.

As part of the dodransbicentennial, the church removed a 1975 cornerstone of the building that housed a time capsule box. Within it sat an 1840 Bible originally placed in another 1927 cornerstone, membership rolls from the 1970s and 1936 and a cassette tape recording of songs performed by the church choirs. 

The congregation will now add new artifacts to that box for future generations to one day open, including photos of the kids who are members, bearing the following inscription: 

“These are some of the children of our church in 2026, when we turned 175 years old. The most important thing we inherited wouldn’t fit in this box. We hope we passed God’s love all the way down to you.” 

As the church building changed and the congregation grew, how people connect with God, faith and the teachings of the church have evolved, with one of the biggest changes being the addition of online live-streamed services.

“The message itself doesn't change, but the methodology changes. You know, the way that we share the gospel, the way that we present our faith, that changes,” Chappell said.

“Churches have historically been through huge shifts related to the culture. For example, there was a time when the idea of an organ coming into the congregation was a radical thing. There were many who said, ‘No, we've never done it that way before.’ In fact, I've often thought that the seven last words of the church are, ‘We've never done it that way before, and you know that's not what we're after.’”

And while Chappell leads the congregation, he also learns from them.

“I think I've learned from our people in Brentwood that they want to be engaged. They want to be involved in that, and they want to be challenged, both from the pulpit and from the lectern, in Sunday school and small group. They want to be challenged. They want to continue to grow in the likeness of Christ, and so that's why we're here,” he said. “They also want to serve others because they recognize fulfillment doesn't come through self-aggrandizement. It comes through self-emptying and serving in a way that for a cause that outlives us and outlasts us.”

The question of what the next 175 years will hold is impossible to answer, but Chappell said that it’s more than a church building that will define the faith in the future. Instead, he said the future of the faithful lies in the people who express that faith through service to their families and communities, despite the challenges of life, be that locally, nationally or internationally.

“One of the things about being 175 is we've been sustained by the presence of the Holy Spirit within our people, and have continued, again, not to just survive but to thrive in that mission, and so I think that's what it means to be faithful is to live a Christ-like life, to embody faith, hope, and love in ways that are transformative in the world and ultimately redemptive.”