Edgehill UMC —A Progressive Church in Nashville

If you’re looking for a progressive church in Nashville where questions are welcome, LGBTQIA+ people are fully affirmed, marginalized voices are centered, and faith leads us toward justice, visit the Edgehill United Methodist Church. Located in the heart of Nashville, Edgehill UMC is a progressive Christian community committed to loving God and loving our neighbors. We believe church can be a place where you bring your whole self—your faith, your doubts, your questions, your identity, your story, and your hopes for a more just and loving world.

What Does It Mean to Be a Progressive Christian Church?

For us, being a progressive church doesn't mean we have all the right answers. It means we believe our Christian faith calls us to keep asking questions. We take scripture seriously without taking it literally. We value tradition while recognizing that the Church has sometimes used tradition to exclude, silence, and harm people.

We seek a faith that is intellectually honest, spiritually meaningful, and deeply engaged with the world around us. Most importantly, we try to follow the way of Jesus—a way of expansive love, radical hospitality, mercy, justice, and particular concern for people pushed to the margins.

A Church Where Questions and Doubts Are Welcome

You don't have to have everything figured out before you walk through our doors. At Edgehill, you'll find people with deep faith alongside people wrestling with what they believe. Some of us have been United Methodist our entire lives. Others are returning to church after years away. Some have experienced hurt or exclusion in religious communities. Others aren't even sure they would describe themselves as religious.

You can believe differently here. You can ask difficult questions. You can change your mind. You can say, "I don't know." We believe belonging can come before belief. Rather than expecting everyone to think alike, we seek to create a community where we can ask honest questions, learn from one another, and grow together.

An LGBTQIA+ Affirming Church in Nashville

Edgehill has a long history of advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in the Church. Being affirming means more to us than saying "everyone is welcome." LGBTQIA+ people are part of the life, leadership, ministry, worship, and community of Edgehill. We celebrate same-sex weddings, affirm LGBTQIA+ clergy and lay leaders, and believe every person bears the image of God.

Our commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusion grows from our Christian faith and our conviction that God's love does not have boundaries. Whether you have always known church as a place of belonging or have experienced rejection because of your sexual orientation or gender identity, we hope Edgehill can be a place where you are able to bring your whole self.

Racial Justice and Reconciliation

Edgehill's commitment to racial justice is rooted in both our Christian faith and our own history. We recognize that racism isn't simply something that happened in the past. Its consequences continue to shape our churches, neighborhoods, institutions, and relationships. Racial reconciliation therefore requires more than celebrating diversity. It requires listening, truth-telling, repentance, relationship, and action.

We seek to become an intentionally multiracial community where the experiences and leadership of people of color are valued and where we are willing to confront racism both within the Church and beyond it. We also recognize that reconciliation cannot mean asking marginalized people to ignore injustice for the sake of harmony. Christian reconciliation calls us toward justice.

Centering Voices from the Margins

Jesus repeatedly moved toward people whom religious and social systems pushed aside. We believe the Church is called to do the same. That means we intentionally seek out and listen to voices that have too often been ignored—including LGBTQIA+ people, people of color, immigrants and refugees, people experiencing homelessness and poverty, incarcerated people and their families, people with disabilities, and others whose experiences have often been overlooked by churches and society.

Centering marginalized voices doesn't mean speaking for people. It means creating space for people to speak for themselves—and allowing their experiences, wisdom, leadership, and questions to shape our life together. We believe our understanding of God and our neighbors becomes richer when we listen especially carefully to people the world has taught us not to hear.

Activism and Faith in Action

We don't believe faith should stop at the church doors. Throughout its history, Edgehill has sought to put Christian faith into action through racial justice, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, affordable housing, immigrant justice, prison ministry, community organizing, voting and civic engagement, and advocacy alongside our neighbors.

Sometimes faith in action looks like marching. Sometimes it looks like organizing. Sometimes it means showing up at a public meeting, visiting someone in prison, tutoring a child, sharing a meal, advocating for affordable housing, or listening to a neighbor tell us what our community needs.

We don't assume that everyone at Edgehill agrees on every political question. But we do believe the Gospel has public consequences. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, seek justice, make peace, care for people experiencing poverty, welcome strangers, and pay particular attention to people society pushes aside. For us, worship and justice belong together.