The Belonging Co.

The Belonging Co., a non-denomnational church in Nashville
201 Great Circle Rd,
Nashville, TN 37228

Sunday Service: 9am, 11am

The Belonging Co is a church unafraid of doing a Planet Shaking Shakedown with it’s pastor Henry Seeley. It was all about the money during the service I attended as a first time guest. The service I attended was light on Jesus, heavy on money, and heavy on tossing out expensive gifts to the congregation. None of this was apparent upon entry though.

Pulling into the parking lot, one is guided which is good considering the church isn’t in the parking lot – it’s across the street. I had to ask where it was and I simply parked and followed the crowd. There was adequate signage once I got to the church. Inside the church was equally guided.

Once inside, the flow is fairly straightforward. There are greeters, a coffee shop and doors for the main auditorium. One wouldn’t get lost with all the greeters. Once I made it inside, it was rather intuitive for a non-denomnational church in Nashville.

The main auditorium was fairly wasy to figure out – side screens, a stage and seating. There was plenty of seating as well as adequate lighting. The entire room was filled pretty fast like a concert hall which was good because worship was fast.

The worship set was a good length but ran rather efficiently from song to song. The lyrics were on the lower thirds of the side screens however raised hands prevented them from being seen in their entirety from the back. The lighting changed throughout the set which affected visibility on the screen. But it was a short lived problem as the worship set was over in an efficient manner making way for the welcoming segment.

The welcoming segment allowed for time. This was pretty interesting both to fill out a long card which was…long and to raise one’s hand if they were a first time guest which is something one doesn’t see very often anymore. They also announced the tithe would be moved to the end given the message. There were no announcements about efforts to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, outreach, or anything having to do with helping people at all.

The message was on giving. It’s every first time visitors awkward moment to walk into the yearly giving message. Giving messages along with serving messages and membership messages are usually a ‘family moment’. It was admittedly a re-work of another idea.

This was a re-work of an event they were supposed to have with selected members to do an ask – the speaker – Henry Seeley – stated he felt led to include everyone. The message was fairly standard giving fare but it did in my estimation lack Jesus. There wasn’t much of a mention of Jesus, salvation, reaching the lost, or any other motivation other than the mention of a $8 million dollar building loan, $15,000 rent in Franklin and how much more they could do without it. But what could that be?

The only thing I saw Henry Seeley do during this Planet Shaking Shakedown was talk about how he enjoyed expensive shoes than gave pairs away at each campus if you wore a size 9. These expensive shoes could feed the hungry, clothe the naked or other such Jesus-centric needs. The fact that he gave them away so casually seemed to speak to his sense of affluence and did little to motivate me towards giving.

He probably couldn’t use my $25 if he could give away a $200 pair of shoes like that. I also have to wonder about a congregation that sees this as okay without any mention of the Gospel, the lost, or Jesus.  I waited for the example of Jesus which never came. At best he argued how believers and non believers alike would want their money blessed. Money.

There wasn’t any mention of helping others, only themselves by paying down the building debt. Henry Seeley seemed more pleased with giving away expensive shoes than the gospel message of salvation and receiving money for the $8million building loan than people receiving the gift of Jesus at this non-denomnational church in Nashville.

In the end, It was a Planet Shaking Shakedown of epic proportions and very little mention Jesus, no mention of the lost or reaching the lost. No alter call if you somehow felt the presence of Holy Spirit over spirit of mammon. This was more of a rock concert with an ask that lacked the Gospel. There was no alter call for the lost either. In the end I was lost as I left but fortunately for me there were people to follow…back to the parking lot.