Amy Grant vs Nashville Church of Christ

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2025/04/10/nashville-church-nonprofit-amy-grant-andy-burton-central-church-property/82995855007/


..."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.
...
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.”

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."... (more)



Link to the WSJ article mentioned above:
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/nashville-church-of-christ-amy-grant-3b4782ba?mod=Threads