Grammy-Winning Singer Leads Family Effort to Protect Historic Nashville Church of Christ
Six-time Grammy-winning Christian pop singer Amy Grant, alongside other family members, is embroiled in a legal struggle to save a historic Nashville church founded by her great-grandfather, Andrew Mizell “A.M.” Burton, in 1925. The Nashville Church of Christ, formerly known as Central Church of Christ, located at 145 Rep. John Lewis Way, has become the focal point of a contentious dispute that Grant says is “all about the legacy of A.M. Burton.”
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A.M. Burton, a prominent civic leader and founder of Life and Casualty Insurance Company, was a philanthropist who dedicated much of his wealth to Christian causes. The church he established was once a thriving hub, with hundreds of members and significant community impact, partly due to revenue from two parking lots near Nashville’s bustling music venues. Valued at approximately $6.7 million, the property’s worth is amplified by its prime downtown location, with estimates suggesting a total value of up to $30 million when including its assets.
Church Challenges
However, the church has faced challenges in recent years. By the late 2010s, its congregation had dwindled to a few dozen elderly members, and its building has been boarded up since its last worship service in 2018. The conflict escalated when businessman Shawn Mathis, who joined the church in 2017 and rose to elder status, gained control of the board. Grant and her family allege that Mathis orchestrated a “steeple-jacking” takeover, pushing out longtime members and redirecting the church’s assets to a nonprofit he created, also named Nashville Church of Christ. This move, they claim, violates the original 1925 deed, which stipulated that the property must be used solely as a Church of Christ worship site, or ownership would revert to Burton’s estate.
“This is all about the legacy of A.M. Burton,” Grant told The Wall Street Journal. “To me, the family has to get involved because otherwise that property is at a standstill. And that doesn’t make any sense.” Her family’s fight is rooted in preserving Burton’s vision for the church as a place of worship, not a commercial or nonprofit venture.
The legal battle intensified in 2019 when Grant and her relatives hired an attorney to investigate the church’s management. In response, the Nashville Church of Christ sued them, seeking to invalidate the deed’s restrictions, but the court rejected this attempt. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s attorney general filed a separate lawsuit against the church, accusing it of improperly mixing missionary funds with other accounts. This case remains ongoing, with the church claiming the attorney general overstepped its authority by delving into matters of faith and governance.
Compounding the issue, the church, now classified as commercial property, owes over $500,000 in unpaid taxes, further straining its finances. Reports indicate that Mathis, as the church’s administrator, was receiving a base salary of $138,250 plus a $2,000 monthly housing allowance as of 2021.
Deeply Personal
For Grant, a Nashville native whose music career has long been intertwined with her faith, the fight is deeply personal. Her great-grandfather’s influence extended beyond the church, shaping her early experiences at Nashville’s Ashwood Church of Christ, where she sang hymns alongside her great-grandmother, Lillie Burton. “I grew up several years of my childhood on Shys Hill Road, which was a road cut into the backside of their farm,” Grant recalled in a 2023 interview, reflecting on the Burton family’s impact on her life.
As the legal proceedings continue, the future of the Nashville Church of Christ hangs in the balance. For Amy Grant and her family, the struggle is not just about a building but about honoring A.M. Burton’s commitment to faith and community—a legacy they are determined to protect.
