The Village is a brand new church in the Lenox Village/Nolensville area, one of the fastest growing areas in Nashville. They meet at 10am on Sundays at Sunset Middle School (200 Sunset Trail.) When visiting The Village they will tell you they believe that everybody needs a village, a place where you can belong and grow to become all you were created to be. And they are here to serve and love their neighbors and our community. We wanted to introduce you to one of the staff members, Elias Dummer. Keep reading to learn more about Elias.
Can you tell us about yourself, where you’re from and your family?
Sure! My name is Elias Dummer, and my wife Meaghan and our five kids hail from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
What is your role at The Village?
I’m serving as Director of Worship—I lead somewhat regularly, oversee much of what happens between 10 and 11:15 on Sundays, help train musicians and worship leaders, work with Travis (pastor) on liturgy and the like and help to build community amongst folks who want to serve in creative ways as we serve Christ together.
How do you see The Village impacting the Nolensville area?
I’m excited to see that an area that’s growing so quickly includes so many people eager to be a part of a Christian community! There are already some great churches in the area, but so many people are moving in that it’s encouraging to think that maybe we can make a real difference together even as a new congregation. Our heart is ready to serve the community, to apply the gospel to our whole lives. I suppose one thing that may be unique is that we’ve set out to be decidedly modern and also very liturgical. It’s an odd mix at first, but it’s been so encouraging to see how God has already been using our feeble attempts to take what the Spirit has always done through the Church, and say it in some of our own words, in our way, and to allow plenty of room for Him to work with that. We’ve intentionally put communion at the climax of every service, and have left tons of time in there to pray for one another and to just, well, be. In a way, we’ve had a miracle of sorts already. There are folks here who have grown up in very traditional high church services, and folks who’ve never been to such a thing, and somehow it seems as though they’ve both been able to make themselves at home here so far. Ha!
What is one thing that you would like our readers to know about you or about The Village?
At the end of the day we’re a group of people who might otherwise have never met but for some wild circumstances. However Christ has brought us together to serve and love this community. As a famous Church Father Irenaeus said, “the glory of God is man fully alive”, and so I hope this rings true of us—that we can find ourselves fully alive, together, in Jesus–to His glory in there to pray for one another and to just, well, be.
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