Grammy Winner Battles to Preserve Church Founded by Her Forebear

A Grammy Award-winning vocalist is striving to protect Nashville,
Tennessee
, a church established by her great-grandfather.

Amy Grant
A Christian pop singer famous for tracks like “Baby, Baby” and “That’s What Love Is For,” is striving to reclaim the historic site, alleging that it was improperly “steeple-jacked.”

The six-time
Grammy
The winner’s great-grandfather, Andrew Mizell ‘A.M.’ Burton, established the Central Church of Christ in the 1920s. The founding deed stipulated that the structure could only be utilized for worshipping purposes.

Grant charged businessman Shawn Mathis with seizing control of the church along with its resources, asserting that the closed-down facility is no longer serving its original function, as stated in the documents.
The Wall Street Journal
.

Mathis refuted the accusations, stating that the church continues to be involved in missionary activities such as online ministries. He also charged the family with being driven by the increasing market value of the church’s properties.

In 2024, an evaluation deemed the structure situated in the rapidly growing heart of downtown Nashville to be approximately $6.7 million, not factoring in the income derived from its associated parking areas which yield monthly earnings.

This revolves entirely around the legacy of A.M. Burton,” Grant stated to the WSJ. “In my view, the family must take part since without their involvement, that property will remain stagnant. That wouldn’t be logical.

Once flourishing, the congregation of this church has diminished to just a handful of older members over time.

As reported by the WSJ, in 2017, Mathis began going to church regularly and eventually advanced to become an Elder.

A year later, Mathis told the news outlet the congregation adopted a resolution to merge and convert itself into Nashville Church of Christ, a Tennessee-based nonprofit corporation.

Legal papers indicate that the final church service at the facility took place in 2018, and the premises seem to have been closed ever since.

Since 2019, when Grant and her relatives enlisted a legal representative for an investigation, the church has faced numerous lawsuits.

As a response, the Nashville Church of Christ filed a lawsuit against Grant and her family members, aiming to nullify the provisions in the initial church deed that mandated it function solely as a house of worship.

The court dismissed that claim, and discussions regarding the deed limitations continue.

The Tennessee Attorney General initiated legal action against the church in the previous year, alleging improper mixing of missionary funds with other financial resources, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The church, now classified as commercial property, also reportedly owes more than $500,000 in unpaid taxes.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the church’s present financial situation could not be ascertained.

In reply to the state attorney general’s office, the church stated that as of 2021, they were compensating Mathis, who held the title of administrative minister within the organization, with an annual base salary of $138,250 along with a monthly housing stipend of $2,000.

Grant and their family are battling to reclaim the property under the terms set by the 1925 deed restrictions, with state court hearings scheduled for June.

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