Set back from Franklin Pike on the south side of Nashville, Glen Leven Presbyterian Church has long served as a community of faith for the neighborhoods that grew up around it. The congregation gathers each Sunday at eleven for blended traditional worship, supports a thriving day school on its grounds, and weaves prayer, study, and outreach into a weekly rhythm that reaches well beyond the church's doors.
Sunday Worship at Eleven
Worship at Glen Leven takes place every Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. and is described as a blended traditional service, weaving music, liturgy, praise, and prayer into a service that aims to draw worshipers into communion with God and with one another. The congregation gathers around the idea that God is the "audience of One," and the messages shared each week communicate biblical truth in ways meant to encourage and equip listeners for daily life.
Music is central to the service. The Chancel Choir rehearses on Thursday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and leads worship each Sunday. The sanctuary also houses a pipe organ and a grand piano, and the music ministry extends to hand bells. A Christmas cantata and an Easter cantata are presented each year, and the church welcomes high school age singers and instrumentalists to join.
The Lord's Supper is celebrated on the first Sunday of every month and on Christmas Eve, Maundy Thursday, and Easter. The table is open to all who feel invited.
Services are offered both in person and through Facebook Live, so those unable to attend in person can still take part.
A House of Prayer: The Sanctuary Stays Open
Prayer shapes the week at Glen Leven as much as Sunday worship does. The sanctuary is set aside as an Open House of Prayer three mornings a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The community is invited to enter for personal prayer during those hours.
On Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m., the Pastor leads a time of prayer in the sanctuary, and all are invited to attend. A group called the Gatekeepers serves as the congregation's intercessory prayer ministry, lifting up needs of the community of faith, the nation, and the world. Emergency prayer requests move through a prayer circle and email prayer partners almost daily. The church describes itself as building a reputation as a "house of prayer."
Sunday Morning: Small Groups for Every Age
Long before the eleven o'clock hour, the buildings begin to fill. Classes for all ages meet at 9:30 a.m. and run until 10:30 a.m., forming the educational backbone of the church.
For children, the Nursery opens at 9:30 and continues through 12:15, offering loving and tender care for infants and young toddlers in a safe, age-appropriate room in the Educational Building. God's Kids/Explorers gathers children ages 4 through second grade, using the We Believe curriculum alongside music and hands-on activities.
The Seekers class welcomes youth in grades 3 through high school, drawing on the Young Teen Encounter resources titled "Meeting God Face-to-Face." Older youth continue with Covenant People, I Know My Bible.
Among adults, the small group network includes the Common Thread class for single and married young and middle-aged adults, the Women's Fellowship using The Present Word curriculum, the Men's Bible Group, and the Gospelaires, a mixed group of men and women exploring the Christian faith. The Fellowship Class, which began in the 1940s as a couples' class, has grown into a mainly older group, though it still includes members in their twenties, led by Maxine Rowe, William Cumming, and Mayme Lee Lawrence who alternate months.
Two Weekly Bible Studies in the Common Thread Room
The church offers two parallel Bible studies that meet in the Common Thread Room of the Administration Building. The Alpha Bible Study meets on Sunday afternoons at 4:30 p.m., and the Omega Bible Study meets on Wednesday mornings at 11:30 a.m. Both run from August through June and offer in-depth discussion of the books of the Bible, with an emphasis on the messages that speak to today's world. Both are led by Dr. Mark S. Bryan, the pastor. Recent studies have included Growing in Fellowship with God through the Word, A Study of Hosea, and similar books of the Bible.
Children, Youth, and the Levenites
The children's and youth ministries at Glen Leven share a single vision: to nurture young people in relationship with God and to grow them from hearers of the word into doers of the word. Alongside Sunday morning classes, the church offers Vacation Bible School, confirmation classes, a Children's Guide to Worship, pageants, and seasonal activities. The Levenites is the church's broader youth fellowship, and overnight camp-outs are part of the calendar. The Senior Ministry, known as the Live Wires, gathers adults over fifty-five for activities, programs, excursions, and fellowship.
Music That Leads Worship
Music ministry at Glen Leven is built on a simple invitation: anyone with a desire to lead in music has that opportunity. The Chancel Choir is the central ensemble, rehearsing on Thursday evenings and leading worship every Sunday morning. Worship Leaders Sara Chang and Karen Ballew bring distinctive gifts to the platform. Chang, who has sung professionally since childhood, has performed everywhere from the Ryman to Carnegie Hall and sings in the Nashville Symphony Chorus and Portara Ensemble. Ballew, who brings a background in Irish-language singing and harp, has shaped her own ethereal sound through work at the O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat and through her Nashville-based band, The Deer's Cry. Pianist and organist Jeffrey Nelson, who joined Glen Leven in 2016, is in his twentieth year as a church organist.
Missions in Nashville and Beyond
The missions board supports work that reaches into the Nashville community and beyond. Three long-standing partnerships are central.
Hope Clinic for Women serves un-wed mothers and single-parent families, and Glen Leven members volunteer regularly in support of its work.
Nashville Rescue Mission has been a partner for many years, sharing the gospel, providing shelter, warm meals, canned goods, and clothing to those who are homeless and less fortunate.
Second Harvest Food Bank receives an annual hands-on collection from the congregation. In a recent year the church gathered over 2,500 pounds of non-perishable food to help feed hungry people in the community.
The Good Samaritan Ministry lives out the parable within the surrounding neighborhood. Members contribute to the payment of utilities for neighbors in emergency situations, including electric, gas, water bills, and transportation fuel for individuals in emergency transitions.
Glen Leven Day School
Established in 1950, the Glen Leven Presbyterian Day School is described by the church as its most vibrant mission. The day school offers full-time and part-time programs for children from six weeks old through Pre-K and is recognized by the Tennessee Department of Human Services as a 3-STAR quality center. The school's mission is to nurture and care for children of the church and surrounding community in the knowledge that God loves them and that they are special to God. The Day School is led by Director Debbie Ferguson, who began at the school as a parent and substitute teacher in 1991 and has served the field at the state and regional level, including service on the Department of Human Services Board of Review.
Weddings at Glen Leven
The church building hosts weddings for members and, at the pastor's discretion, active participants in the congregation. Weddings are officiated by the pastor and treated as acts of worship. Couples complete three two-hour pre-marriage counseling sessions with the pastor, beginning at least two months before the proposed date. Music is selected in consultation with the pastor and the church organist at least three weeks in advance, drawn from Christian and classical tradition. The sanctuary has a pipe organ and a grand piano. Simple, architecture-friendly decorations are required, and no alcohol is permitted on church property.
Leadership
The Rev. Mark S. Bryan, Ph.D. has served as an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for over thirty-eight years. His academic work includes time in Evron, Israel studying Hebrew culture and language through an extension of the University of Haifa, a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and a Ph.D. in Tanach/Old Testament from the University of Sheffield, England. He is internationally known as a preacher and is recognized as one of a handful of Ezekielian scholars in the world.
Supporting the worship life of the church are Pianist/Organist Jeffrey Nelson and Worship Leaders Sara Chang and Karen Ballew. Debbie Ferguson directs the day school.
What They Believe
Glen Leven's mission statement calls the congregation "A Loving Community Called Together by God to be a People of Faith, Prayer, Nurture, and Outreach." The church teaches that God has gathered them to worship and to celebrate the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and works to maintain a Christian environment that promotes prayer (Ephesians 6:18), ongoing Christian education (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 2 Timothy 3:16-17), a nurturing and healing environment (Mark 12:30-31), and continuous outreach in local, national, and global communities (Isaiah 61:1-3; Matthew 28:18-20).
In baptism, the church teaches, God claims the individual, frees them from sin and death, and unites them with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection, making them members of the body of Christ and joining them to a life of love, peace, and justice.
A Special Tradition: Blessing of the Animals
On the first Saturday of October at 11 a.m., the lawn at Glen Leven fills with horses, dogs, cats, goats, parrots, and other creatures brought by their owners for a Blessing of the Animals. The annual event marks the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi and is free and open to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. Pastor Mark Bryan bestows an individual blessing on each animal, and a Tree of Remembrance is available for honoring pets that have died. Pets are asked to be on a leash or in a carrier, and attendees bring their own chairs.