RELIGION
How Rev. Margie Quinn is helping give historic Vine Street new life
May 12, 2026, 5:00 p.m. CT Liam Adams, Nashville Tennessean
Key Points
Vine Street Christian Church is well-known for its campus along West End Avenue, and its 206-year-old history of planting other Disciples of Christ congregations and social justice advocacy.
Rev. Margie Quinn's installation on Feb. 22 made her the first woman senior minister at Vine Street.
Associate minister Rev. Wesley King: "All that we're doing is showing externally what we've been doing internally for a long time."
With its bright green steeple that rises above West Nashville's tree canopy and its elaborate golden brick masonry, Vine Street Christian Church is a familiar edifice for many Nashvillians who drive past it on West End Avenue.
The church is a Music City staple for other reasons, such as its role in planting fellow Disciples of Christ congregations across town. One of its most well-known descendants is Woodmont Christian Church, which is just as recognizable with its sprawling white-brick campus in Green Hills.
Just as Vine Street gave life to Woodmont Christian, Woodmont Christian returned the favor in the form of Rev. Margie Quinn. Quinn, who recently became the first woman senior minister at Vine Street in the church's 206 years, grew up attending Woodmont Christian.
"I loved growing up at that church. Our denomination really embraces asking questions," Quinn said. "It was a place that really formed me."
In 2019, when Quinn moved back to Nashville after living in Seattle and attending seminary at Duke Divinity School, Woodmont Christian resumed its role in her life — under both exciting and tragically unexpected circumstances.
In 2022, Quinn's sister-in-law, Tallu Schuyler Quinn, a well-known Nashville nonprofit leader, died at 42 to brain cancer. The funeral for Tallu was inside Woodmont Christian's sanctuary.
A month later, Quinn was ordained as a Disciples of Christ minister in that same sanctuary.
Quinn carried both life-altering events into her current role at Vine Street, where she leads worship on Sundays wearing a robe that once belonged to Tallu. "I often say she's threaded into (my work) in so many ways," Quinn said.
Quinn isn't the only one threading the past into a bold vision for the future. It's also happening among the full Vine Street congregation.
In the past few months, Vine Street members have cemented two key leadership changes and championed a task force review that in a couple months will formalize the church's status as an LGBTQ+ affirming congregation.
For a church that many in town see as a storied and steady institution, there's a lot of newness and it's happening rapidly.
"How do we make history? By that I mean: How do we make sure people know our history and continue to make history?" Quinn said. "Because to know our past is to know the blueprint."
Though Vine Street has never appointed a woman as senior minister before Quinn and it hasn't previously formalized its welcoming attitude toward LGBTQ+ people, the church has a history of being on the front lines of social justice campaigns in Nashville. For example, the church and its members opposed Vanderbilt Divinity School's expulsion of the late Civil Rights icon Rev. James Lawson, an infamous moment in the Nashville sit-in movement. At the time, several Vanderbilt Divinity faculty who were members of Vine Street coordinated with the senior minister to publicly protest Lawson's expulsion, said Vine Street associate minister Rev. Wesley King.
After the congregation affirmed Quinn's appointment in a Feb. 22 installation service, it will do the same for King on May 17. Quinn and King, both in their mid-30s, have been working together for much longer, but now their status at the congregation is solidified.
"Me and Margie (Quinn) really revere the history of the church. We've done a lot to try and connect us to that history — to remind longstanding members and to inform new members about the history," King said. "Because I think the same reason this church is well-known for that history are the same reasons they come here now."
'Showing externally what we've been doing internally'
Around the time Quinn and King began transitioning in as Vine Street's interim leadership, parishioner Quentin Flowers began taking steps to formalize the church's status as LGBTQ+ affirming.
"There is a process to follow and there's information out there, it's just no one had done it yet. … Now is as good time as any," Flowers said.
Flowers and his wife, Abigail, both of whom are professional musicians, joined Vine Street in 2017 after the choir invited Abigail to rehearsal. Over time they settled in and grew more involved, including by performing on a few occasions. In fact, they played at Quinn's installation service and performed the song "House of God Forever."
Over time, Flowers realized Vine Street was not on a database of LGBTQ+ affirming congregations, published by the Disciples of Christ-affiliated advocacy group AllianceQ. So, he assembled five other congregants. In November, the task force started organizing book studies, panel discussions with clergy at nearby churches and documentary screenings. Also, A.J. Levine, a well-known Jewish scholar of queer theology, delivered a lecture at Vine Street.
"The authenticity of it is what's most important to me. My wife and I have been coming here for eight years, and there have been folks coming here for decades," Flowers said. "So, I'm listening to them. We all need each other."
The task force is preparing a statement that will come before the full congregation in June. The congregation will then vote on affirming that statement, which the church will then post on its website and in its bulletin. Afterward, Flowers is hopeful Vine Street, and the task force, can "be a resource for more congregations that are going to go through this process."
Quinn and King are helping the church seek out other opportunities to promote its passion for social justice.
King has helped lead the Tennessee Democratic Party Faith Caucus, though he said he and Quinn are "committed to not being partisan from the pulpit." Meanwhile, King and others in the congregation are showing up at the Capitol more regularly and then discussing issues afterward during Sunday worship.
For example, King spoke with the congregation during a May 10 worship service about state lawmakers' decision to eliminate Tennessee's only Black-majority congressional district. King said he accompanied the protests at the state Capitol on May 6-7 and said despite "all of this frustration and anger ... I also saw love everywhere." In another part of the service discussing the same subject, King prayed for God to "embolden us to resist, to fight for our neighbors."
In response to Rep. Andy Ogles' recent remarks that Muslims "don't belong" in America, Vine Street gathered for a letter-writing event to urge public officials to denounce Ogles' rhetoric.
Vine Street has long partnered with Room In the Inn to provide space for an overnight shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
"All that we're doing is showing externally what we've been doing internally for a long time," King said.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams.
