Church Research

Church Research attempts to get people out of their Sunday bubbles in order to see firsthand how members of other religious communities actually practice their faith. This helps us build coalitions among the ones that share common progressive and humanist values, build bridges to the more conservative denominations, and dispel some of the the preconceptions we have about what is actually said by the clergy and believed by the members.

New reviews will be added to the top of this page so they go from newest to oldest.

If you would like to join the Church Research excursions, please join the Sunday Nomads meetup group.

Rating System

Worship services will be rated on a 1-10 scale according to 7 metrics. The goal is to give an independent rating of the quality of the service, from the perspective of a lifelong secular universalist with no prior affiliations or firsthand experience with any religion whatsoever.

1. Holy Spirit - how lively is the service? How enthusiastic are the worshippers?
2. Authenticity - is the spirituality authentic or performative?
3. Music - was the music good? Do people sing along enthusiastically or just mumble the words? How good is the band or choir? Do they sing contemporary music or traditional hymns? Or is it banned?
4. Woo - how much is the supernatural invoked? Are the beliefs taken literally or interpreted as allegory? Is science respected as a source for truth or is it superseded by superstition?
5. Diversity - was there a diversity of ethnicities, genders, generations, and viewpoints represented? Or was it a bunch of retired white people? Are diverse viewpoints, cultures, and lifestyles accepted, if not always represented?
6. Prosperity Gospel - how much emphasis was placed on donations and tithing? Were disingenuous promises of future riches made in order to encourage donations? 1 is craven and money-grubbing,10 means there was no overt pressure to donate.
7. Hell or Heaven - how much fire and brimstone is being preached? How much "othering" and focus on spiritual and/or political enemies is being done? A sole focus on hell, Satan, enemies, demons, and damnation gets you a 1, where a 10 represents purely positive, inspirational, apolitical, and optimistic spirituality.

Redemption Church

Redemption Church is the first conservative church visited by Church Research team. It was selected because it is a televangelist church, where services are broadcast on a Christian TV network founded by the pastor. There was also some personal history with one of the members of our group, though not the reviewer.

The sermon was about "The Authority of the Believer" and centered around the reinforcement of the concept that belief in Jesus gives one the authority to compel the angels to help you out and make demons frig off. While the language was literal and sometimes rather dense with Biblical references that were hard for an outsider to follow, the psychological intent was clearly to reinforce strong faith in the god concept in a way that helps enhance things like the placebo effect and manifestation through self-fulfilling prophecy.

Overall, the vibe was very Righteous Gemstones. Having never attended a made-for-TV evangelical worship service, it was impossible to fully comprehend just how spot-on that parody is. The band's singer could be swapped out with Judy Gemstone and the pastor with Eli and nobody would bat an eye.

• Holy Spirit - 7/10 it was a fairly well-attended and lively service with a lot of hand raising. A LOT.
• Authenticity - 3/10 it definitely seemed like a good deal of performing for the camera.
• Music - 8/10 the band was quite good. The song that was all about "the blood" was a little creepy, though.
• Woo - 3/10 this was about as literalist as you can get. However, since there was no snake handling or speaking in tongues it doesn't deserve the lowest score.
• Diversity - 4/10 it was weird because many of the volunteers you see coming in were minorities, but once inside it was clear that those were the only diverse members, which gave it heavy RNC vibes. However, the age range was more diverse than average.
• Prosperity Gospel - 2/10 they straight up preached prosperity gospel, and there was a very long, well-organized, and high-pressure pitch for donations. The only way to score lower would be if prosperity were the main focus of the sermon.
• Hell or Heaven - 3/10 there wasn't that many overt references to hell and damnation or the condemnation of sin in this particular sermon, but there were enough references to demons to make it clear that we just didn't show up on the right day for that. There were also many references to the previous week's sermon, which was the weekend of Trump's assassination attempt, and they apparently decided not to broadcast it due to being too controversial. While the sermon we saw was fairly apolitical other than a few conservative dog whistles, it was clearly not the case that week. It made us intensely curious to see what we missed there.

Sunday Assembly Nashville

This review is admittedly less unbiased than the others due to the personal history the reviewer has with the Sunday Assembly organization and the fact that they were the guest speaker at this particular service. However, an attempt will still be made to make an unbiased review using the same metrics.

• Holy Spirit - 5/10 small service, and the secular congregation is admittedly not as full of the "holy spirit" as they could be. But they did get up and clap their hands and dance to the music a bit. It was hardly Beatlemania, though.
• Authenticity - 10/10 nobody would be here if they didn't fully believe in what they are doing.
• Music - 9/10 great band and great song selections. Only way to score higher would be to do more to encourage the congregation to contribute by singing, dancing, or otherwise not just standing and watching.
• Woo - 10/10 there was absolutely no woo, all science.
• Diversity - 7/10 diversity is fully embraced, and the members are multi-generational and far less geriatric on average. Still a bit too small and predominantly white and male to get a 10.
• Prosperity Gospel - 10/10 made it a point not to do any crass money-grubbing.
• Hell or Heaven - 8/10 there was no mention of hellfire or damnation, fighting, enemies, etc. Some mention of political issues were made in reference to existential issues like nuclear war and climate change. A case could be made that literalists were being demonized, as they often are in secular spaces, but it was done to make the point that we should embrace universalism.

Center for Spiritual Living Nashville

This was a non-Christian, new thought, universalist church, with its roots in early studies of psychology merged with ancient religious practices.

The Unity Church shared their space with the Center for Spiritual Living, and their services took place back-to-back. As such, they had very similar vibes and ratings.

• Holy Spirit - 5/10 not the biggest or most enthusiastic service, not the least.
• Authenticity - 8/10 seemed like everyone was pretty authentically seeking spiritual truth, though the lack of focus and a bit of native American spiritual appropriation keeps them from a perfect score.
• Music - 8/10 a good band, which is not unusual for Nashville. Led by two women country singers with great voices. Music aspired to be inspirational but didn't always achieve its goal.
• Woo - 8/10 there was a bit of woo, but overall it was pretty grounded.
• Diversity - 7/10 diversity is fully embraced, if not fully achieved. Lots of LGBTQ+ members but not as many ethnicities. Congregation skewed older, but not too old.
• Prosperity Gospel - 9/10 very little mention was made and no pressure given to donate.
• Hell or Heaven - 10/10 the spiritual message was 100% positive, accepting, loving, and universalist.

Unity Church Nashville

A universalist church rooted in Christian tradition, though the service made very little reference to Christianity and mostly quoted the works of its founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.

The Unity Church shared their space with the Center for Spiritual Living, and their services took place back-to-back. As such, they had very similar vibes and ratings.

• Holy Spirit - 5/10 not the biggest or most enthusiastic service, not the least.
• Authenticity - 8/10 seemed like everyone was pretty authentically seeking spiritual truth, though the lack of focus and a bit of native American spiritual appropriation keeps them from a perfect score.
• Music - 7/10 a small jazz band and talented keyboardist played the music.
• Woo - 8/10 there was a bit of woo, but overall it was pretty grounded.
• Diversity - 7/10 diversity is fully embraced, if not fully achieved. Lots of LGBTQ+ members but not as many ethnicities. Congregation skewed older, but not too old.
• Prosperity Gospel - 9/10 very little mention was made and no pressure given to donate.
• Hell or Heaven - 10/10 the spiritual message was 100% positive, accepting, loving, and universalist.

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Knoxville

The Quakers have a long and storied history of antiwar and civil rights activism in the 1900s, and abolitionism in the 1800s.

Review to come.

United Church of Christ Knoxville

Another universalist congregation.

Review to come.

Westside Unitarian Universalist Church

More universalists.

Review to come.

Nashville Bahá'í Community

A beautiful temple with a very diverse and open-minded universalist congregation.

Review to come.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church

The largest universalist congregation in the Knoxville area and a hub for activism.

Review to come.