Riverwood Church of Christ sits on McGavock Pike, on the east bank of the Cumberland River across from the Opry Mills area and just northeast of downtown Nashville. The congregation has shaped its life around a Sunday morning service, a Wednesday evening meal and classes, and a wide network of partnerships that reach into nearby neighborhoods and across the Caribbean to Haiti. Visitors are welcomed, the building is open, and the church's livestream makes the same Sunday gathering available on Facebook and YouTube every week.
Sunday Mornings on McGavock Pike
Riverwood gathers each Sunday on McGavock Pike. Members and visitors fill the auditorium at 9:15 AM for the Sunday morning worship service, then move into classrooms at 10:50 AM for Bible classes that run through the rest of the morning. Worship is open to anyone who wants to join, and a livestream is offered for those who cannot make it to the building. The livestream is hosted on both Facebook and YouTube every Sunday morning, so the same service that takes place inside the auditorium can be watched from home, a hospital room, or anywhere with an internet connection. The service is the central weekly gathering of the church, and the rhythm of the morning, with worship first and teaching second, sets the tone for the rest of the week.
A typical Sunday at Riverwood is unhurried. Worship runs through congregational singing, prayer, the Lord's Supper, a sermon from the preaching minister, and an invitation. After worship, the congregation separates into age-appropriate Bible classes that run for roughly an hour. There is a children's education ministry that runs in step with the adult classes, so a parent can drop a child in a classroom of their own age group and pick them up when the morning closes. The church's calendar and announcements are shared from the floor, and the time between services is often filled with conversation in the foyer and hallways. For anyone who would like to know more about what to expect, the church maintains a What to Expect page that covers the basics for first-time guests.
Wednesday Nights Around the Table
The midweek rhythm at Riverwood begins not with a sermon but with a shared meal. Doors open at 5:00 PM for a fellowship supper, a long-running tradition that brings neighbors and church members together around the same tables. The church describes Wednesday evenings as a way of staying connected between Sundays; the meal is casual, and newcomers are welcome to walk in. After the meal, the gathering moves into a devotional at 6:15 PM, followed by classes for all ages at 6:30 PM.
Wednesday classes are organized so that every age group has a place. Adults study a book of the Bible or a particular topic; children meet in their own classrooms; youth meet separately with the youth minister. The devotional hour at 6:15 PM is a shorter time set aside for singing, prayer, and a brief reflection, after which the deeper teaching of the Wednesday class picks up. The midweek meal and class schedule is a way for the Riverwood family to stay in touch with one another between Sundays, and it is also one of the easier entry points for someone who is curious about the church but not yet ready to step into the larger Sunday morning service.
A Church That Welcomes As You Are
First-time guests often want to know what to wear, where to park, and what to do with their children when they arrive. Riverwood has thought through those questions and laid them out plainly. On the topic of dress, the church is straightforward: come in whatever makes you feel comfortable. Most people dress pretty casually, the church explains, but shorts and a T-shirt are as welcome as a suit. The only request is that clothing be modest and not distracting to anyone else's worship. There is no dress code at Riverwood beyond that.
The Riverwood campus sits opposite the Cumberland River from the Opry Mills area, just northeast of downtown Nashville, and detailed driving directions are posted for visitors coming from south of Nashville, north of Nashville, and from the Donelson and Opry Mills side of the river. For anyone who would rather not drive, the church can also be reached by phone at 615-228-3854 or by email at riverwoodcc@yahoo.com. The What to Expect page walks through any further questions a first-time guest might have, and a contact form is available for anyone who would like the church office to follow up directly. The church's stated vision is to glorify God and share Christ with others through loving, growing, and serving together, and that posture of welcome shows up in the way the church talks about visitors.
What Riverwood Believes
The beliefs page at Riverwood opens with the church's stated vision: to glorify God and share Christ with others. That vision is worked out across four areas of doctrine: God, the Bible, the church, and salvation.
On God, Riverwood affirms that there is one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who has always existed and created all things. The church confesses faith in Jesus Christ as the one and only Son of God and the one and only Savior, both fully human and fully divine, who lived a sinless life, suffered, was crucified to atone for sins, rose again, ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of God, and will one day rule in heaven forever. The Holy Spirit is described as the believer's counselor, who empowers faithfulness to God's will, convicts, transforms, helps in weakness, and intercedes in prayer.
On the Bible, Riverwood teaches that Scripture is God's Word to his people, that the original writings are both inspired and reliable, and that the Bible is the final authority on matters of faith, truth, morality, and godly living. The church holds that the Word is meant to be lived out, not merely read; it has the power, the church teaches, to guard, penetrate, and transform hearts through the work of the Spirit.
On the church, Riverwood teaches that Jesus is the head of the church, which is his body, and that he has commissioned believers to go into all the world as his hands and feet. Shepherds, the term the church uses for elders, are responsible for oversight, instruction, edification, discipline, and restoration of the members. Every Christian is called to be an active member of the church, meeting regularly for fellowship, spiritual growth, worship, and the Lord's Supper, and sharing natural and spiritual gifts in service to one another.
On salvation, the church teaches that although God created everything good, sin entered the world through human rebellion. Redemption is available only through Jesus Christ. To receive the gift, a person repents of sin, confesses Jesus as Lord and Savior, is buried with him in baptism by immersion, and continues to walk with God in faith.
Shepherds and Staff
Riverwood is led by a group of four shepherds and a ministry staff of four. The shepherds listed on the church's site are Ben Collier, Tim Hinton, Cory Morgan, and Phil Sanders, each shown alongside his wife. Each couple oversees the flock together, a structure the church believes matches the New Testament pattern of plural eldership.
The preaching minister is Martin Pyle, a bi-vocational minister who also works as a financial professional with Freedom Planning Partners. Pyle served congregations in four states before returning to Tennessee in 1994. He holds two master's degrees from Harding School of Theology and has studied at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary toward a doctorate. He and his wife, Rachel, have three children and five grandchildren.
Matt Hardin serves as youth minister, a role he has held since January 2000. He and his wife, Lindsay, have three children. Greg and Leah Ball came to Riverwood as involvement ministers in August 2021; Greg grew up at Riverwood, attended Freed Hardeman University, and previously taught middle and high school at Family Christian Academy. Brittney Denton serves as communications minister; a graduate of Harding University with a degree in communications and a minor in marketing, she joined the staff with her husband, Jackson, and they live in Goodlettsville.
Teaching the Next Generation
Riverwood operates a children's education ministry that runs alongside the Sunday morning Bible classes and Wednesday evening classes. Teachers are background-checked, a precaution the church describes as a way of protecting families and visitors, and classes are organized by age so that a child can be in a room with peers and a teacher who knows the stage they are at. The church's goal in teaching children, in its own words, is to have teachers who love the Lord and love learning his word, passing this love onto children so that they may know Jesus and see how powerfully his Word can make a difference in their lives every day.
The youth ministry, led by Matt and Lindsay Hardin, is built around four pillars the church states plainly: relationships, teaching with relevance, missions and service, and fun. The goal is to give teenagers a place where they can connect, be challenged, see Christ, and grow in their walk with him. Summer service opportunities are emphasized, with the youth group regularly stepping out of the building to serve in the wider Nashville area. The youth ministry's teaching aim is to share Biblical truth that applies to what is going on in the lives of teens today, not just what they want to hear, but messages that challenge young men and women to consider what God is calling them to.
Standing With Nashville
Riverwood's ministry footprint extends well beyond its building. Three long-standing partnerships connect the church to organizations working in and around Nashville.
Nashville Inner City Ministries is a Christ-centered community organization that empowers the spiritual, educational, and vocational development of at-risk youth and their families. Riverwood has supported ICM for many years, providing worship and classroom space, teachers, snacks, and contributions to the Conqueror's Luncheon and Summer Camp. During the school year, ICM buses pick up children from surrounding neighborhoods on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings and bring them to Riverwood for Bible classes that include worship, learning, fun, and snacks. The church collects seasonal donations - men's coats, socks, and men's underwear - to support the program through the colder months.
Room in the Inn is a winter shelter program that runs each year from November through March. For more than thirty years, the Riverwood church family has hosted ten homeless men monthly, providing dinner, overnight sleeping accommodations, a hot breakfast, and a sack lunch for the next day. Small groups within the church typically take responsibility for one evening at a time, and the ministry includes opportunities for transportation, cooking, serving, staying overnight, and engaging in prayer and conversation with the guests.
United4Hope connects Riverwood with East End Prep, a community school in the neighborhood. The partnership is built around helping local schools thrive, with Riverwood working through the school year to address whatever needs arise, from classroom supplies to volunteer hours. The church has identified local school support as one of the most direct ways it can serve the families living in the neighborhoods around its building.
A Mission Field in Haiti
Beyond Nashville, Riverwood supports Children of the Promise, a nonprofit working in Haiti to keep families together by strengthening and empowering them toward lasting health and stability. The organization addresses physical, spiritual, emotional, educational, and economic needs, with a vision for every Haitian child to grow up in a healthy Christian home. One of its key programs, ICEP, offers quality education to more than 240 students.
The Riverwood congregation has walked with Children of the Promise as the nonprofit launches a multi-phase capital campaign to build a campus in Northern Haiti, a place where children of all abilities belong and families are strengthened through Christ-centered collaboration. The partnership reflects the church's stated belief that the body of Christ is commissioned to go into all the world, acting as his hands and feet.
Prayer, Fasting, and the Word
Devotional life at Riverwood is structured around the church calendar. The congregation runs an annual rhythm of prayer and fasting that moves through the months of February and March, with a separate campaign each month. Members are encouraged to engage in a digital fast - setting aside phones, televisions, tablets, gaming systems, and computers (apart from work purposes) to create space for reading, praying, thinking, and conversation - and to consider food fasting as they are able. The church also walks through a Bible reading plan together; in March, the congregation reads, meditates on, and prays through the One Story that Leads to Jesus reading plan from the Bible Project.
A Friday Night Praise and Prayer gathering is held periodically during the fasting season, giving members a dedicated time to gather midweek for worship and intercession. Members also share devotional reflections through the church blog, posting short meditations on Scripture passages; recent posts have walked through the Psalms, the Gospel of John, 1 Samuel, and the Sermon on the Mount. The church's daily reading plan walks through the Bible book by book, with assigned readings for each day of the week.
RightNow Media is a video library of more than 20,000 Bible study videos that every member of the Riverwood church can access. Topics range across marriage, parenting, youth, recovery, leadership, finances, and more, and the church encourages members to use the resource for personal study, small groups, or family discipleship. The church also makes online giving available through its RebelGive platform, accessible through a button on the church's site.
Finding Riverwood
Riverwood Church of Christ is at 1904 McGavock Pike, Nashville, TN 37216. From south of Nashville, the route runs north on I-65, east on I-40, west on I-24, north on US-31E toward Ellington Parkway, then Trinity Lane to Gallatin Road and a right onto McGavock Pike. From north of Nashville, the route runs south on I-65 to Briley Parkway, then east to the Gallatin Road exit, south on Gallatin Road, and a series of turns onto Ardee Avenue and McGavock Pike. From Donelson and Opry Mills, the route runs north on Briley Parkway to Gallatin Road South, then to Ardee Avenue and McGavock Pike; the church notes that there is a river between McGavock Pike in Donelson and the McGavock Pike where the building sits.
Small groups meet in homes throughout the area and are organized through the church office. Anyone interested in joining a small group can fill out a form on the church's site, and a leader will follow up. The church's calendar is updated with upcoming events, and the church's Facebook page and YouTube channel carry news, recordings, and Sunday morning worship for those who want to stay connected throughout the week.