Ryan Knudson

Burton.

He was a well-to-do insurance executive in Nashville who had a strong sense of faith.

Burton named it the Central Church of Christ.

And it did more than just preach the gospel.

The church was a community center.

It fed the homeless and provided medical services.

It even had a daycare.

At its height, the church had hundreds of members.

But in the decades following World War II, more and more people started moving into the newly developed suburbs outside the city.

And as they did, its membership declined.

But the church still had some valuable assets.

The church is tax-exempt as a house of worship, and the building itself is valued at $11 million, according to a 2025 assessment.

And those two parking lots bring in about $40,000 a month.

Altogether, the church had some $3 million in the bank.

When Sean Mathis showed up in 2017, all of those assets, the building, the parking lots, and the savings, were being managed by a very small group of aging congregants.

After he took control, the church was renamed the Nashville Church of Christ.

And according to court filings, it started paying both Mathis and his father six-figure salaries and gave them housing stipends.

And under his leadership, the church stopped its weekly services.

In a statement provided by its lawyer, the National Church of Christ disputed that the church had been shut down.

The letter also said, "...changes to the church's leadership happened according to the same regular processes that had always occurred at the church."