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Who We Are

At The Experience, our mission is to make authentic followers of Jesus Christ. We do this through authentic worship, authentic community, and authentic community service.

We are a group of Christ-followers focused on living the life Jesus has called us to live. We are a nondenominational, self-sufficient community that teaches the biblical principles of grace, mercy, love, truth, and community service. 

If you are intimidated or uncomfortable in traditional churches and desire genuine worship and community, this might be a chance for you to experience an authentic encounter with God.

Worship is not something that only happens on the weekend. It’s a way of life. Authentic worship means loving God fully, with all that we are—all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Jesus gave His life so we could all start anew, free from the grasp of sin. Our salvation is to be celebrated, whether we’re serving at church, singing in our cars, sharing our lives with friends and family, or striving for our best at work.

As Jesus-followers, we are strongest when pursuing Christ with other people. Community is not a group of perfect people, but a group of imperfect people trying to navigate through this life while following Jesus and His teachings. 

Our Life Groups exist to build relationships, discuss and learn about the Bible in a small group setting, and give people the opportunity to pursue Christ together as a people united by His grace.

We believe in being honest and transparent so we can come alongside those we are choosing to do life with. When we choose to allow other Jesus-followers into our lives, we build bonds that the enemy cannot easily break (Ecclesiastes 9:10–12).

We strongly believe in showing Christ’s love through giving generously to our community. We believe Jesus has called His Church to clothe, feed, and care for those who are in need.

A genuine commitment to Christ is ultimately a commitment to others. Living with this mindset will make a difference in the choices we make, the people we invest in, the way we spend our time, and how we view others. 

We work together through church-wide community service projects to get outside of the church walls and show love to our friends and neighbors. Thirty percent of every dollar given to The Experience is given to nonprofits and to fund projects that directly benefit our community.

Weekend Services at The Experience

At our weekend services, we focus on verse-by-verse teaching of the Bible, corporate worship, and communion—because we believe that authentic worship begins and ends in a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Salvation is not just found in one or two scriptures, but through a personal walk and relationship with God. 

We are a community dedicated to Christ’s saving grace, constant repentance, baptism as a symbol and public profession of Christ’s work, the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit (the fruit and gifts), and the marriage of faith and works as the evidence of genuine salvation. 

We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Expository Teaching 

During our weekend services, we teach expositorily, which means looking at the Bible verse by verse. As a church, we read through an entire book of the Bible before beginning another, which allows us to study God’s Word in its entirety. We believe this is the best way to teach His will as it forces us to talk about the unpopular parts of Scripture and to have meaningful conversations about difficult topics. 

Twice a year year, we have Baptism Services, where we teach the meaning and importance of baptism, and Vision Services, where we talk about the direction and status of the church.

If you’d like to watch previous sermons in our current series, click on the button below!

Sermons

“To make authentic followers of Jesus through authentic worship, community, and community service.”

Majors vs. Minors

A “major” is a doctrine that we understand to be essential to salvation. Some examples of majors include salvation being found in Jesus Christ alone, the inerrancy of Scripture in the original manuscripts, and the trinitarian nature of God. These are beliefs on which we, as the Church, are unified.

A “minor” is a doctrine that we do not believe to be essential to salvation. Some examples of minors include Calvinism versus Arminianism (predestination versus freewill), the formula of baptism (see below for an explanation of baptism), and the instrumentation of worship. Whereas we as the Church are unified on the majors, not all Christians must be unified on the minors. In other words, we can disagree on the minors and still worship and serve together in unity (Titus 3:5–9).

God instructs us not to waste time quarreling over every little issue (2 Timothy 2:14). While certain doctrines are worth pausing on, reflecting over, and discussing, others are merely distractions from the mission of Christ.

  • The Bible is God’s unique revelation to people. It is the inspired Word of God providing an authoritative and trustworthy rule of faith and practice.
  • There is one God, eternally existent as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Jesus Christ is God’s Son, born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, willingly took upon Himself all of our sins, died and rose again bodily, and is at the right hand of the Father. He will return to consummate history and fulfill the eternal plan of God.
  • All people are created in God’s image having innate value and dignity but alienated from God by sin and justly subject to God’s wrath.
  • Salvation cannot be earned through personal goodness or human effort. It is a gift that must be received by humble repentance and faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross.
  • We believe in the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit (the fruit and supernatural gifts). The indwelling presence and transforming power of the Holy Spirit gives to all Believers a new life and a new calling to obedient service.
  • All Believers are members of the Body of Christ, the one true Church universal.
  • Faith without works is dead (James 2:14–17). We are not saved by our works, but we are also not saved from our works. Rather, we are saved by the power of Christ’s gospel to do good works. The Bible teaches that faith and works are married as evidence of genuine salvation (Matthew 7:15–20).
  • Eschatology (the Second Coming of Christ)
    There are many different ideas concerning the specifics of how Christ will return, including pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation rapture. For us, arguing the details of Christ’s return is about as pointless as arguing about the exact color and physics of a set of stairs—it doesn’t matter exactly how they work, all we know is that they will get us where we need to go if we do our part.
  • Bible Translations
    Many churches argue about which one is the best. Although there are versions and translations we recommend—like the CSB and the ESV—we believe almost any version you can read and actually understand is the best choice.
  • Eternal Security Versus Conditional Security
    It has been our experience that, in American Christianity especially, there is much confusion on the doctrine of eternal security (often referred to as “once saved, always saved“). Some circles of Christianity, for example, might teach one can lose his/her salvation and fall into the error of trying to keep his salvation by personal effort. According to Scripture, this is a serious error (Galatians 3:1–3). Other circles teach one can never lose his/her salvation, and therefore fall into the error of sinning willfully because he/she believes salvation cannot be lost no matter how much an individual sins. This is also a serious doctrinal error (Hebrews 10:26). Regardless of any denominational or traditional stance surrounding the issue of eternal security, it is obvious from the study of the Bible there are many in this life who will claim to have secure salvation but do not truly know Christ. Sadly, many of these people will have a shocking realization at the end of this life that the security they had in their own salvation was false (Matthew 7:21). Whether that salvation was lost somewhere along life’s journey or whether it was never there in the first place is not the point. The point is, we are to be pursuing Christ and the promise of His salvation with a complete, total, and relentless pursuit. If we are actively following Christ by faith and our lives reflect a reality of a genuine relationship with God, our salvation is secure.
  • Differences in Worship and Church Practices
    This relates to how a church service should look. This includes, but is not limited to: music styles, baptism methods, communion methods, titles for church staff, church membership, and the use of liturgy/readings.
  • Calvinism Versus Arminianism
    Calvinism and Arminianism are two systems of theology that attempt to explain the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in the matter of salvation. While these theologies are interesting to study and discuss, arguing, and debating them is unprofitable. The Bible should be our starting and ending point—not the theories and writings of man-made theology.

Our Process

Whether you join us for a weekend service or a community Worship Night, the first step in our process is simply “worship.” During our weekend services, we engage in worship and Bible teaching accessible to those curious about Christianity or the longtime Believer. Throughout the year, we also host Worship Nights to engage our community and welcome people to visit our church. Your journey starts with worship, but we encourage you to take the steps necessary to get connected further.

After attending our weekend services, you may be interested in learning more about our church—what we believe, our team’s roles, and our story. On the second Monday of every month, we host a class specifically for new attendees to learn more about us. Our team will take you on a tour of our campus and explain the various ministry opportunities we have available. Then there’s a time for our lead pastor to share his testimony and the history and vision of our church. Finally, we give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. 

Come to a Next Class

We encourage you to be intentional about growing closer to God personally. We have designed two courses to guide you as you begin being a disciple of Jesus. Our first course is called Following Jesus—a seven-week course designed to teach the basic beliefs of Christianity and give practical insight into why we believe what we believe and why we do what we do at The Experience. After completing that course, we offer a course called Authentic Discipleship. This is a twelve-week course to inform and equip you to be a disciple-maker and live out the Great Commission. We hope these courses help you as you go further in your walk with Jesus.

We also offer personal growth classes to help you in specific areas, such as finances and marriage.

Following Jesus Authentic Discipleship Personal Growth Classes

We want you to be connected with other Christ-followers and spend time in community. When we attempt to live the Christian life apart from intimate and genuine friendship and fellowship, we are more vulnerable to spiritual attack and prone to deception. This is why we strive to create an environment in our Life Groups where you can live transparent lives with others and are safe to confess failures, struggles, and inconsistencies. 

Life Groups are an essential aspect of our church. Our Life Groups are made up of people in all life stages and ages; we can all learn from each other, no matter the age or marital status. Our Life Groups meet at various times throughout the week, and some groups have childcare provided. We’re confident you will find a Life Group that fits your schedule.

Join a Life Group

Serving is essential to the life of a Believer, and we provide many opportunities to get involved. We serve our church community in various ways, like pouring coffee as part of our hospitality team or teaching children in ECCO Kids, our children’s ministry. We serve our local community through outreach like feeding those in need through 5000. We serve our nation and our world through nonprofits and ministries like Feed America First and Compassion International. We are also involved with missionary work throughout Central America and Uganda and have mission trips often to assist those already serving in those places. 

When we serve others, we show Christ’s love and draw people to Him. This is how the gospel is spread in our community and throughout the world. We pray you find the place where your gifts can glorify God and bless others.

Find a Place to Serve

What is the gospel?

God

God existed before time began. He created the universe and everything in it. He holds it all together. He made us in His image to enjoy fellowship with Him. Unfortunately, when sin entered the world, our relationship with God was broken. God is perfect and holy, and our sin separates us from him. 

Genesis 1–3; Isaiah 59:2; Romans 3:23

Sin

Sin requires a heavy price that no good deed from us can pay. God gave the Ten Commandments and other laws that humans could not keep on their own strength. We needed a Savior. God sent Jesus, His only Son, to die as the ultimate sacrifice for the payment of our sins. Jesus was both fully man and fully God, tempted and tried, but never sinned. He died a humiliating and painful death so that we can be fully reconciled to Father God.

John 1:1–18; Matthew 27:11–60; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19; Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24; Exodus 20:1–17

Savior

When we choose to put our faith in the finished work of Jesus, all our sins, past and present, are forgiven. We are welcomed into a rich fellowship with God. He has adopted us into His family now and forever, there’s no taking us from His hand. This victory over sin and death is available to all who will put their trust in Jesus Christ. This is the good news!

Ephesians 1:3–14; 1 John 1:8-9; John 3:1-17

What is baptism?

Baptism is a very important step in the life of a Jesus-follower. This is not something we do because it saves us, but it is an outward sign of an inward change that God has done. Jesus Himself modeled this when He was baptized (see Matthew 4; Mark 1; Luke 3; John 1). This is a symbol of our commitment to following Jesus.

Baptism weekends are a time that we set aside as a church to celebrate those choosing to get baptized. These weekends are held after our community Worship Nights, which are typically held twice a year. 

If you are interested in getting baptized another weekend, we encourage you to call or email the church or speak to a team member during weekend services. 

We look forward to helping you take these steps of obedience in your walk with Jesus.

Baptism is a symbolic and public display that you have chosen to follow Christ. Much like a wedding ring, baptism is a visible representation of your commitment to Jesus. Also, like a wedding ring is not in itself a marriage, baptism is not in itself our salvation. If baptism is not preceded by true repentance (Matthew 3:8) and followed by works, which evidence true faith (James 2:17), then the baptism means nothing.

In short, we baptize because Jesus said to baptize. In His final words to His disciples, Christ said to baptize all nations (Matthew 28:19). Not only did He command them to baptize, He set the example by being baptized Himself (Matthew 3:13–17). Though He had nothing for which to repent, having lived a sinless life, Christ chose to be baptized by John because it pleased God the Father (Matthew 3:17). We, being followers of Christ, seeking always to conform ourselves to His image and example, follow Him in obedience by being baptized.

This is the wrong question. It should not be your concern how little you can do to receive salvation. If you fully understand the weight of sin and the size of grace, you should be asking what you can do for God, not what you have to do for God.

We believe baptism is to be conducted on those who have repented of their sins and desire to publicly profess their faith in Jesus Christ. Within these requirements, we do not believe there is a magic formula for baptism. No person is capable of giving us salvation by their correct baptism, nor are they capable of taking away our salvation by their incorrect baptism (Rom. 8:38–39).

OUR CAMPUS LOCATIONS

Murfreesboro

Saturdays 5PM & 7PM
Sundays 8AM, 10AM, & 12PM
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521 Old Salem Road
Murfreesboro, TN 37129

Cannon County

Saturdays 5PM & 7PM
Sundays 8AM, 10AM, & 12PM
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209 Murfreesboro Road
Woodbury, TN 37190

Shelbyville

Sundays 9AM & 11AM

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208 Elm Street
Shelbyville, TN 37160

Tullahoma

Sundays 9AM & 11AM

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414 Wilson Ave #121
Tullahoma, TN 37388

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