A group of young Christian men launched a faith-based nightclub in Nashville, Tennessee geared towards young adults outside houses of worship.
“My dream for The Cove is to be an inspiration for revival. I believe that revival starts in yourself personally, and then from there, it spreads. So I want this to spread like a wildfire," Eric Diggs, co-founder of The Cove, told CBN News in an interview.
The Cove, which held its first event last November, prohibits smoking or drinking and plays only Christian music including hip-hop, bachata, and reggaeton. The founders of the venue are seven Black Christian men in their twenties who felt that church attendance has been declining since the COVID-19 pandemic.
A recent Pew Research survey showed that monthly attendance in worship services among Black Protestants dropped from 61 percent in 2019 to 46 percent now.
"We ourselves experienced the pain point of not being able to find community outside of our church, not knowing what to do to have fun without feeling like bad for doing stuff that's conflicting to our values," Diggs shared. "There wasn't a space to cultivate that. And so we created ourselves out of that pain point, you know, the loneliness, the anxiety, depression."
At the time of The Cove’s launch, the founders carried out a marketing strategy to gain 1,000 followers on social media and ended up exceeding their goal.
"We ended up getting more than 10,000 followers before our first event, which was insane," said Eric's brother, Jordan Diggs, 22, who serves as the club's social media manager.
"Christians get a rep for being corny," he added. "We want to show that Christians can be normal, can be cool. And they can have fun."
Every month, the club holds an event which continues to grow in numbers.
“What surprised me the most is the diversity, honestly," Aaron Dews, one of the club founder said. "With us being seven Black guys, just seeing the expansion of the type of people that we can bring in, and the unification around one idea has been incredibly encouraging."
One couple traveled from Brisbane, Australia to attend an event held by the club last month.
"We thought, this is cool — it's God-glorifying," Haynza Posala, 23, said.
"It's surreal," Kim Posala, 24, added. "It's a community and that's what church is about."
Despite the club’s newfound popularity, some have offered criticisms that dancing and worship are incompatible, with some even saying that it is sinful.
“It sounds oxymoronic — a Christian dance club," Nicholas Oldham, who manages the club's “business,” said. Nevertheless, those who have attended have been blessed in a powerful way.
"People have their hands lifted up. People crying and weeping and other people praying for each other. It really shows that there's something different happening," said another of the seven co-founders, Shem Rivera. "It's not just about a nightclub. It's not just The Cove nightclub. This is bigger than that."
The founders plan to take a tour across the United States and inspire the launch of other Christian night clubs for young believers around the world. At the present time, they are planning another nightclub event on March 16, in which attendees are encouraged to wear their favorite team’s jersey under the theme March Madness.
Image credit: ©Long Truong/Unsplash
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
