Pastor Kent and Candy Christmas have dedicated their lives to ministering to hurting people and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
After being married in August of 1987, they traveled the world evangelizing together while Candy also sang Gospel music. In 2006, with much prayer, Pastor Kent and Candy felt the Lord calling them to begin a new work as pastors and plant a church in Nashville, TN; thus, Resting Place Church was founded.
Two years prior, in 2004, Candy had begun a nonprofit, The Bridge Ministry, feeding Nashville’s homeless population. A corner of The Bridge Ministry warehouse seemed like the perfect place for the Resting Place congregation to meet. They made this small nook their home by hanging sheets of plastic, building a makeshift stage, and running fans and kerosene heaters to stay comfortable. Slowly, precious people who loved Jesus added themselves to the Resting Place church family.
Nearly eight years after their first service in the Bridge Ministry Warehouse, the adjacent warehouse became available for lease and the faithful gathering of about one hundred souls made the move next door. In their newly acquired space, Resting Place continued to grow slowly until the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll in March of 2020. Due to stay-at-home orders, Resting Place closed its doors and moved to an online format.
During the few months without in person services, Pastor Kent and Candy felt a shift and decided to rename the work God was doing. They reopened their doors under their new name, Regeneration Nashville. In September 2020, Pastor Kent was invited to an event in Washington D.C. entitled “The Return”, and his contribution gained him international attention. The estimated viewership of his segment was nearly one billion people in over 100 languages.
In a few short months, Regeneration Nashville saw growth that can only be explained as “miraculous”. On the last Sunday of 2020, Pastor Kent arrived at his warehouse church to unlock the doors for the Sunday meeting and was greeted by 200 additional churchgoers ready to worship with him. For the next five consecutive weeks, the crowds grew by hundreds and soon the small warehouse was no longer able to contain the throng of people.
Generously, a larger church in the vicinity, Cornerstone Nashville, opened their doors to Regeneration Nashville and has allowed them to lease their facility on Sunday afternoons for the last few years.
In 2022, Regeneration began searching for a new location that could be their own.
