Nashville Presbyterian Church about 1926
The Nashville Presbyterian Church was organized in 1875, and soon built a church on south Jefferson Street near the village green. Following a fire that destroyed the building, the small congregation rebuilt and continued meeting until 1926. Then, Nashville Presbyterians merged with a congregation in Boggstown and ceded their land and building to the growing Methodist Episcopal Church in Nashville. There would be no organized Presbyterian Church in Nashville for almost 75 years.
In 1998, a small Bible study began in the home of Dale and Janice Cassiday. Soon the group outgrew their living room and began meeting for Sunday worship at the Pine Box Theatre on Jefferson Street, just a few blocks south of the site of the old Nashville Presbyterian Church. Local ministers—many of them Presbyterian—led the worship services and provided leadership, and soon the congregation identified with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Rev. Dr. Roger Dean served as the organizing pastor of the new church, named Brown County Presbyterian Fellowship (BCPF).
In 2002, BCPF entered into an agreement with St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church to purchase its building on State Road 135, just north of Nashville. The two churches shared the building while the new parish church constructed south of town. With support from the Presbyterian Church (USA), BCPF was able to settle into its new building by the fall of 2003. The church’s sixty members helped BCPF maintain a very active presence in the community, especially through the arts.
Rev. Richard Crowley, Sister Mildred Wannemuehler, Father Bill Strimpf, and Rev. Dr. Roger Dean, clergy of both congregations
With strong support from the Presbytery of Ohio Valley, BCPF called Rev. Dr. Scott Seay to be its part-time pastor in 2008 to lead the congregation through a process of discernment about its future. Responding to widespread flooding in the county, compassionate members of BCPF established a free clothing ministry called God’s Grace. Through the faithful generosity of its members, the church completed a capital campaign in 2013 and has retired its mortgage seven years ahead of schedule. Currently, the church leadership is discerning God’s calling to re-deploy those resources into expanded mission work locally, nationally, and internationally.