Open for only a few months, a Christian nightclub in Nashville has seen huge growth.
In 2023 a group of seven Christian men in their 20s opened up The Cove, a Christian nightclub in Nashville, TN, for young adults to enjoy and experience community outside of church.
"My dream for The Cove is to be an inspiration for revival," says Eric Diggs, co-founder of The Cove. "I believe that revival starts in yourself personally, and then from there, it spreads. So I want this to spread like a wildfire."
Nightclubs are often known for loud music, serving alcohol, and low lights with lots of dancing. The Cove is different in that it doesn't allow alcohol or smoking while playing only Christian music such as hip-hop, bachata, and reggaeton.
"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. 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."
Jordan Diggs, Eric's brother runs the social media for The Cove. When the club opened in November, the guys had a goal of gaining 1,000 followers.
"We ended up getting more than 10,000 followers before our first event, which was insane."
Nashville is known to bring tourists from all over the world to hear the music they produce and enjoy the nightlife. The founders shared that recently they found out one couple flew out from Brisbane, Australia for an event happening at The Cove.
"What surprised me the most is the diversity, honestly," says Aaron Dews, one of the club founders. "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."
The men have received praise as well as some negative comments about their club from people who see dancing as something that leads to sin. However, the couple from Australia both shared that they truly felt a sense of community and saw that it was 'God-glorifying.'
"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."