Treveccan Stories: A Mission that Matters

For 125 years, Trevecca has contributed to the flourishing of Nashville.
by Steve Hoskins

One hundred and twenty-five years. As a historian staring deeply into the Trevecca story, I realize the significance there—a depth, breadth and length that reminds me of how we got here and what matters from our history. I recognize the markers that reveal the significance of who we are as Trevecca.
To begin, it matters that we started from modest beginnings.

The year was 1898. A series of Chautauqua-style outdoor classes was designed to train young ministers—clergy and lay people—to participate in street ministry in Nashville, a city burgeoning with the excitement of a world’s fair and a holiness end-times revival.

Learning to preach, sing and share the gospel was the curriculum.

Under the tutelage of our founder, James Octavius McClurkan, and his wife, Frances—two farm kids from Houston County, Tennessee—women and men trained in backyards in East Nashville during the day and hit the streets in the evening. Students visited train stations, prisons and busy street corners around the city to win as many to Christ as they could before His imminent return.

Time and place matter, too. When the Lord did not return in 1900, we set our sights toward matters of the future. We dreamed big dreams of Christian service.