“We are not just creating products we are creating future community leaders.”
-STACY SPENCER
We Know Nashville
Our names are Anna and John and we work for Westgate Enterprises, Inc. a commercial real estate firm in the Greater Nashville Area. We are starting a new adventure of diving into Nashville and showing everyone the people, businesses and areas that make Nashville so unique. We will be introducing fascinating stories of companies that represent the Nashville culture and making an impact on the community. We came up with this idea of writing articles because we are intrigued by the local business community and are passionate to hear their stories. We are hoping to not only share these stories but also give perspective and show the journey of how these businesses got their start and hopefully inspire others. For our first story we will be introducing a Narrow Gate Foundation, a nonprofit that represents more than just the family culture of Franklin.
How they got started?
The first local business we are highlighting is Narrow Gate Foundation. Narrow Gate Foundation all began 15 years ago when Bill and Stacy Spencer welcomed two young men into their homes to live with them. These young men were looking for a sense of direction and love and Bill and Stacy were able to give them just that. By the end of that year, Bill and Stacy had a total of seven young men living in their 3 bedroom home. They quickly realized they were being called to provide for more than just the two original young men. Bill and Stacy’s passion for helping others developed into something so much more than they anticipated.
As time passed, they established a lodge in Duck River, TN, roughly an hour from Franklin, where their non-profit organization, Narrow Gate Lodge, would be. Over the last 15 years that the lodge has been open, more than 400 young men have walked through the doors and completed their program that allowed them to grow not only spiritually, but within numerous fields including craftsmanship, business enterprising and marketing. Visitors would come to the lodge and they took notice of the incredible craftsmanship of the products and wondered if they were for sale, at the time they just gave it away. 6 years ago they started their own workshop after a contractor contacted them to produce a box beam that would be light and affordable. This grew into the business they have today, Tennessee Box Beams. Through Tennessee Box Beams they solve the problem of solid timber being too expensive to structurally support and the unappealing plastic “faux” beams. This solution grabbed attention from many designers, consumers and even getting featured on HGTV’s Property Brothers for adding value to their homes without breaking the bank.
Narrow Gate Foundation’s main goal at the end of the day, is not to create products but to create leaders by focusing on restoration, transformation and discipleship.
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Bill and Stacy to hear their take on their new location in Franklin and see what it has meant to them to be located in an area where their business can flourish.
Question + answer:
Q: When you were deciding where to relocate your main office for Narrow Gate Foundation, what led you to choose Franklin?
A: “We wanted to be near downtown Franklin because of the great tourism, the great reputation that franklin has of being family oriented area, but also high end boutique stores and locally owned stores and that is who we are and what we do and we wanted to be apart of the community.“
Q: What is unique about what is going on at Narrow Gate Foundation and the Trading Company?
A: “The products we create are handcrafted. We are not just creating products we are creating future community leaders because our emphasis is on training young men to be cultural leaders in their community in local businesses and churches. We are not just about the product, we are about the people.”
Q: What led you to create this Foundation?
A: “My career was my focus and I met Jesus at 33. He completely changed the trajectory of my life. Then all of a sudden these guys start moving in and I didn’t have this love for them. I just thought “yeah this is great. I am serving the Lord and I want to serve the Lord.” And what I discovered was that God had given me a much greater capacity to love then I realized.”
To know more about Narrow Gate Foundation, visit their website: https://narrowgate.org/. If you’re interested in Corporate gifts including leather and wood items visit: https://ngtradingco.com/ and to know more about Tennessee Box Beams, visit: https://tnboxbeams.com/.
