Need a new Instagram photo? Stop by this old Baptist church in downtown Nashville

There's a new Instagram-worthy spot on Broadway.

It's not another country star-backed, four-story honky-tonk nor the latest addition to the city's "transportainment" craze. 

This time it's a church.

The ministry team at Nashville First Baptist Church — the home of a nearly 200-year-old Southern Baptist congregation — decided to transform its Broadway-facing, red brick wall into a photo-friendly art space. 

The longstanding church, located just blocks from the heart of Nashville's honky-tonk district, teamed up with the creator of the easily recognizable "Spirit of Nashville" prints.

They picked four of the Anderson Design Group's iconic illustrations to hang on either side of a new piece the Nashville firm created to commemorate the church's upcoming bicentennial.

Church leadership hopes passersby will stop to snap photos in front of the five recently installed prints. They are located on the exterior wall near the corner of Broadway and 7th Avenue South. 

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"It's a gift to the city and to our tourists and those that are coming to enjoy all that Nashville has," the Rev. Frank Lewis, senior pastor of the church, said. "Our congregation just wanted to extend that as a gift that the city could enjoy." 

Joel Anderson, the founder of Anderson Design Group and former member of Nashville First Baptist, donated the use of the prints to the church.

His company started the Spirit of Nashville collection in 2004 as a way to showcase the city and what makes it special for clients, friends and visitors. The number of available prints has grown exponentially ever since. Today, they can be found on postcards and other souvenir items at their studio shop on 29th Avenue North and elsewhere in the city.    

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Anderson said he appreciates what the congregation is trying to do, describing the new art display as a love letter to Nashville.  

"I thought that was ingenious of them," Anderson said. "Their motto has been serving Nashville and loving people for 200 years.   

The congregation will celebrate its significant milestone anniversary next year. Although it's moved downtown locations a few times, the church has long been a fixture in the city's core.

In the last three decades, Nashville has changed rapidly around the church. Its neighborhood has transformed from a seedier place to the booming, tourism hot spot it is today.

Nashville First Baptist has no plans to go anywhere. The church made a commitment years before to stay put and continue to serve Nashville however it can, Lewis said. 

But the church is also changing, too.  

Nashville First Baptist is in the midst of a significant building project that includes the addition of space for Christian education, outreach ministries, a coffee shop and an event center. Construction is expected to wrap up in March 2021, Lewis said. 

The church's ministers hope the project will help make its campus more open and inviting, embracing downtown's increased activity and residential base. 

They also hope the five new posters will contribute to the church's effort to be more inviting, Lewis said. 

"We wanted to reach out to our city, our neighbors, our many, many tourists who are here," Lewis said. "We thought what a great opportunity to give them some other enjoyable art where they can take selfies or pictures or something like that."  

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.