Salem Baptist, Hope Church celebrate ‘capstone moment’
Hope Church pastor Jeff Lane, left, and Salem Baptist Church pastor Allen James stand on stage at a joint service where the two congregations came together for a time of worship and praise. Hope Church launched three years ago as a church plant.
KNOXVILLE — It can be said that Hope Church is a plant that no longer needs to be watered.
After three years of hard work, steadfast praying and unwavering commitment, Hope Church has transitioned from being an extension of Salem Baptist Church into an autonomous church body.
Hope’s congregation officially celebrated the occasion in mid-January, gathering together with Salem Baptist for a time of worship.
“Our autonomous celebration (service) was a capstone moment,” said Jeff Lane, pastor of Hope Church. “It was a joy to reunite with friends from our sending church to celebrate what God has done.”
When the two congregations gathered, it was more than just a joint service. It was really a family reunion.
The Wednesday night worship service provided the opportunity for the “parent” church to reunite with its offspring, bringing together the two closely-linked groups for a time of praise, prayer and sharing the Lord’s supper.
“The celebration service was one of those spiritual marker moments,” said Phillip Smith, Harvest Field Five team leader for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. “There were lots of hugs and stories shared among those sent and among the senders. Together, they were all celebrating the advancing God’s kingdom.”
Three years earlier, Salem Baptist — located in Halls — sent out a core team of members to plant the new church. Their efforts resulted in the establishment of Hope Church, which launched in the spring of 2023.
“At first, we functioned as a campus of Salem Baptist Church,” said Lane. “But over time we developed our own leadership structure, membership, and gradually became self-sufficient.”
Lane said the launch, and subsequent growth, of Hope Church was the result of commitment and collaboration on the highest levels. He said the same is true for any successful church plant.
“A sending church cannot just throw a stick at church planting and expect something to happen,” Lane said. “It requires God’s grace at work in an entire congregation.
“The sending church supports a new work in every possible way — from financial support, to prayer, to emotional support of the leaders,” he said. “And Salem Baptist Church has certainly done that for us!”
Heart for planting
Salem senior pastor Allen James said watching Hope Church come to life was the fulfillment of a mission in his ministry.
“The Lord burdened my heart for church planting while I was pastoring in Bradenton, Fla. (from 2008-2014),” James said. “We had the joy of planting two language churches and a sister church as well. So, my heart for church planting developed over the years.”
James said he could sense a growing level of anticipation among the Salem members when the prospect of planting a new church began to be discussed — and then began to materialize.
“Our church family grew more and more excited,” he said.
James noted that Salem followed what he calls the “campus-to-plant” model. One of the first steps, he said, was adding Lane to the Salem staff as the “church planter in residence” in February of 2022. Lane served one year in that role before the launch of Hope Church.
“This allowed Jeff to learn about our culture and build relationships with church family,” James said.
Lane then used that experience as a springboard for his role as pastor at Hope Church. He said he has felt the Lord’s hand throughout the process.
“Being the planter and pastor of Hope Church has been a joy,” he said. “Several of the people who started with us are still very involved and serving in significant ways.These relationships have grown sweeter and sweeter over time.”
“I have learned a ton through this process,” he added, “mostly through my own failures, and through witnessing God at work among an imperfect group of people.”
Laying the groundwork
Lane said the mental preparation for planting a church started at Salem even before he joined the staff as the church planter in residence.
“Before I came, pastor Allen James and Salem had developed a vision for church planting,” he said. “At the time, the church had never planted another church before, so this was very new.”
Lane said he learned a great deal during his time on staff at Salem that prepared him for the next phase of the church planting process.
“The aim of my role (at Salem) was to lead a group of people out of Salem to become a new church,” he said. “After some prayer and study of the community we decided to plant in the Powell community.”
A group of roughly 30 people from Salem Baptist — including children — formed the core team that would ultimately set the foundation for Hope Church.
“This group began with an ‘interest meeting’ that we held in the summer of 2022,” James said. “From then on, those who were interested met regularly to discuss what the new church would look like.”
After hosting three ‘preview services’ in the spring of 2023, Hope Church officially launched on Easter Sunday.
Although Hope Church does not have “Baptist” in the title, Allen noted that the church “is gladly Baptist.”
James said that Tennessee Baptist Mission Board staffers Danny Sinquefield and Lewis McMullen each played vital roles in helping Salem Baptist prepare for the planting process. He said the TBMB also provided financial help to assist Hope Church.
“I would be remiss not to share that much of what I learned about church planting is from Dr. Danny Sinquefield,” he said. “Lewis McMullen was incredibly helpful in identifying potential locations as well as much wisdom and training.”
Going “all in”
James said a planting a new church requires much cooperation from the church body of the sending church. And at Salem Baptist, the congregation let it be known that they were “all in” right from the start.
“Our Salem family generously gave money to help Hope Church purchase equipment, rent, and ministry expenses,” James said. “We committed to have an assist with the pastor’s salary and benefits that would gradually lessen over a three-year period.
“The pastor and I created benchmarks related to attendance, leadership, and giving to inform us when it was time to release Hope Church to be an autonomous church family,” he said.
That day officially arrived in January, when the two churches celebrated the occasion in unity.
James said the process has been “humbling and exciting.” And now, he hopes to do it all over again.
“Our prayer (at Salem) is to plant a new church in the same manner every three to five years,” he said.
And, likely, there are more “family reunions” to come. B&R
