By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
NEWPORT — When Steve Tiebout became the founding pastor of The River Church, a new plant in Cookeville more than 20 years ago, he never envisioned the church growing to an average attendance of 1,200 to 1,400 people in three worship services.
In his mind, the church would always stay between 200 and 300 people and when that was exceeded, the church would send out members to start another church.
“I really thought we could stay between 200 and 300 people by planting churches every two years, but it seemed like the more churches we planted, the more God sent people to us. We could not outgive God,” Tiebout said.
In 20 years the church has birthed or “adopted” 16 congregations that are still operating, Tiebout said, noting that in some instances, the church came alongside a pastor who had felt called to start a church, but did not have a sponsoring or “mother” church.
“We came along and adopted them and gave them funding,” he said.
While the majority are in Tennessee, the church has plants as far away as Central Asia and Corvalis, Ore.
Over the years the church has developed a network of churches that assists in training church planters and providing financial assistance. Tiebout, a director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, also draws upon resources from TBMB.
He and his wife Melissa were recent program participants at a retreat for church planters sponsored by TBMB at Carson Springs Baptist Conference Center in Newport.
The couple sat down for an interview with the Baptist and Reflector and shared their views about church planting. In addition to planting The River, they also planted a church in the San Francisco area while attending Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, now Gateway Seminary.
Over the past two decades, Tiebout has become a mentor to dozens of church planters and he enjoys that role because he feels the need for more churches is as great today as it has ever been.
Tiebout is very appreciative of older, established congregations but he noted they are not for everyone. He shared that a pastor of one of those churches told him that visitors who had moved into Putnam County would come once but never come back.
Tiebout observed that church’s strength was its greatest weakness. The congregation was 100 years old — many members had grown up with and went to school with each other, he said. In addition, they did a lot of activities outside church together, such as camping or their kids playing ball together.
While that is a strength, he said, it is not as appealing to someone who moves into the area from California or another state.
“No matter how nice you are to them, they feel like an outsider,” he said.
At The River, when someone moves into the community from another area or state, “I try to put them in life groups with others who have moved into the area to get them connected,” Tiebout said. While some new members do connect with existing members, the people who are most open to building new relationships at the depth they want are other people moving into the area.”
With all the people moving into Tennessee each year, churches who really want to reach people need to start new churches, he affirmed.
Tiebout has learned some valuable lessons over time.
“When you are 27 years old and you are planting a church, you think you are going to fix everything that is broken,” he recalled, acknowledging that he wished he had “appreciated the heritage” of existing churches more. Looking back, he now realizes many of those churches were doing “a great work,” meeting the needs of their members and their community.
“If I could say anything to church planters today, it would be, ‘Humbly build bridges with pastors who have already been there and ask them if they can give you insight on the people and the culture.’ ”
Another word of advice he would give to church planters is to be involved in the community where they will minister.
He noted that he coached soccer before his kids were old enough to play and he had no knowledge of the sport, but it gave him exposure in the community. “God honors those who serve others. It is a biblical principle,” he said.
The Tiebouts agreed that no church plant should start without being bathed in prayer. “I would say that we built The River on prayer,” he said. “One of the first things we did when we got there was to pray and fast for seven days for everyone we knew, every lost person and then continue to pray and keep prayer before our people once the church was launched.”
Melissa Tiebout also noted that it is important to listen to the Holy Spirit and trust in the Lord because He has a plan.”
Tiebout also encouraged planters to “make sure your wife and kids love the journey too,” noting that Melissa and their six children were involved in the set up for the church each Sunday when it started. “I would put one infant in a backpack and set up chairs while Melissa would have one in the stroller and the others would be putting pens on chairs. Our kids were part of all that we did,” he said.
Finally, the couple agreed, “Enjoy the journey, even when it is hard.” B&R