S4E1: Interview with Steve Teter

In this episode, seasoned pastor Steve Teter shares insights from his 37 years of pastoral ministry, emphasizing the importance of long-term care, suffering, and biblical faithfulness. Listeners will gain practical advice on pastoral care, sermon preparation, and maintaining joy in ministry. The Ordinary Pastor Podcast is available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Meet Steve Teter Walt: Thank you for coming. I’m on today with my friend Steve Teter. Excited to have you. How are you doing, Steve? Steve: Doing really well. Thanks. Walt: We’re plugged in and excited to talk over the interwebs and interview Steve. I’ve titled the series “Older, Ordinary Pastors Getting It Done.” A lot of people in our day and age have a microphone, and a lot of people think they have a lot to say, but I tend to think we need fewer microphones and more people who have the experience, the wherewithal, the wisdom, and the growth, and we need to deploy them. Particularly in Sovereign Grace, I have a burden for us to hear from these ordinary pastors getting it done, these older pastors. Walt: A little intro about Steve: Steve and his wife, Linda, have been married forty-six years this August. It’s like an eternity. They have five kids and eleven grandkids, and I know several of his kids are in the church with him. Steve has served as senior pastor of Living Faith Church in Franklin, West Virginia, for thirty-seven years. Hard to believe. Steve: Hard to believe. Growing Up in Franklin Walt: Steve, I wanted to begin by hearing your background: where you grew up and how you came to saving faith in Christ. Steve: I grew up here in Franklin. It’s a beautiful area, and I always wanted to move back. When I went to college, I started studying to be a veterinarian, but my older brother became a veterinarian, and I thought, there’s not room for two of us back in Franklin. We have a couple of other vets here as well. So I thought I’d go into dentistry, study it, and come back and practice with my dad. I’ve always loved this area. I never really wanted to live anywhere else. Walt: Franklin is a town of how many? Steve: About 750 people, and about seven thousand in our county. We have one stoplight in the whole county, a lot of mountains, a lot of woods, and a lot of wildlife. Walt: That’s very different from how a lot of our listeners grew up. What was it like growing up in that area? Steve: It was a wonderful time. My dad was a dentist, and we lived on a small farm, so I spent most of my life outdoors. I loved sports, and I knew a lot of people in the area. I had built-in accountability, because my parents knew a lot of people as well. Walt: Yeah. Steve: They were watching. That’s exactly right. It was wonderful growing up here. In some ways it was insulated, though as time goes on, with more and more media, less so. But it’s still a very rural area. Business-wise, it’s not a prosperous area, but it is beautiful, and it was a joy to grow up here. Then I went away to college at West Virginia University, for both undergraduate and graduate school. Steve: We did travel some. My parents would go to Gideon conventions, so we traveled to cities for vacations. I remember Houston, San Francisco, and Montreal. They would go to their conventions, and as kids we got to do fun things while we were there. It was a good time. Meeting Linda Walt: Did you meet Linda in Franklin? Steve: Yes. Linda’s father opened our first grocery store here in Franklin. She moved here in seventh grade, so that was quite a culture shock for her. I knew her in high school, we began to date in college, and we got married while we were both in graduate school. Walt: So you got married in graduate school and moved back to Franklin. You never lived anywhere else besides those years away? Steve: Never. My house is about two hundred yards from my parents’ house, where I was raised. Walt: Wow. Unusual, but powerful. Coming to Faith in Christ Steve: I had a wonderful father, who has passed away now, and I grew up in a Christian home and came to know the Lord at a fairly young age, which I’m very grateful for. I’d heard the gospel from my parents. They were involved in the Gideon ministry, which has a high view of Scripture. We attended a Methodist church, and when I was younger, we had a Methodist revival there. They would do week-long revivals, and one evening, as the preacher shared the gospel, he gave an invitation at the end. Steve: I was twelve years old, sitting between two friends. The Lord used that invitation to open my heart and regenerate it. I was convicted of sin, responded to the gospel, went forward, and prayed to receive Christ. The friends on either side of me did not. That has always stuck with me. They may have become Christians later on, but at that time they did not. Steve: As I think back, it’s always amazed me. I remember the pressure I felt, wondering whether to respond or not, but then I did, and I thank the Lord for that. I think God protected me from many things, because of my own personality and the sins I struggle with. Becoming a Christian at a young age was God’s grace in my life. Walt: Praise the Lord. Those stories never get old. Called from Dentistry to Pastoral Ministry Walt: You went away for dentistry, and you came back. I know a little bit about your story, but particularly with something like dentistry, where you’ve invested so much money and so much time, how did you discern the call to pastoral ministry? Steve: That’s a good question. Through the charismatic renewal, young people had come to Christ, including my older brother, and at the same time the denomination was drifting away from a high view of Scripture. My brother began to encourage my parents: “You should have a Bible study in your home.” That was 1975. So they started a Bible study in their home on Wednesday nights. Mostly young people came, and a few others, anywhere from half a dozen to thirty-five people. They continued it for seven years. When we kids came home in the summers, we’d attend, though when we were in college there were fewer people. Steve: When Linda and I came back from college, we decided, through my brother’s urging as well, that we couldn’t continue in the church we had been in. There were a lot of basic doctrines they no longer believed, regarding the atonement, the virgin birth, and other things. A lot of denominations were going through that. So we began meeting in our apartment, five of us, and then we invited others. After a few months, we had half a dozen people. We called a pastor to come lead our church, a man my brother was familiar with, and he led for a couple of years. Steve: To make a very long story short, we learned about Sovereign Grace Ministries, which at that time I think was People of Destiny, or whatever they were called. They had a leaders’ conference. Our pastor went, connected with some of the leaders there, and we began a process of adoption over the next three or four years. Steve: For me, the call to pastoral ministry really began when we joined Sovereign Grace. For the first time in my life, I saw a model of pastoral ministry that was compelling. I grew up in the Methodist church, and in those days (I don’t think it’s so much true now) pastors moved every few years. The way the structure was set up, they were hired and fired regularly, I’ll just say that. So there was no kind of family life, nothing compelling. When we joined Sovereign Grace, I saw a compelling model of pastoral ministry and care that I had never seen. I also saw a passion and a vision in the movement. At that point, I think God began stirring my heart. Confirming the Call Steve: I had been teaching and leading worship and Bible studies over the years. Others would say, “I really feel like God gives you insight into the Scriptures. I feel like you’re effective publicly.” The pastor who was leading our church at that time, who came from Sovereign Grace, said, “I think you’re called into pastoral ministry.” Others around me were saying… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sovereigngrace.substack.com