Pastor and Ministry Leaders

Rev. Chris Teien
Lead Pastor

Before becoming a full time Pastor Chris worked in the optical industry at a corporation in Minnetonka for eight years while serving as a member at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie and Cross of Glory in Hopkins, MN. Chris has been a full-time pastor since 1996 and has served at First Baptist Church in Forest City, Iowa and Chisholm Baptist in Chisholm, Minnesota before moving to Belle Plaine in 2001 to plant a church for the C&MA named River Rock Church. Alliance Life Magazine shared a story of how the church plant was developing you can read here. Exactly 20 years from the day he left the Iron Range to plant that church, he returned to ‘Da Range to be the Lead Pastor at Rockwell Church in Virginia, MN (a church that has a long history of proclaiming new life in Jesus and serving the region for over 100 years under the names Emmanuel Baptist, Virginia Baptist and Eveleth Baptist).

Chris has been married to Julie since 1987 and they have been blessed with three adult children and five grandchildren. Chris is passionate about helping people find Jesus and live the “Christ Centered Life” and tries to proclaim God’s awesome message of salvation, grace and hope in a real and relevant way.

Pastor Chris has served in full-time ministry since 1996 and has preached over 1,000 sermons in church on Sunday mornings. He received the majority of his formal ministry training and degrees from Moody Bible Institute, Crown College, and Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity  He was ordained with the C&MA in 2008. He has a long history serving with Converge churches.

More details about other leaders coming soon