Collierville Bible Church meets on Wolf River Boulevard in Collierville, Tennessee, and is known for Gospel-centered worship, expository Bible teaching, and a serious emphasis on discipleship. Begun in 1989 and deliberately independent rather than attached to any denomination, the church describes itself as non-denominational, evangelical, and doctrinally conservative, with a stated aim of glorifying God through Gospel-centered disciple making.
Twenty-Five Families in 1989 and a Worship Center for 300
Collierville Bible Church was planted by First Evangelical Church of Memphis. Its founding pastor, Jim Fleming, had been an associate pastor at First Evan, and in 1989 he and a core of twenty-five families were commissioned to begin a new work in Collierville, about thirty minutes east of the mother church. The fledgling congregation met at odd times in various locations before settling into the first phase of its current campus in 2003. The building at 806 Wolf River Boulevard provides a worship center that seats 300, along with office and education space.
Jim Fleming retired as pastor in the summer of 2013, and the baton passed to Nick Brown, who came with what the church calls a passionate desire for Gospel-centered ministry that translates into disciple making. Brown has said he hopes to pass the baton to the next pastor twenty to thirty years from now. The stories people tell about CBC point to practical teaching from God's Word, a dependence on prayer, and the authenticity of the people who gather there.
Sunday Mornings: Worship at 9:45, Study at 11:15, Family Meal at 12:10
The Sunday rhythm moves from worship to study to a shared meal. The worship gathering begins at 9:45 a.m. and runs until about 11:00. Bible study groups follow from 11:15 a.m. to noon, and at 12:10 p.m. the church eats together in a potluck-style family meal with time for edification, sharing, and communion.
Music comes from a live band playing a three-to-five-song set of praise music. The sound is generally a blend of contemporary Christian music and praise songs with a few modernized hymns and other older songs, always Christ-centered and God-glorifying, with lyrics displayed on overhead screens. The sermon usually lasts about an hour, and the church values passionate expository teaching that is prayer-fueled, Gospel-centered, and Bible-driven. Most messages work through one book of the Bible week by week, with occasional topical teaching. Nick Brown does the great majority of the preaching, while elders, pastors, ministry leaders, and missionaries also share the pulpit from time to time.
Communion is observed corporately at least once a month and sometimes more. There is no offering plate; instead, an offering chest stands at the entrance to the worship center, and giving and tithing are also available online.
A Casual Room, a Live Band, and No Pressure
First-time guests are met at the welcome center inside the main entrance, where a fountain sits and a greeter stands ready to help. From there, coffee is available and the worship center can be entered through doors on either side of the fountain. Visitors are told plainly that they will not be singled out or pointed out as visitors. The church describes itself as a laid-back body of believers who enjoy a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere, and greeters work to make families feel welcome, served, and known.
Clothing is not an issue. People dress as casually or as formally as they like, and the room typically holds jeans and T-shirts, business casual clothes, and the occasional suit. Nobody is asked to know Scripture verses, creeds, or liturgical formulas in advance, and the church notes that members come from many denominational backgrounds with different customs for worship.
The teaching can be heard away from the room as well. The sermon archive includes series on Spiritual Warfare, The Gospel for the Weak, The Heart of Anger, Forgiveness, The Sermon on the Mount, and other biblical themes, and messages are available as podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and Amazon Music. Pastor Nick also walks through the day's Bible reading verse by verse on YouTube.
Sweetpeas, Preschool, and Elementary Classrooms
Every Sunday begins at the Children's Ministry Desk, just to the left as families enter the front door. Children receive a name tag and their guardians a matching identification tag for pickup, and first-time families are asked to arrive a little early to complete registration so the church can note emergency contacts and allergies. All adult teachers and assistants in the children's environments have had background checks, and video cameras monitor the infant and toddler areas for added accountability.
Sweetpeas serves infants through two-year-olds, with a private area for breastfeeding and space for feeding, changing, and naps. Parents can receive a silent pager for a quiet step away, and a video feed from each nursery room is available at the check-in desk. Three-year-olds through pre-K meet in a class that uses the Jesus Storybook Bible curriculum to introduce biblical stories and concepts, and elementary-age children through fifth grade join a class built around friendship, activity, and transformational learning, with a take-home sheet that gives parents something to continue discipleship at home.
Families with children from pre-K through fifth grade are encouraged to worship together through song before the message, then take their children to class. Greeters show first-time families exactly where to go, and parents may escort children to class until the children are comfortable going on their own.
Our Generation: Wednesday Nights for 6th Through 12th Graders
The youth ministry, called Our Generation, meets on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. for students in sixth through twelfth grade. A typical gathering includes prayer, teaching from the Bible, relationship-building activities, and small group time, along with other elements of fun. The team is made up of youth and adult volunteers who want new students to fit in, feel welcome, and make friends, and who love spending time together in Gospel-centered community. A youth team member answers questions from families and first-time visitors.
AWANA on Sunday Evenings
Sunday evenings belong to AWANA, a Scripture-centered club program that runs from 5:30 to 7:20 p.m. Children work through books, earn awards, and learn Scripture through games, friends, and rewards in an atmosphere built to be fun. The AWANA program began in 1950 and now meets in more than 9,500 churches in the United States and in 2,700 churches across more than one hundred other countries. Meeting dates generally follow the breaks and major holidays on the Shelby County and Collierville school calendar so families can plan around the school year, and children are welcome to attend a few club nights before enrolling. The church provides fee waivers for families facing financial hardship.
Sunday Study Groups and Weeknight Life Groups
Sunday mornings following the worship gathering, CBC offers structured Study Groups that work through God's Word in a linear fashion. Pastor Austin Cox teaches Romans, opening Paul's letter on the gospel, God's righteousness, salvation, and faith, and Pastor Nick Brown leads a Premarital, Marriage and Family class for couples preparing for marriage, newly married couples, and families seeking to strengthen a marriage of many years. A Ladies Study welcomes women to connect, encourage one another, and grow as women of the Word, and a Prayer Study led by Byron Tyler pairs Scripture study with prayer, bringing praise, needs, concerns, and thanksgiving before the Lord. Tyler is also known for regular broadcasts and podcasts on Bott Radio Network.
Life Groups meet in members' homes and currently gather on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The church calls these groups the way it ensures friendships and relational growth as disciples. Life Groups emphasize discussion, application, and the many ways Scripture calls believers to care for one another, and participation does not require membership. Visitors and new members are often connected with a Life Group through the Discovery class.
Women's Studies, Men's Breakfasts, and Shared Meals
The women's ministry exists, in its own words, to glorify God by encouraging and equipping women to know and love God and one another as they each passionately pursue their God-given purposes. Kim Endraske leads a Sunday morning study hour, Carol Fry leads evening studies, Diane Drees oversees fall and spring retreats, Tammy Butler organizes social and family events, Diane Ekedal hosts Dinner 8, and Beth O'Malley oversees secret sisters and Asha's Refuge. The ministry also takes part in Operation Christmas Child.
CBC men meet regularly for breakfasts, cookouts, and other gatherings that build friendship across the congregation.
Casa Hogar de Ninos in Reynosa and the Banjara of India
The missions ministry supports the church's goals in cross-cultural evangelism, outreach, discipleship, and missions, with the Board of Elders holding direct oversight of missionaries while a missions team provides support, budget input, fundraising, short-term trips, and education about global mission. The church describes its people as senders, goers, and prayers.
CBC sent its first team to Reynosa, Mexico, in 1998 to serve Casa Hogar de Ninos, an orphanage headed by Ray and Leah Hansen and operated through Rio Bravo Ministries. The compound began as little more than a dirt field with a fence, three small open-air bunkhouses, a paved ball court, a kitchen, and the Hansens' trailer home. Through annual summer teams and other supporters, many of today's structures, infrastructure, and utilities were built by CBC hands, and the church's greatest joy has been watching children who grew up there become men and women who love Christ and spread the gospel.
Since 2007, CBC has partnered with Global Banjara Baptist Ministries and the Aletheia Banjara School in Andhra Pradesh, India, an organization led by a former CBC family that partners with churches and individuals to support evangelism and church planting, educational programs, HIV awareness work, and agricultural programs. The Banjara are an unreached people group numbering about seventy million worldwide, with some sixty million living in India, mostly in rural villages where literacy is low. CBC has sponsored children monthly, helped build a school in Garrapu, supported micro-businesses for tent-maker evangelists, and joined Srinivas and his wife Sujatha in leadership development conferences.
Other supported missionaries and partners include Gabor and Edina Gresz in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Dorsey and Renee McIntosh in Spring Hill, Tennessee, both with Cru, formerly Campus Crusade for Christ, and Tom and Brenda Guffey with Greater Europe Missions in Bourg d'Oisons, France, where Tom directs a Christian camp.
Local Mission: 40 Days For Life and Asha's Refuge
Closer to home, the church supports 40 Days For Life and Asha's Refuge. Asha's Refuge also appears among the responsibilities of the women's ministry under Beth O'Malley, and Operation Christmas Child joins the church's outreach to children during the year.
What CBC Believes
CBC's statement of faith holds to nine essentials: the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired and inerrant, with supreme and final authority in faith and life; one God eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Jesus Christ as fully God and fully man, begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; humanity created in God's image and fallen into sin; Christ's death as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, with justification on the ground of His shed blood for all who embrace Him; the resurrection of Christ's body, His ascension, and His present life as High Priest and Advocate; His personal return to establish a kingdom of righteousness; new birth by the Holy Spirit for all who receive Christ by faith; and the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust along with the retribution of the lost.
Core convictions center on loving God first and loving others second, especially fellow believers. The church names worship through preaching, teaching, fellowship, singing, baptism, the Lord's Supper, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost as the primary role of the church, and holds that marriage is a permanent covenant between one man and one woman and that sexual expression is meant only between husband and wife within that covenant.
Among its distinctive teaching positions, CBC holds that the local church is led by a plurality of godly elders who share responsibility for the spiritual welfare of the fellowship, and that the order of headship and submission in the home and in the church means women do not become elders or pastors and do not teach men in assemblies of believers. It teaches that all believers are enabled by the Holy Spirit for works of ministry, and that water baptism is a public identification with Christ rather than a means of salvation, with immersion preferred but other modes recognized. Giving is described as a privilege rather than a tax, and the church teaches that salvation is freely offered to everyone who calls on the Lord and that those who genuinely come to Christ will persevere.
Discovery Class: Four Sessions in an Elder's Home
Membership at CBC begins with Discovery, a four-session informal gathering hosted in the home of one of the elders. Scheduling is flexible, organized once a handful of visitors have expressed interest, and the sessions cover the church's history, beliefs, vision, ministries, and the behind-the-scenes details that make it distinct. Discovery is deliberately interactive, a chance to build relationships with visitors, members, elders, and the pastor, which is why the elders host at their own doors. Taking part does not require becoming a member, and the church also uses Discovery to connect people with a Life Group.
Collierville Bible Church's stated direction is to be a church that glorifies God through Gospel-centered disciple making, forming members who are fully capable disciple makers, who can evangelize non-believers, and who establish new followers in a way that keeps reproducing. Its leadership team of Nick Brown, Tom Ashe, David Drees, George Swanson, and Austin Cox, with Brown and Cox in pastoral ministry and Tom Ashe serving as elder emeritus, supports a congregation that values truth, prayer, and authentic community in a worship room built for three hundred.