John Teter is the founding and senior pastor of Holy Faith Fellowship, a new church plant in the heart of Compton, CA. Pastor John possesses a rare blend of world-class Bible teaching, cross-cultural leadership, and personal sacrifice for the urban poor.

Teter is an apostolic leader, creating organizations to serve those who are often overlooked. After seven years of service at USC, John and his team, pioneered new faith communities at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Compton City College. Because of his unique leadership gifting, he was recruited to be the first church planting team leader in the 127 year history of the Evangelical Covenant Church. To maximize his impact, he launched Antioch, a global church planting mentoring organization. Since 2012, Teter has overseen 125 new church plants in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Nairobi. His passion is cross-cultural mentoring, thoughtfully selecting and training inner-city pastors to finish well.

Dr. J. Robert Clinton selected John to be the youngest of his 18 hand-picked legacy disciples. Clinton’s book The Making of a Leader is beloved by Christian leaders around the globe. The Clinton family commissioned John to write the only authorized new version of the groundbreaking book. John could not be more excited to carry the baton unto the next generation. Finishing Well: Think in Decades, Act in Days (Teter’s fifth book) is scheduled to be released April 8, 2026.

John was a featured speaker at Urbana, InterVarsity’s 20,000 student mission conference. He has served at the Bible expositor at conferences throughout the US, Germany, Hong Kong and Nairobi. But his favorite pulpit will always be Sundays at Holy Faith Fellowship.

Teter majored in English literature. He studied at Fuller Seminar and earned his doctorate in global leadership from Bakke Graduate University. John has been married to Becky for 25 years. Together, they have partnered with God to raise three wonderful children.