Former megachurch Pastor Tavner Smith fundraising for new church building after bankruptcy

Four years after an adulterous affair with a staffer at his foreclosed Venue Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Pastor Tavner Smith is raising money to move his growing Georgia-based congregation, Hope House Church, into a new building.

According to his church's website, Smith planted Hope House in the back of a warehouse in North Georgia in October 2024. This was just over two years after his Chattanooga church collapsed amid withering headlines about his infidelity.

One month after launching Hope House "against all odds," the church's website states, a community Halloween event drew more than 24,000 people. The congregation itself has grown from 17 members to more than 300 in its first year, and that growth continues. The church has since moved out of the warehouse and is now meeting temporarily under a tent in Rossville, Georgia, where it has leased its new home. Before they can move into the building, however, the interior needs to be renovated, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press and Smith.

“We are on a massive, fast-paced mission to raise $60,000 in just 24 hours to get us into our building in August. While this isn’t all we need to complete our phase 1, it gives us enough to get us into the door and launch!” Smith wrote in an Instagram post on July 14. “This is a classic, community tele-a-thon. We are building this house brick-by-brick, together.”

In February 2022, after months of headline-grabbing drama — including repeated denials to his staff that he was engaged in an adulterous affair — Smith confessed to his embattled congregation at the now-defunct Venue Church that he was involved in an "inappropriate relationship." He asked for forgiveness as he returned to the pulpit after a brief sabbatical.

“Before I preach a word today, I’ve just come to say I’m sorry. So many things I’ve said, that I’ve done, that I’ve not said, that I’ve run from were wrong,” Smith said, according to a recording of the apology posted on YouTube.

“I was involved in an inappropriate relationship. And I want to say that I’m sorry that I put you through any embarrassment, heartache or confusion. I’ve wounded people, and I’ve caused devastation that I know I can never take back,” he added. “As your leader and pastor, I come to you to publicly acknowledge my mistakes and truly ask for forgiveness. It grieves me to think that my pride and my selfishness could’ve caused anyone hurt.”

The apology only came after Venue church began hemorrhaging members and staff following a November 2021 incident in which church volunteers, hoping to check on their pastor, arrived at Smith's home and found him in his boxers alongside a female staff member wearing only a towel.

On Feb. 3, 2022, the Chattanooga Times Free Press published leaked audio of some 100 church volunteers questioning Smith at a meeting about his relationship with a church employee with whom he was once reportedly found half-naked.

The Daily Beast reported that during a surprise visit to Smith’s home, church volunteers hoping to cheer up their pastor found him and the employee in a compromising situation.

Smith claimed that they “had been making chili and hot dogs and gotten food on their clothes,” but volunteers weren’t convinced.

“I don’t think none of us was that dumb,” one volunteer told The Daily Beast. “If she dropped chili on her clothes, why are you in your boxers? Was you all like, throwing chili at each other?”