From California to Calling: Steve Freeman’s Courageous Journey

In this episode of the Courageous Crossroads Podcast, Steve Freeman offers a thoughtful and deeply personal picture of courage, describing how the most courageous thing he has done was surrender his life to Christ and then follow God’s call even when it meant leaving comfort, certainty, and financial security behind. He shares the story of walking away from a successful career path in Southern California, moving his family to Iowa, and helping plant a church, all out of a growing conviction that courage is found in faithful obedience. Steve Freeman is the pastor of Living Hope in Clive, Iowa, and a former insurance professional with more than 30 years of experience. He is also a husband, father of four, grandfather, and ministry leader with a strong commitment to sharing the gospel, strengthening marriages and families, and encouraging others to live with purpose, faith, and truth.

Thank you for listening! We hope you feel inspired and encouraged by our conversation today. If you did, be sure to share this episode with others.

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See you in the next episode! Be blessed!

Full Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Courageous by Crossroads Apologetics, a look into what motivates us to step out and courage, and the everyday bravery of men and women like you. In each episode, we hear a personal story of bravery centered around this question. What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? And now your host, founder of Crossroads Apologetics, Jeff Johnson.

Jeff Johnson: Okay, we’ve been off a couple of weeks while we’ve been recording some new interviews for the Courageous Crossroads podcast. Hey everybody, this is Jeff. Glad to be back with you and super excited for our next guest, Steve Freeman. Now listen, sometimes there’s people in your life that are sitting right next to you, people that you’ve known for a long time, but you haven’t invested the time to really get to know them. And my next guest is in that category.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. I was blown away with what Steve had to share with me and how he answered that question. What’s the most courageous thing he’s ever done? I thought he was an Iowan, lifelong Iowan. I had no idea what he did for a living to find out that he was not and what he actually does surprised me. And not only that, but it really enriched me when he was able to tell me the whole story. And this is going to enrich you as well. So for our first podcast back in a couple of weeks, I am more than happy to present to you my friend Steve Freeman. Here he is.

Welcome everybody. Our guest this week is Steve Freeman, buddy of mine that I’ve known for… I don’t know how long we’ve known each other, Steve.

Steve Freeman: Few years now.

Jeff Johnson: Okay. We bumped into each other at cross trainers and…

Steve Freeman: And we became grandpas about the same time.

Jeff Johnson: Okay. So do you have one?

Steve Freeman: We have one on the way.

Jeff Johnson: The same. When is your next one on the way?

Steve Freeman: July.

Jeff Johnson: Okay. Well, we’re in August. Well, you and I are right on top of each other. How—tell me about your grandchild now, girl or boy?

Steve Freeman: Oh, girl. She’ll be two next month. Of course, just adorable. My wife is actually over there right now. She has the privilege of watching Eden six or seven days a month, depending on my son and daughter-in-law’s schedule. So it’s either a month—it’s always a Monday or Wednesday. And my son’s a police officer, so his schedule alternates every… it’s on an eight-day cycle. So usually six, seven days a month and many days she’ll bring her out here so we get to hang out. So it’s cool.

Jeff Johnson: That’s fantastic. Well, I don’t… I’m not going to judge your grandparenting Steve, but Danielle and I are killing it. We’re absolutely killing it. I mean, I was so ready to become a grandpa and people were saying what a great deal it was. And I had no clue. This is so… Isn’t it the best?

Steve Freeman: It’s the best. Yeah, I tell people that, you know, everybody tells me how great it is and it’s greater.

Jeff Johnson: It is. It for sure is. Okay. So thanks for joining us on the Courageous Crossroads podcast. We come down on that one question: What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? But before we get to that, I’d like you to introduce yourself a little bit. You know, we’ve talked about you being a grandpa, but maybe go back a little bit and give people a little bit of an elevator pitch or however much you want to tell them about your background, where you grew up, what you do for a living, about your family, that sort of thing.

Steve Freeman: So yeah, you bet. So I pastor Calvary Chapel Living Hope now in Clive, Iowa. So and that’s the fact—I’m going to talk a little bit about that journey today. And I’ve spent also over 30 years in the insurance industry recently. You know, I call it retired, but I think ultimately retirement is heaven. So retired from insurance and now serving the Lord full time, just kind of however He leads, but really focused on the church.

I have four kids. I’m aged 30 to 22. My oldest is a police officer. He’s married. We just spoke about our precious granddaughter. Yeah, grandson that’s on the way. Interesting. My son’s father-in-law has 11 girls in a row, five daughters and six granddaughters. And his number 12 is boy number one. So what is—there’s a baseball card collection up for grabs or something like that for the first boy.

My daughter works for a Jackafuille. She develops supplements; her background is science. And so it’s been a great fit for her. And my second son, third child, is a personal trainer. He’s in corporate wellness and just helping a lot of people. He works in fact where I used to work. And I said, “You know, you got something like 1500 people that sit at a desk all day long.” So it’s a great group to help with fitness. And then my youngest is in the Guard. He just graduated from Iowa State and is applying to get into law enforcement.

So my wife works part-time at Scheels and takes care of our granddaughter a number of days. And then she’s a week and just helps a lot in the ministry. So we’ve been in Iowa since 2004 and grew up in California, mostly in Southern California.

Jeff Johnson: Okay. So what brought you to Iowa?

Steve Freeman: Well, so, you know, that’s kind of what I was going to talk a little bit about in terms of courage. I was in a lot of the training sessions at cross trainers. I thought, well, you know, I think of courage, I think of military. I think of our law enforcement folks out there, you know, doing brave things for the world and making the world a better place. And I thought, well, you know, I have a story like that.

And then just recently, I think three weeks ago, you mentioned this and I forgot the topic. But I remember I just got the Lord leading like, “Go share your story.” Yeah. It’s not, you know, saving the world from bad guys or whatever, but our mission here is preaching the gospel.

And so I gave my life to the Lord back in 1993, May 14th, 1993. And just immediately had a passion for reaching people. So that fall, interestingly—so that was in May—that fall, my brother-in-law was starting the School of Ministry at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. So really that’s like the seminary program for Calvary Chapel, but really the focus of that is church planting.

And, you know, frankly, I thought he was a little nuts because he was giving up a great marketing job to go basically study the Bible and learn about planting churches. So, but he did that and the Lord just blessed during that time. Two years later, at his graduation from the School of Ministry—they had it down in Balboa in Southern California—the guys were all sharing about what the Lord did in their heart during school. Many of them shared about vision, about what they had in store, what they felt like God had in store for them and what their plans were. And, you know, were two years later, I thought he was out of his—completely out of his mind. You know, I just start feeling a little bit of a tug.

Jeff Johnson: Let me interrupt you here, Steve. So this is free. Okay, let me calibrate a little bit. Is that… are you answering the question, “What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?”

Steve Freeman: Yeah, kind of starting to get into that.

Jeff Johnson: Good, great. This is fantastic. Were you a Christian from a young age? Because you’re talking about being… getting a tug, feeling a tug, but you weren’t in the evangelism business per se, you know, as a boy.

Steve Freeman: I grew up going to church mostly. We largely went to Methodist Presbyterian churches. My parents actually helped start a Methodist church up in Northern California when I was young, actually at originally at the junior high where I went. I was just a young man. But I really… I hadn’t surrendered my life to Jesus. I wasn’t following Jesus by any means.

We moved to Southern California between my junior and senior year in high school. And it seems like maybe kind of an odd time to move, but I was excited about it. I love being down in Southern California. I wasn’t following Jesus, kind of just involved in all the stuff that young people get involved in. You know, I was in sports and school and everything.

And then went to college and, you know, my Friday afternoon class, we called it Pub 301, you know, and just kind of the party life through college. But in—so a couple of years after college, a 10-year question, you know, I’d gone—I’ll back up a little bit. In high school in Southern California, I did start going to like a local community church where I heard the gospel. And I was mostly there for the girls, full disclosure. But it tugged on my heart at that point in time.

And I remember staying after talking with the guy and kind of praying the prayer, so to speak, about my life to the Lord. But really didn’t surrender. And so that would have been ’86. It wasn’t until 1993, a 10-year question, that I gave my life to Christ. I was at a—I was at a tree. You know, I was working in the insurance industry. I was living in Newport Beach, you know, I could see the beach from our balcony. It was gorgeous, you know, fast car, lots of stuff going on down there. All the things that the world would say, “Man, that’s like you got it.” But like I knew there was more.

I gave my life to the Lord in May of that year. And that’s when, you know, I talk about really starting to feel a tug towards sharing Christ, to be on mission for the Lord and for evangelism.

Jeff Johnson: Had your siblings jumped into the deep end with their faith before you, or did they come after you?

Steve Freeman: Really good question. My sister, three years before I did, she gave her life to the Lord. And at the time that really put a strain on our relationship. We had been pretty close growing up. But she was going to church, she was going to Bible study, you know, going to small group. And I was doing everything except that. So we didn’t interact a lot.

Interestingly, part of what the Lord used to draw me to Him was that relationship that we had had. And so my brother-in-law—well, now brother-in-law—reached out. And I remember answering the phone in Newport Beach, California. And he said, “Do you want to go hear the coach of the University of Colorado football team speak?”

And so as you probably know, it was Bill McCartney, the former involved in Promise Keepers. And it was an early, early meeting. My brother-in-law had actually gone to school there and he was on the team that, you know, they did the—not a cheerleader, but like the stunts, he threw the girls in the air and all that kind of stuff. So he had been around football. And so he invited me to go.

And Becky was going to go, right? Didn’t know there was an all-men’s thing. It was a smaller gathering—well, smaller for Promise Keepers—probably a couple thousand people in Costa Mesa at the time that went. So I said yes. Then after we hung up, I thought, “Man, it’s probably some Christian thing.” You know, so I called him back and he said, “Well, yeah, he’s a Christian, but you’ll enjoy it.”

So I went. They let us in, my sister in just… we didn’t know. And it was there that I got invited to a retreat up in the mountains of Southern California. And the Lord put me next to this just fired-up bodybuilder guy who at the time, like a lot of young guys, I was into weightlifting—still like to now, I do it just so I don’t hurt. But back then, you know, like just put me—the Lord put me right next to this guy.

And I remember one thing that bugged me, but sort of struck me, is at one point the worship leader says, “Put your hand on the shoulder of the guy next to you and just look him in the eyes and say, ‘I love you.'” And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, this is nuts.” You know, but I rolled with it.

Jeff Johnson: I’m not getting that.

Steve Freeman: Yeah. And ended up getting invited to a retreat that was going to be a couple weeks later up in the mountains of Southern California. And by the grace of God, I ended up going. That was sort of a weekend warrior. I mean, I was responsible as far as responsibility goes on my job and work and all that. But, you know, I’d go off to Palm Springs or San Diego or Las Vegas or whatever for a lot of a weekend.

I got invited to Las Vegas the same weekend as this retreat, but decided to go to the retreat. You know, something about a couple nights in the mountains. I remember telling my friend, “I don’t care about this, you know, born again, explain it. I just want to find peace. I want to find peace.”

And that’s where I gave my life to Christ, ended up going there. And, you know, I remember Pastor Raul gave an altar call. And I… I didn’t stand initially, but when he talked about like recommitting your life to Jesus, I thought, “Well, yeah, I can do that.” He was talking about, you know, a command in the Old Testament that he lived, he lived for God. He lived right with God. And I realized, you know what? I’m not doing that. You know, and decided to surrender that night.

Jeff Johnson: So, inside of the most courageous thing you’ve ever done, it is accepting Jesus?

Steve Freeman: Inside of it. Yeah, 100%. In fact, I would say—well, that leads to another interesting conversation, because I think for some people like, that is a big act of courage, you know, but really for me, you know, I heard that I was… I was really just stepping up and recommitting my life to the Lord. And, you know, God just really got a hold of my heart after that.

Jeff Johnson: Okay, so keep going with the answer now, Steve. You’ve totally captivated me, because my question, we started with, “How did you end up getting to Iowa?” And you said, “Well, that’s how I want to answer the question.” So you’re in Southern California, and your brother is lighting you up with your faith, and you’re getting to a place where you’re accepting Christ.

Steve Freeman: Yes, yes. So I shared, he left a really good marketing job to go to School of Ministry and really supported himself through construction and kind of… they managed an apartment complex and just, you know, they went from comfortable to not very comfortable. In my mindset at the time, you’re in California, you know, it’s money, it’s cars, it’s girls, it’s entertainment, right? Going out and doing stuff, weekend warrior, and I’m like, “He’s going to study the Bible,” you know, and it just seemed sort of weird to me.

But at his graduation—that would have been in 1995—God really was tugging on my heart, and I think it had to do with something that is in the heart of men, and that’s mission, right? It’s purpose. And while I had been following Christ for a couple of years, and wanted to know more about the Bible, you know, I was… I was still kind of doing all…

But God did bless me with a wonderful bride, and we’d actually dated for five years before I gave my life to the Lord. And after I did that, God just… I think He was waiting for that to allow her to be my bride, because I married up like a lot of people, you know, and I think, you know, she’d given her life to the Lord, I was a distraction, but before I had the honor of marrying her, God wanted me to get my life right.

So really that was May in July at my sister and brother’s wedding. I, you know, I figured I have a couple hundred family members there, and so pre-arranged with my sister and brother and I proposed at the reception on the mic in front of everybody. Thankfully, she said yes.

Jeff Johnson: Nice.

Steve Freeman: Very little testimony, again, a little testimony about what Christ had been doing in my life before that. And so we had gotten married in the interim and at his graduation, I started thinking maybe this—maybe this is something I’d be interested in. You know, I had a great job in insurance and a bright career ahead, but God started tugging on my heart.

So for a couple years, I thought about it, sort of looked for—loosely looked for a job that would work with the schedule. They intentionally have it made difficult with kind of traditional, you know, nine-to-five employment. School got over at 10. There was a good amount of homework. So you kind of had to be all-in on this particular program for kind of geared towards church planting.

I promised to be a pastor, you know, get a license or anything; you get a certificate that you get. I went because I wanted to know Jesus more. And I wanted to learn how to better share my faith and study and teach the Bible. And so interestingly, after a couple years of trying in my own strength to find something that worked, I was in Cuba. I went on a mission trip to Cuba in 1998. And God said to apply. I was like, “Wait, what? Apply to School of Ministry?”

And so I applied, much to my surprise, I got accepted. And, but, you know, I had people well-meaning say, “Just go to school. Trust the Lord with income and everything.” And I just… I didn’t feel that was responsible. I felt like there had to be, even if it was snug, had to be something there. We had two kids. We had one on the way. And so that was sort of a fleece for me, you know, if the Lord opened the door, even if it was snug, then I would go.

Yeah. And wouldn’t you know it, before three or four school started, He did. His friend of mine, he had a small company. You know, there was an element of faith involved because the company had to grow some, but he gave me a base that actually I thought it would cover. The Lord brought some surprises that stretched us for sure, but that’s really part of the training, I believe. At least for me, it was during the process. And so two years of school, just a great experience.

Jeff Johnson: So many hard things. Say again—where’d you go to school?

Steve Freeman: A Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa School of Ministry.

Jeff Johnson: Okay. Large school? What’s that, large school, small school?

Steve Freeman: Well, intentionally relatively small, there’s about 80 students a year that they accepted. Yeah, and so a lot more apply, but they… you know, partly because of what their focus was, which was—I mean, we had to get references from our secular employment and, you know, friends and family and stuff. And so, that’s part of the reason I thought, well, I’ll apply, but I don’t know if I’ll get accepted. That and the program, that’s really nice.

Jeff Johnson: Okay.

Steve Freeman: Yeah. It’s focused on church planting. There’s a lot of guys that go through that don’t plant churches, but—and I knew three guys who had graduated. Two of them were absolutely persuaded that they were going to go plant churches. Another one had said that they were going to stay and serve where they were. And the exact opposite happened when they graduated.

And so I went and said, “I don’t have plans. I’m going to do whatever the Lord wants.” And so interestingly, school was very, very tight. God provided, but it was very tight. It was outside of my comfort zone, which was, you know, the direct deposits a couple of times a month, the 401k, the great health benefits. So the company had made some accommodations for me. And I was like, well, actually, I left work for a friend in a small business for a year. And that got more difficult towards summer. So I went back to insurance on a contract basis for summer. And the Lord ended up working that out for the whole rest of the year of school, last year of school.

By the time that I was getting close to graduating, the company said, “You know, you’re going to have to go full time when you graduate because we really don’t do this, and there’s other people that are interested. So we really need you to go full time.” I was a little bit disappointed, but also a little bit relieved.

And so interestingly, I knew that was coming. After, the pastor had reached out to schedule a meeting for a Wednesday night after… Should I pause real quick and go put the dogs in the garage? Or is that too much?

Jeff Johnson: I can’t—if it’s bothering you, go ahead and do it. I can’t hear anything.

Steve Freeman: Okay. Okay. Great. Yeah. So, I’ll kind of start that part fresh. So sure. I had our pastor schedule a meeting after church one Wednesday night. And I was racking my brain as to what’s this about. So that was coming up and then my employer, we met just—I know it’s God’s design, but that day, in one day, a Wednesday, I had negotiated going back to insurance at more money than I’d ever made in my life. And after two years of School of Ministry, I was pretty excited about that.

That night, I went in to meet with our pastor, not knowing what it was about. I was racking my brain, “Did I offend somebody? Did I say something? Did I play his son in basketball the weekend or a couple weeks before and like… was I too rough?” You know, all these things, like, what happened?

And he asked me to come on staff. And so—and so keep in mind, during the day: a job offer more money than I ever made in my life. To job offer for my dream at less money than I ever made in my life, even when I started in insurance. And so, you know, my wife and I really sought the Lord. And we just felt that it was God’s plan.

And so we did. I ended up going on staff when I graduated from School of Ministry in 2000. And, you know, if you would have asked me what my wildest dream was, it would have been to be on staff at our home church, but I never, ever expected it, nor would I have. You know, there’s just so many other guys who had been there, you know, many years and just people I looked up to and respected.

But the Lord had that for us. And so, we felt that and we did that. And they passed me off. And we come on staff and lead a newly revamped youth ministry, started college ministry, and then just kind of other duties. My second year, actually, the Lord blessed the church—Father, we used to call him Calvary Chapel’s best kept secret. He was a great Bible teacher, but the church wasn’t huge by Southern California standards. And, but the Lord blessed, it went from, I think, 11,000 square feet looking for about 22, and the Lord gave us a 52,000 square foot building. And you know, He had great plans. Now it’s overflowing.

But so all that to say year two, I was kind of a construction worker because right are the contractors and the assistant pastors do everything that comes up along the way. So, and I’m not particularly handy in that regard, but any event, just loved it, you know, and I remember—and this kind of leads up to one of what I was thinking of in terms of like courageous, the most…

Jeff Johnson: Decision. Yeah.

Steve Freeman: So that was 2000 and in 2003, the staff had gone to a pastor’s conference in Southern California. We were going back that evening and some of the guys were bringing their wives out. I was bringing Becky. So we were having a burger at this burger joint—I’ll never forget it—called Nowood, super casual. Going to hear Jon Courson, who was a well-known Calvary pastor and one of our favorites. And so just kind of talking and I said, “You know, church planting was so heavy on my heart from really about ’95 when I started thinking in terms of School of Ministry.” I said, “But I think I could just stay and love Bob, love the church. I think I could just be in a support role for the rest of my life maybe,” you know.

And Becky shared, “I just think God has something different.” So we’re like, “Oh wow,” you know, and so we started praying and long story short, the Lord… You know, we always knew that if we planted a church, it would be in the Des Moines area. You know, He had just revealed a number of things along the way. You know, we had become sort of familiar through a friend had planted a church here. And then somebody else from Southern California…

Jeff Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Because that’s a—because for a casual listener, Steve, that’s a leap. You know, say when you’re going to church in Southern California, you’ve gone to Bible school in Southern California, your insurance work was in Southern California, you were born and raised there. I mean, you’re a California kid. And say, “Well, we kind of always thought that we would start a church in the Des Moines area.” That deserves a lot of explanation because… okay, keep going. You just knew somebody who had started a church here? Was that it?

Steve Freeman: Well, yes, my sister and brother-in-law had moved back here. So we had visited at the same time.

Jeff Johnson: Okay.

Steve Freeman: And, you know, Calvary Chapels were all over the place in Southern California. The joke is a lot of the guys were surfers. I can’t surf. So they didn’t really matter—that part didn’t matter to me. But, so there were sort of big on the coast. I mean, they’re not well known here even now. But with the internet and stuff, some are more well known.

But, you know, a lot of them were on the coasts. And that’s just what what God had done. So our prayer was, “Lord, what You did there…” You know, if you’re familiar with the Jesus Movement of the late sixties/seventies…

Jeff Johnson: Yeah.

Steve Freeman: So Pastor Chuck Smith was kind of credited with… at least in Southern California. They call it a “Jesus”… it was really a move of the Holy Spirit throughout the nation. But he was a big part of that in the Southern California space. And that’s where Calvary Chapels were sort of birthed. That’s a whole another amazing story.

Jeff Johnson: You don’t know Bill Thrall by chance, do you?

Steve Freeman: Not familiar.

Jeff Johnson: He was a… he was a teacher of mine. He, and he was a part of the Jesus Movement. But he was in Arizona at the same time that was going on in California.

Steve Freeman: Oh, really?

Jeff Johnson: Yeah.

Steve Freeman: Okay. Yeah. And so that was—that was, you know, some years before, you know, I didn’t get saved until 1993. So that was kind of the 60s and 70s. And so a lot of it I know about from history and from hearing firsthand stories and stuff. But just the radical move. And the guys will tell you it’s a radical move of the Holy Spirit.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Freeman: And really our distinct—like what sort of makes us different—is just verse-by-verse teaching through the entire Bible. Right. You know, we, like a lot of the churches… and so, as the Lord leads, choose a different book. Some go Genesis to Revelation.

And so, you know, the Lord had been stirring in our heart to do that and to come. And so, you know, it would be Iowa. If we did—and it’s kind of a funny side story. Because when I was in school, there was a group out in Panora who had been listening to—I can’t remember who it was, maybe Pastor Chuck on the radio or something. And they wanted to start a Calvary Chapel. And so, we were sort of part of that conversation.

And, you know, my comment was, “If God calls us to Iowa, the smallest I could handle would be the Metro. Like, I’m not going to a small town.” Right. And the reason that’s funny is because we moved to the country last year. So now we’re not even in a small town; we’re in the country. I love Iowa. It’s home. This is where my ashes will be tossed or whatever. But I’ll be with the Lord, so it won’t matter.

But no, yeah. So God has changed our heart. Then, but part of our vision now is really planting Bible teaching churches throughout the Midwest, you know, because that verse-by-verse teaching has just really changed my life. You know, as we were growing in the Lord at Calvary Chapel of the Century—which became East Anaheim and is still East Anaheim—we really felt that the two earmarks of the church, really emulated by Pastor Bob (and obviously, we know it’s the Holy Spirit), is the love and grace of God.

Again, we really had just a passion and desire to bring that to the Midwest. And there’s a lot of obviously churches doing it, but that style of ministry and that just passion for the Lord, just to share that with others, wherever it was. This is where God had for us. And we started meeting later on in the year in 2003 in our home in Fullerton, Southern California. And a number of couples, families, individuals were meeting with us.

And so what led to… again, this isn’t like heroic, you know, “save the city from the bad guys,” which that’s what I think of as heroic and courageous. But, you know, I had a… I was on staff at a church I really loved and working for someone I really loved and with a team of people that I really loved serving Jesus, who I really love. And, you know, I mentioned going on staff at like the least money I ever made. You know, a number of years later, three years, now more comfortable.

And so the Lord started speaking about moving. And the way Calvary Chapel plants churches is like: you go, you get a job, and you start teaching the Bible. There’s no big fund, you know what I mean? And so like, you got to know that you know that you know that you’re called. And we were very committed to, you know, not only do I have to believe that, but my wife had to hear directly from the Lord. She was a big believer in, you know, leadership of our church. So I talked with our pastor and Bob and the elders were supportive, meaning, “Yeah, we believe in you.”

And so we prayed and we felt that and so we took that step. All right, we sold our house in Fullerton, California. We packed everything up and moved across country.

Jeff Johnson: How many kids did you have then?

Steve Freeman: We had four. Yeah, four then.

Jeff Johnson: So they were little older, like, “Okay, here we go.”

Steve Freeman: Yeah, my oldest was going into second grade and my youngest—which drove part of the time—he was born in 2003. So we knew we’re not going to go with a brand new born. So we kind of set our eyes on 2004.

Jeff Johnson: And was your wife excited about that? I mean, because you guys are bored…

Steve Freeman: She became excited. Yeah, the Lord… I don’t know if you’re familiar with Richie Furay? He used to be part of Buffalo Springfield way back in the day.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah.

Steve Freeman: Pastor to Calvary Chapel in Colorado for many years and obviously a great musician. He had a song, “Here I Am, Lord.” And the chorus kind of goes, “Here I am Lord, send me Lord out to spread Your word around… my foot’s safe, but not to Iowa.” That’s where it started, but God changed her heart. God changed her heart. And she became not only illustrative, but 100% on board.

And so we in total—of 17 of us—sold homes and packed up and…

Jeff Johnson: You brought 17 parishioners from Southern California to say, “We’re going to go do this in Iowa with you too?”

Steve Freeman: That’s the model. Yeah, and we were blessed to have so many. Not everybody’s blessed like that because there’s no like—like I said, there’s not this active, you know, organization of sending. You know, it’s like if you feel led, and you know, your pastor sees those characteristics in you. You know, it’s like, “We’ll pray for you,” and they do, you know.

But God brought those people to come and help things get started. And it was a blessing. It’s interesting, in the fall, really kind of winter—which in Southern California, it’s kind of relative—but, you know, I talked to some friends who were… it was kind of like, “Hey, do you want to go if we go?” And really not a bunch of buy-in or no commitments.

And so I was sharing with Bob just kind of keeping him updated and he said, “You know, you might just have to decide if the Lord’s calling you or not.” And you know, sometimes people want to be a part of something that’s happening. And so what Beck and I ultimately decided by the Lord’s leading was that we would move. And if the Lord brought a team, then we would plant a church in West Des Moines. And if the Lord didn’t, then we would just get involved with the Calvary that was on the East side and maybe have a midweek study in West Des Moines.

And the Lord brought a team. So we started meeting in September in Western Hills, at the Western Hills School there in West Des Moines and have met at a few places over the years. Just actually in February, we started in our first building ever that we’ve owned.

Jeff Johnson: So all these years, we, you know, we’ve, we’ve leased. We were on EP True, I think for 11 years or something, you know, long time, 11, 12 years. We’ve had, you know, places that were ours, but not that we owned. And so… but, but packing up and moving—and actually our over the summer, we arrived at the end of June. So for a couple of two, two and a half months, we met in our living room, believe it or not, not far from Valley High School. And then in September, had it lined up to start meeting at Western Hills.

You’re a little self-effacing, Steve, with “the most courageous thing you’ve ever done.” Because this is all very courageous, but I see you qualifying it as it’s a faithful thing and it’s just following the Lord. But right there requires a great deal of courage. And through the Bible, you hear the Lord encouraging His servants, His prophets—certainly Moses: “Be courageous, be courageous.” And what’s He doing? What’s He encouraging them with? It is to walk in faith. Like, “Be courageous, trust me, trust me. I’ve got you. Be courageous.” And that’s exactly what you and your family and these wonderful people from Southern California did.

Now, you plug your ears because I’m going to do a little aside with our listeners right now. It’s a little bit of a thing I’m going to call “Shame on Jeff.” I have known Steve for how long? I did not know—I did not know that he was a pastor. I did not know that he was from Southern California. I did not know this amazing story. What an opportunity to invest in people and learn more about somebody. Steve, I’m blown away. I mean, that is a faithful endeavor right there. And it’s also what I heard the missionary say: “A small thing is just a small thing, but faithfulness with a small thing is a big thing.” Or I guess in our terminology for this purpose of this podcast, we’d say courage with a small thing is a big thing. And good for you. How’s the church doing?

Steve Freeman: It’s doing well. You know, it’s as strong as it’s ever been. We’re so grateful. You know, like each of those steps… and I appreciate the encouragement and the kind words. Part of what I feel like the Lord… because I can share that first when you first share this, I thought, “Man, that’s a cool podcast. It sounds awesome. And it’d be great to hear guys that have these great stories of courage.”

But the Lord put it on my heart—partly because I forgot what the topic was by the next time that you shared it—but I remember being hesitant the first time, and I remember just a few weeks ago, the Lord said, “You need to go.” Remember I came up afterwards? “You need to go talk to Jeff. You need to get up and share your story.”

And so, you know, like to me—and I appreciate everything you said—I want to encourage people in taking steps of faith for the Lord. You know, when I was a youth pastor, we did mission trips, and in Southern California, Mexico was a drive, kind of a trip. We did that a lot. And I was just going to go to some overseas across the country. Once we moved here, some of them came here and helped us; it was just great.

But I was not the right person—I’m still not the right person—to ask, “Should I go do this?” because in Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of the nations.” If it’s on your heart, go do it. You know, because all of us really—everybody who’s a believer, and I think for those who perhaps aren’t believers, it’s still true—that God has a call upon your life. You’re just not walking in it. You know, but God has a mission for us. And when we are on mission for Jesus, when we are operating in the areas of our gifting, and when we are serving Him for His glory, that’s where we do best.

And I believe that with all my heart. You know, there’s struggles in life, but there’s struggles in life whether you’re following the Lord or not. Why not do it with Jesus on your side? You know what I mean? And you know, it’s interesting, God over the years has sort of honed in our vision. You know, we like to say that the earmarks of our church are love, grace, and truth. Much of that is born out of our experience in Southern California—just love and grace.

You know, like I said, I grew up largely going to churches, but I never really heard—or maybe they were preaching and I wasn’t listening, I have no idea—but it never really resonated in my heart how much God loves me and how much He is for me. His grace. And then increasingly over the years, becoming more and more just passionate about the truth. And I think in our culture today, people are uniquely looking for truth. What’s right? What’s true? And Jesus said, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.”

And so He has a mission, He has a call for us uniquely. We’re passionate about strengthening marriages and families. I think that there is—there has been and continues to be—just a direct assault from the enemy of our souls on families, and specifically on Christian families.

Jeff Johnson: Oh yeah.

Steve Freeman: And there’s good reason for that. That’s probably the bedrock of a healthy society anyways. And so, strengthening first and foremost the individual in their relationship with Jesus—that strengthens marriages. Right? It’s been said that if husband and wife are both pursuing Christ, it’s like a triangle. As you get closer to Jesus, you’re automatically getting closer to one another.

And so, just that passion… you know, in late 2023—so now fast forward—that was about 20 years since we really started feeling the tug to actually move from Southern California. We had been mentored, as you know—and I know you know Gary Rosberg—we’ve been mentored by Barb and Gary’s marriage ministry and through Impact Players, Heroes, and just very passionate about that. And still, I’m a chaplain with West Des Moines Police Department, and just passionate about that space.

And so that was the… you know, the Lord orchestrated through many circumstances to be trained specifically in that area. And partly through that, the Lord has given us a passion for marriage and family ministry, really to strengthen that. That doesn’t rule out individuals at all, right, because we’re all part of God’s family.

Jeff Johnson: Right.

Steve Freeman: And so, having those connections… but I had started… as I sensed… you know, I’d always sort of filed a “not going to be in insurance at 60.” I’m 57 now. So for years, I sort of had that goal. The Lord, kind of like moving here… the Lord likes to call us to steps of faith. And so He actually—partly through Cross Trainers and some messages there—God helped encourage and sort of clarify.

You know, if you remember years some years ago, one of the books that we read by Pat Morley… was it the first chapter about the rat race? And you know, I had been realizing that I can say I knew my time in insurance—I loved it, had a great job, got it done exceedingly abundantly more than you can ask or imagine through my job—I did, and got to lead a lot of people and help really change a good-sized part of the organization and loved it.

But I really started sensing that the time is approaching. And as I was contemplating my “post-insurance,” I thought, “You know, I’ve always been, or for many years, sort of passionate about the area of public policy,” and really to the extent that that matters to people, to families, it impacts communities. And so my heart and potentially being involved in… I thought maybe like a local race, you know, the House or the Senate where we were living at the time. I thought there was opportunity for a change. Then they redistricted and then that need kind of went away.

But anyways, as I was praying that through, God said—I remember this because it stopped one pursuit and just made our call even more clear—He said, “If you want to save the culture, you’ve got to save the family. If you want to save the families, you’ve got to save the marriages.” And that was it.

So no more pondering the area of public policy or politics, but really continuing, of course, that training and just a focus on strengthening the need. And I think out of that, it sort of solidified our call and our direction. I realized—and this was a blessing to me and our family—someone said, “Cultural renewal starts at the dinner table, not in the halls of power.” You know, and studies have shown the impact of this simple thing like having dinner with your family every night: much lower incidents of drug use in kids, much lower incidents of promiscuity and just the destructive lifestyle.

Jeff Johnson: So just showing up and just being in there.

Steve Freeman: Just showing up. Yes, amen to that brother. Yeah. And that’s why like, I love our place now, Jeff, in life. And I think again, Gary and I are going to do a great job of modeling it—of being engaged grandparents. Yeah, I know we’re just getting started, but I think the best is yet to come. But Godly men. And we’re all just doing our best. We know our shortcomings. That’s one thing I love about kind of the group that we’re involved in is like, it’s just real. None of us are perfect. We don’t have to be perfect. Just keep on showing up. Keep on pursuing Christ.

And so, you know, it’s… if we hadn’t taken… Remember hearing Pastor Chuck often would say, “I never understood why the Lord did X.” And now all these years later, I look back and I see, “Well, that makes sense. Because if I didn’t go through this, then I never would have done this. And if I hadn’t learned this, then I wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

And you know, now that I’ve got a few years under my belt, I look back and I go: “If it wasn’t for some of those steps of faith in the past, I never could have taken some of the ones that follow on.” And that’s what I would… I just want to encourage people in: if you feel God tugging on your heart, go for it. You know, go for it. Step out and just see what God…

I remember talking to a friend of mine at a men’s breakfast in Southern California. He ended up not coming. But I said, “You know what? Like, sort of like Zacchaeus, I just want to get up in the tree. I just want to go to the Midwest and see what God will do.” And it hasn’t always been easy. Some things have been really hard. But that’s life. Right? I mean, it’s life and ministry. It’s life out of ministry. But God is faithful. You know, and I look at even the last number of years, where there’s never been a time, whether the church was going great or whether it was a challenge, that I can honestly say I wanted out.

But there’s times, I think like a lot of folks, you pray, “Lord, am I still called?” Because that’s really what matters. Like, “God, are You calling me?” And He always affirmed the call. And so you just stay the course. You know, you put your hands to the plow and keep on going.

Jeff Johnson: You have to wonder sometimes, “Did I hear correctly?”

Steve Freeman: Yes.

Jeff Johnson: “Was this wrong?” You know, there’s always going to be that little seed or, like you said, “Okay, that was the call then. But now am I… am I overripe bananas? Am I still doing what You want me to be doing or…?”

Steve Freeman: Yeah.

Jeff Johnson: “…do I need to fluff the pillows or do something different?” But that’s always the tension with the call, isn’t it?

Steve Freeman: It is. And I think it’s not bad. And it’s perhaps even healthy.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah. Well, it’s very healthy to keep checking in with the Lord.

Steve Freeman: You know, but really the goal is to stay close to Him every day. But 100%—couldn’t agree more, you know, that… to stay in tune with the Lord and like, “Lord, you know, should I do something different? Should I…?” That doesn’t mean like a big change of life, maybe. Sometimes.

Jeff Johnson: Maybe. Yeah, for us it was. Yeah. I was going to ask you the question—we’re getting close to wrapping up here, Steve—and this is just… this is not what I expected from this. I don’t know what I expected walking into this interview today, but this has been special. And it’s been so encouraging to me in such a personal way, you know, just telling your story about where you came from and listening to the Lord.

And you do it so casually. Because you were—you were having the quintessential, the normal “family kind of churchy entity” experience growing up where it was kind of okay, but it didn’t really matter a whole lot, you know, but it wasn’t bad, you know, etc. And you’re all… your family’s a bunch of good people and everybody’s doing their own thing and going along in your living life. And you’re making bad decisions and you probably sprinkle a couple of good decisions in there somewhere. But then you got—but then you got whammy-slammed and you decided to pay attention to that.

Steve Freeman: Yeah.

Jeff Johnson: And you just followed. And I was going to ask you the question, because you get this a lot: “How do you hear the voice of God? How do you know?” But I don’t think I want to ask you that question because I think people know. I think people get that feeling. And I think what they do instead is they say, “I’m not sure that that’s going to be the most comfortable thing for me to do,” or “I’m really enjoying selling insurance now and I’m making bank and I got the big car and I do like my office window looking out on the ocean and everything’s pretty cool here right now, so why rock…?” that sort of thing.

And I heard somebody say recently, “If you’re worried about something being with you in heaven—like, are you going to be married in heaven? You know, you’re still going to be able to have intimacy with your wife and all of that kind of stuff. Is your dog going to be in heaven with you? Are you going to have your favorite car or your favorite house?” Whatever that is—if it takes that to make heaven perfect, you’re going to have that. But if that’s not going to be in heaven with you, I promise you it’s going to be better.

And I think that’s what the call is like. To where people sit and they go, “I know the Lord is calling me to go to Des Moines, but I’m not sure I want to do it.” If you can practice the courage that you and your wife practiced and follow the Lord, it’s always going to be better. And I’m not talking about prosperity gospel. You know, in this life you’re going to have trouble. I’m talking about the fulfilling thing that happens to you when that tuning fork goes off and you know that you’re walking in God’s will for your life. That is the best thing. That is the best life. And that happens when you follow Him. So speak a little bit more to that. Do you know what I mean? Do you agree with me that people can hear the voice of God? They know.

Steve Freeman: Yeah, I think some things are obvious. You know, you don’t need to pray about—this is just an extreme example, but—”Should I go rob a bank? I’m short on cash.” Yeah, obviously, some things are.

Jeff Johnson: Right. Right.

Steve Freeman: And so, but when you get to like a choice between two seemingly good things… I think that God, He speaks to our… sometimes He gives us choices. Right? I mean, we always have a choice. I mean, but like sometimes it might not seem blatantly off. I think God is speaking something to our heart. And the question is: Are we going to step out in faith?

You know, sometimes people talk about faith being like “blind faith.” Like, I believe in God by faith. I don’t believe in God because of faith. I believe in God because of the evidence. It’s overwhelming. I mean, the existence of God to me… I love having those conversations because the evidence is overwhelmingly in just the reality that God exists.

Faith—true faith—is stepping out based upon what He says. And the most obvious way to see that is in His word. The word is the primary way that God speaks to us. If He speaks to our heart, it’s going to be in line with His word. And so the principles are there. So sometimes there might be a biblical principle that makes it more obvious for us. But I think that the difficulty comes when—the fact that I don’t know the outcome—that’s where the faith comes in.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah.

Steve Freeman: You know, and I like to know the outcome. You know, the word says His word is a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet. You know, He really shows us the next step very often. And sometimes just even a small step, but you’ve got to take it. And if we don’t take it, we never find out.

One little—this isn’t in the Bible—but one thing that drove at least part of our decision to move is something I heard somewhere: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be what you’ve always been.” And that may not be a bad thing, you know, to me, like things are going like you said, and things are comfortable, you get money, I like this, I like that, whatever. But when God calls us to mission—and He has, I believe with all my heart, He has a mission for everybody, He has gifts for everybody, gifts to be used for the glory of His kingdom—when we’re operating in that space, that’s where we do the best. You know, that’s where we feel the most fulfilled.

So Jesus talked about if you want to… those who live to try to find their life, like find happiness, discover happiness in and of ourselves, right? Lose your life. But if you deny yourself for the sake of the gospel, that’s where you find life, right? Where you put off your own fears, your own doubts, you put on courage. It’s a decision: “I put on courage, and I step out and trust God in what He has for my life.” That’s where I thrive. It doesn’t mean everything’s easy, because it’s not.

Jeff Johnson: It was so well put. So as Christians, we know that everybody that we come into contact with is going to live forever.

Steve Freeman: Yes.

Jeff Johnson: In one place or the next, right?

Steve Freeman: Yes.

Jeff Johnson: Everybody’s going to live forever. And there’s this verse in Hebrews 9:27, “Just as a man is appointed to die once and after that to face judgment.” So we do, you know, and you can fire and brimstone that all you want, but that’s what God said. That’s in the canon. That’s in the book. And what it says is that we’re going to die once and we’re going to face judgment. So we’re going to give an account for what we did.

And Steve, my knees knock because I don’t want to get to the other side and be in glory with Jesus—with my wonderful creator—and realize that I left so much on the table. Do you know what I mean?

Steve Freeman: Yeah, I do.

Jeff Johnson: And that’s not a—that’s not a prideful, greedy kind of a thing. It’s just…

Steve Freeman: No.

Jeff Johnson: …in the span of eternity, this lifespan is so small. Don’t we all want to let ourselves on fire to the glory of God, you know, while here?

Steve Freeman: Yes. Yeah.

Jeff Johnson: That’s what you and your wife did. That’s what you and your wife are doing.

Steve Freeman: Well, I appreciate the kind words. And that’s, you know, God just put it on my heart to get on and talk about that. You know, and hopefully not to say, “Wow,” but hopefully to encourage others. Because I think the time is short, right? You look at the world and you look at the way things are going, and people need the truth. They need Christ. And you know, we have to step out of our comfort zone.

It’s not scriptural, but I think it’s a good quote I read recently: “Comfort is the worst addiction.” You know, and I think a lot of people talk about a lot of different addictions, but this idea of being comfortable… the military has a phrase: “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” And I share so much of my life I’ve been living out of my comfort zone. But I wouldn’t change it. And I’m grateful to the Lord. So grateful to the Lord.

Jeff Johnson: Oh, my goodness. Okay. Well, I don’t want to… we’re going to leave it there for now, Mr. Freeman. I hope to have you back again, but Steve Freeman: mighty man of God, man of great courage, man that is an example of how we can all walk by faith. Thank you very much for sharing your story. And thank you for being my friend, and thank you for being a part of this program today. I really appreciate it.

Steve Freeman: You’re too kind, Jeff. Thank you for your kind words. And thank you very much for having me on. It means a lot.

Jeff Johnson: Oh, before I let you go, I do want to know this for people that are listening and that are local. Yeah, let me know where your church meets and when it meets.

Steve Freeman: Oh, yeah. Good question. Sundays at 10 AM. And we are in Clive: 9051 Swanson Boulevard, west of 86th Street. And you can also find us online at cclivinghope.com. CC for Calvary Chapel. So cclivinghope.com. Yeah, I’d love to see people out there.

Jeff Johnson: Okay, wonderful. Well, go see Steve and interact with the congregation and go get some of this on you because you need it. We all need it. Thank you, Steve.

Steve Freeman: Praise God. Thanks, Jeff. God bless you.

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