Associate Pastor Steve Witmer

Pastor Steve was raised in a home where Christian ministry was the focus. His father, Harold Witmer, after spending time in the U.S. Army at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, started a Christian Servicemen’s Center in Clarksville, TN, the city surrounding the army base. Later, his father also formed Youth Challenge, a ministry of homes for troubled youth, and took many evangelistic trips with his family to Florida and Minnesota. Within this context Pastor Steve was introduced to Christ and the necessity of having a personal relationship with Him. At the early age of 4, Pastor Steve asked Christ to come into his heart and life.

After the many ups and downs of working through his teenage years, Pastor Steve graduated from high school and registered at Bryan College, A Christian Liberal Arts College. After two years there, he transferred to a similar school, Northwestern College, in Roseville MN. While at Northwestern, while attending a local church he met his wife to be, Becky Snyder, whom he married the week after graduation. Steve majored in Bible, Youth Ministries, and Christian Education. His minors were in Psychology and Business Administration.

His first position after college was as the Youth /C.E. Director at First Presbyterian Church in Orange, NJ. Much was learned during this time as he and his new wife from Minnesota were thrust into the hectic society of urban living. After a year there, Pastor Steve and Becky moved back to the Midwest where he took a position as a Youth Director at Faith Baptist Church in Sioux Falls, SD. While working at the church, Pastor Steve started studies at the North American Baptist Seminary in the area of counseling.

Although many ministries occurred during this time, Pastor Steve left the church a year later and began working at a residential home run by Children’s Home Society of South Dakota. His focus more precise, he transferred his studies to Liberty University and began taking classes through their long-distance education program.

As the years quickly went by, Pastor Steve and Becky’s first child was born, Johanna, and Pastor Steve finished his Master’s Degree in Counseling. He also took on a second part-time job counseling with day students at the Summit Oaks Center, a part of the services run by Lutheran Social Services.

But while there he began to feel the call of God back to the local church.

A couple of years later, Pastor Steve was led to accept a call as Associate Pastor of Discipleship, Evangelism, Assimilation, and Counseling at Bethel Evangelical Free Church, in Fairmont, Minnesota, about two hours away from Sioux Falls. He has been here now, working in this position for the past eleven years and has recently finished his Doctorate in the Integration of Society and Religion. He has also been blessed with another child while here at the church, MacKenzie Faye. His wife Becky serves the church on a volunteer basis through her gift of music and administration.  

Favorite Verses:  

That you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life… (Deut 30:20)  

So be very careful to love the Lord your God (Joshua 23:11)  

But the man who loves God is known by God. (1Cor 8:3)  

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal 5:6)  

But is we have food and clothing we will be content with that. (1Tim 6:8)  

If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown himself. (2 Tim 2:11-13) 

This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)  

Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. (Dan 10:12) 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. (Prov 3:5-6)