Part nine of a series of articles.
(Some statements in this article are what have been alleged by a survivor. There have been no convictions as the case mentioned here was not reported to the police and to my knowledge, the alleged perpetrator has not admitted guilt.)
This article covers information about Steven Dahl and his alleged molestation of at least two children in the 1980s as well as allegations of failure to report instances of child sexual abuse by pastor John W. Grant, of Calvary Gospel United Pentecostal Church in Madison, Wisconsin. You will need to read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 for additional details.
For the purpose of ministerial membership in the United Pentecostal Church International or for ministering in a United Pentecostal Church International church, immoral conduct shall be defined as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, incest, and/or any other sexual acts determined by the District Board to be perverted or immoral (Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9; I Corinthians 6:9; Romans 1:24-28). – UPCI Manual
In my previous article, I asked four questions that cannot be ignored, tip-toed around or rationalized away and which need to be addressed by the Wisconsin District of the UPCI. I also shared that, “for years United Pentecostal ministers and pastors have been speaking for Steven Dahl at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church in Oconto.” Before giving the names of various UPCI ministers who have spoken there, let’s take a closer look at Steven J. Dahl. Some has been shared in earlier articles.
Steven Dahl was born February 10, 1952 and grew up in Cambridge, WI. His grandparents came to America from Norway. His mother was Catholic and his father was Lutheran, which is how he was raised and baptized as a baby. He worked at a Pontiac garage in his teens, followed later by Ford and Chevy garages. He also worked for many years as a marketing representative selling church directories for Olan Mills and then as a consultant for Lifetouch Church Directories (they purchased Mills). When he was just 14, his father died at age 51 in 1967, with his mom being 81 at her death in the late 1990s.
Prior to his involvement with the United Pentecostal Church, he “was married, divorced, and went bankrupt by age 22.” Claiming an angel appeared to him the night before, on a Friday night in mid March 1981 at 11:30 pm he spoke in tongues for 45 minutes at his home in Madison, in front of two friends. On March 17th he was baptized at Calvary Gospel Church in Madison, Wisconsin. John W. Grant was the pastor, an ordained minister of the United Pentecostal Church. Steve claims to have been delivered of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs when he spoke in tongues on March 14.
He soon married Debra, seven years younger than him, in July 1981. The same year, or possibly in the spring of 1982, Debbie alleges that Steven Dahl started repeatedly sexually molesting her when she was eleven years old. Debbie reported this to pastor John W. Grant when she was 12, either in 1982 or 1983. Around the same time, Steve was caught in bed with Alice, his wife’s 15 year old sister. It appears that Grant may have sent Steve out of state for an unknown period of time, though in 1984 he was living in Appleton. None of this was reported to the police.
On March 26, 1985 Debra filed for divorce and on April 17, 1986, at age 34, Steve and Alice Marie eloped in Las Vegas, Nevada, just a few months after Alice turned 18. Steve and Alice have remained married and have four grown children. As a child, Debbie and Alice had been friends and pen pals, but this started changing when Alice moved in with Steve and his ex-wife back in the early 80s.
According to Dahl, these “mistakes” cost him his chance at being licensed in the UPCI. In December 2013 [screenshot] he wrote, “But that did not stop the call of God in my life from being fulfilled. I have had a lot of men disappoint me, and try to stop me from being a preacher, but God kept setting me up to minister.” Prior to him attending the Neenah church, he preached in nursing homes and while at the Neenah church he preached in three different prisons (being told not to return to two) for six years. He was asked to preach at a Methodist camp where he was almost thrown out when they realized he was Oneness Pentecostal. By 1986 or 1987 he started attending Christian Life Center in Neenah, a UPCI church. He occasionally preached there “when no one else was available.”
While a member of the Neenah church, for four years starting in April 1995 [screenshot], Dahl would make the 70 mile drive to Oconto, a city he hated and claims has a “bad spirit over it.” Starting in February 1998, meetings were being held rent free in the former VFW Hall at 821 Superior Ave in Oconto, Wisconsin. Around 1999, he purchased a home about four miles from the church. At some point the church had a split. In the time from 1995 to 2013, Steve claims to have baptized over 60 people, using a cow tank in the beginning. On June 6, 2014, the company that owned the building gave it to the church, after first putting on a new roof and adding a steeple and a cross. It is not a 501(c)(3) church.
The Pentecostal Lighthouse Church was a daughter work of Christian Life Center (now CrossPoint Church & then later Hope City Church), when John J. Bridges was pastor. Though unsure if it was such from its inception, we know that Bridges was supportive of it and advised Dahl. It was also listed in at least three years of directories that the Wisconsin District issued from 2006-2008, naming Steven Dahl as the pastor, even though Dahl did not hold license, was never eligible to hold license, and according to UPCI rules, should not have been ministering in their churches. (Screenshots of these are found in Part 1.)
In December 2013 Dahl shared that he was glad the church had become independent, that he had changed a lot of the ways he used to believe and did not wish to place “grievous burdens” on people. It appears it may have been over the UPCI standards teachings. As far back as November 4, 2012, Dahl stated that the church was not UPCI. It ceased to be listed as the daughter work of Christian Life Center in 2014 and probably prior. (I have not seen the issues from 2009-2013.)
[Video: Rachael Denhollander describing credible allegations of sexual abuse coverup in the network of Sovereign Grace Churches, and in the Evangelical community at large.]
Besides it being incredulous that John J. Bridges and the Wisconsin District allowed Steven J. Dahl to pastor a daughter work of the Neenah church, numerous United Pentecostal Church ministers and pastors have spoken at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church. Even more socialize with him on Facebook and in person. UPC minister Mark Willhoite, who Dahl considers a mentor, believes that Dahl is a good man and preaches as well as Lee Stoneking, because he considers him anointed.
Below are the names of fourteen known ministers who have spoken for Dahl, as well as two who have allowed him to speak at their UPCI church. How could so many either have not known of his past or ignored it? When an ex-UPCI minister in Michigan can be shunned and spoken vehemently against by his former pastor, because he left and no longer believed all the standards, how can so many ministers embrace someone who has committed adultery more than once and is an alleged pedophile?
This is little Debbie, at the age in which she alleges that Steven J. Dahl started repeatedly molesting her. How do you think this appears to her when she sees how these men have welcomed Dahl with open arms, when she was treated by some at Calvary Gospel Church as if she had done something wrong? This is not a “mistake” and it is not just a matter of “adultery.” It is not normal for someone unhappy in their marriage to turn to young children and sexually molest them.
Besides having spoken at the Neenah church, Dahl has preached at the Pentecostal Apostolic Church of Peshtigo where Dale Welch was pastor (January 2012 screenshot) and at Apostolic Worship Center in Antigo/Bryant/Elton, where Ward Rehbein (another mentor to Dahl) is pastor (March 2011). (Welch passed away on July 20, 2019.)
The following ministers are those known to have spoken at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church. It should be evident that the inclusion of these names is by no means an indication that they were aware of the accusations against Dahl at the time. Mark Crowley (July 2010; March 2011; December 2014), Lee Endris (October 2017), George Hurt (January 2011), Mark Harris (May 2012; April 2014; December 2014; January 2017, May 2018), Joe Martinez (July 2010), Jimmy Ogle (December 2009), Phil Bridges (October 2010), Felix Crowder (January 2011; January 2013), Michael Papp (May 2014), Ward Rehbein (July 2012; October 2013, April 2019), Mark Showalter (March 2013), Dale Welch (December 2010), Ellery Campsall (August & September 2014, December 2018), Timothy Duffy (May 2018), and Robert Childress (May 2011; December 2016, January 2017). (Campsall was not UPC licensed at the time of this post, but was campus pastor at Life Point Church in Hortonville, an extension of Apostolic Truth Church in Appleton, an affiliated UPCI church. He did later become licensed and now is pastor of the Wauwatosa Tabernacle of Praise.)
As Christians who preach the inherent worth of people made in God’s image, we must take credible claims of abuse and mishandling seriously and require an independent investigation of the organization before supporting. If these claims are true and we have supported something that damages God’s children so much, that is grievous beyond what I can express, and we are responsible for that support and the damage that ensues thereafter, both to the victims we harm by failing to hear their cries, and to the victims that follow.
And if these claims are proven false, will we not all rejoice that God’s truth came out through humility and accountability, exactly as we teach it will?
And if you were leading an organization with such widespread claims of mishandling sexual and domestic violence, would not your love for God, and those under your care, motivate you to seek the truth yourself, to find out if errors have been made? Would not LOVE require this? – Rachael Denhollander
There are voices crying out, saying there is something very wrong here.
Known as ‘The Rev,’ Steve Dahl runs The Rev Oconto Car Club Facebook Group (started September 28, 2021). He organizes Car N Tunes events in Wisconsin and at the annual Oconto Fly-In Car & Tractor Show (he also runs or helps run that Facebook Page, which started February 16, 2018), where he has served as emcee and DJ at the event for thirteen years. The next Fly-In date is September 21, 2024.
March 10, 2024 Note: Screenshots and some pictures have been added to this post, links have been checked, and some revisions were made.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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