Home » Discussion Area » Introductions & General » Historian Needed - Dave Freeman
| Historian Needed - Dave Freeman [message #2377] |
Tue, 15 July 2008 11:43  |
 OnceRemoved
Messages: 5
Registered: July 2008
Location: New Berlin WI |
Junior Member |
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I first listened to a Hobart Freeman tape in a dorm room in Oshkosh, WI. A friend was on the automatic list and she invited a group of us to meet and listen to tapes. She told us about a small store front church, in Milwaukee, where "the word was preached with signs following" by a young man named Dave Freeman. A few weeks later a group of us made the hour-and-a-half drive to Milwaukee. After the message Dave ministered to the assembly and the Holy Spirit moved in a dramatic way, unlike anything I had experienced to that point.
We were hooked. From that point on we scraped together gas money and begain making the weekly pilgramage to Milwaukee. Only a few weeks later, a man I had never met stood up to inform us that Dave would not be coming back, that he had been "Disfellowshipped." That was in either late '76 or early '77.
A local man assumed the role of pastor of the congregation and his teaching mirrored whatever was coming out of Indiana at the time. But the church never seemed to rise to the status of a sister church even though Steve Hill, Bruce Kinsey and Tom Hamilton made regular apperances.
I traveled to Indiana several times but I only saw Hobart Freeman teach once. Faith Assembly was meeting in a tent, at the time.
I dropped out of school and moved to Milwaukee. I met my wife at the Milwaukee church(Charismatic Faith Assembly) and we were a part of that body until 1984. Just before we left, our twins were born. It was a home birth and we knew we were having twins only when the second one was delivered. We took them to church the very next week only to learn that many of the children were "battling the lying sypmtoms of whooping cough." All four of my children became sick and one of the twins became critically ill.
I sought medical attention for my daughter, a fact we kept to ourselves because I didn't feel as though I "missed it" and I was not ready to repent for what I did. Eventually I said as much in a letter to the pastor which also informed him we would not be coming back. The next week he told the congregation to "turn off the tape recorders" and he instructed the congregation to have nothing to do with us until we repented. It was a crushing experience.
I've tried to make sense of those years. Finding the website has stirred up all kinds of memories.
Can anyone give me the background on why Dave Freeman was disfellowshipped? What became of him?
Thanks,
OnceRemoved
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| Re: Historian Needed - Dave Freeman [message #2381 is a reply to message #2377] |
Tue, 15 July 2008 22:30  |
james
Messages: 2138
Registered: April 2008
Location: Birmingham, AL |
Senior Member |
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Hombre,
Dave Freeman was married to the third daughter of Hobart and June Freeman, I think her name was Becky. It was Pam/Steve, Kathy/Bruce, and Becky/Dave.I know at one time he was highly endorsed by Hobart, and like William said was a very good teacher/speaker. Don't know what caused the disfellowship. He's in some family pictures in one of the books, I just don't recall which one. I didn't get to hear him in person, but heard a couple of messages he preached on cassette.
I'm thinking Duncan might know more details, beings how he was about knee high to a grasshopper back then...  Nah, but his dad or mom would know, maybe he'll update us when he gets a break from the 'cemetery'...Opps, I mean, seminary. U know I'm kidding, Chris... 
Welcome John, sorry you and your family had to go through that. I hope you've healed and been able to forgive them. Sad to say, it happened to others in the different bodies as well.
[Updated on: Tue, 15 July 2008 22:44]
“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,”
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| Re: Historian Needed - Dave Freeman [message #2415 is a reply to message #2411] |
Fri, 18 July 2008 04:28 |
Mark L
Messages: 853
Registered: October 2006
Location: Canada |
Senior Member |
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The only thing I remember was he didn't see anything wrong with JDS. He didn't believe it but thought it was alright for others to believe. I think he had a major falling out with HEF over that. I remember HEF saying there was JDSer in the family. If I remember correctly he started a meeting in Goshen apart from FA. No idea what he is doing now.
You can read
"Meanderings on Scripture by Mark
https://mlederman.substack.com/
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| Re: Historian Needed - Dave Freeman [message #2445 is a reply to message #2415] |
Tue, 22 July 2008 03:33 |
tomax7
Messages: 44
Registered: August 2006
Location: Calgary, AB |
Member |
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Hardbones.
I also seem to recall what you said. He didn't see JDS as a heresy and had meetings in Goshen.
The 'joke' i heard when I was down there was going to Goshen was like going back to Egypt.
**********************************
Remember to Smile! God loves you!
www.tomax7.com
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| Dave Freeman History [message #3420 is a reply to message #2377] |
Sun, 21 September 2008 12:29 |
M Chupp
Messages: 8
Registered: September 2008
Location: Elkhart |
Junior Member |
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Dave Freeman was a very dynamic speaker and became very successful early on in Faith Assembly history. My father built him a recording studio above a garage for him to make tapes, which I believe were for radio programs. The income (donations) that he was receiving became enough that Dave was concerned about taxes, and so he incorporated his ministry. About the same time he did start to associate with other ministries, namely those that were starting to preach the "Jesus died spiritually" error. Dr. Freeman had just preached against incorporating as a lack of faith, and so the stage was set for an ex-communication.
After Dave was axed over these two sticky points, he continued his fellowship in Elkhart (NOT Goshen), a body which until shortly before that time had been meeting in our basement on Tuesday nights. The assembly met downtown Elkhart for a time, and moved around a bit to different venues in Elkhart. Eventually Dave got a job as a pilot for Lester Summeral in South Bend and quit preaching. This move started a downward slide for him as he began drinking.
Dave and Becky split up not long afterwards.
Dave eventually became a commericial pilot, and I believe he is still flying for an airline near Tulsa and is remarried.
I have not talked to any of his five lovely daughters for some time now, but my wife did just assist at the delivery of one of his grandchildren just last year. Becky and the girls are doing well. Becky still lives in Northern Indiana, and the girls are married and living around the country. I cannot comment on Dave's spiritual well-being as I don't remember what the girls said about it.
The Elkhart assembly did well for a number of years without Dave, built their own building just a few miles from my parent's house, but eventually disbanded due to lack of good leadership.
(My first post!)
God Bless,
-Mark
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| Re: Historian Needed - Dave Freeman [message #3570 is a reply to message #2377] |
Wed, 01 October 2008 20:25 |
M Chupp
Messages: 8
Registered: September 2008
Location: Elkhart |
Junior Member |
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As his neighbor, I think I can answer this and provide the "proof". Beating his wife was NOT the reason he was disfellowshipped. It was the JDS/incorporation issue as I stated earlier.
However, he did hit her. I have very vivid memories of this, because my parents were the ones who went to the house to intervene. I will decline to share any specific details on a public forum as a courtesy to his daughters.
So yes, he did in fact beat his wife, and I seem to recall that it was usually after he had been drinking. But this was not the reason for disfellowship, as he was not any longer at FA.
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| Re: Historian Needed - Dave Freeman [message #5628 is a reply to message #2377] |
Tue, 24 March 2009 03:44 |
djerving
Messages: 7
Registered: March 2009
Location: Milwaukee, WI |
Junior Member |
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Hello Bro.
Dave Freeman was ministering in the home of an elderly woman whose name I do not recall anymore here in Milwaukee. I attended a few of those house meetings, and shortly there after the group became Charismatic Faith Assembly, meeting above Hoffer's (a pet store on North Ave. specializing in exotic fish.) That was where I became a regular attendee. We met on Friday nights, when Dave, the son-in-law of Dr. Freeman ministered, and Sunday mornings, when Gary Eide, Gary Woodal, and some other brothers ministered. Gary Eide eventually became the pastor of CFA. The other bros who taught eventually went their separate ways.
Gary Eide followed Dr. Freeman very closely though he was not an eloquent gifted teacher from my view. But he was very dedicated and sacrificed a lot for what he did. Nevertheless there were many problems that arose later in our group, some of which I can only attribute to his own doing.
Dave Freeman was married to Becky Freeman. He had come to Faith Assy via the larger faith movement at that time which included Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. Dave was very close to Copeland for a while from what I remember, even flying him here and there for meetings in those early days. I don't believe he gravitated towards the JDS error. He just did not interpret their teachings as having the baneful affect that Dr. Freeman attributed to them. As a result of his refusal to judge their message in the same way that Freeman did, he became guilty by association.
My own approach to David Freeman?
Dave was a good man with a positive faith-building message, even though some of what he taught was a bit hard to understand for me at the time. I was only 19 to 20 yrs old, new in the faith message, and he only taught 2 to 3 times a month at CFA. But I still think of him as one of my "fathers in the faith".
His music still inspires me. Some of the songs he sang come to my mind yet today and minister life.
He stayed frequently with the family of the brother who is now my pastor in this area, Timothy Winter. None of us are any longer associated with FA, CFA, or any other groups originating there, but we all have fond memories of those early times.
Tim Winter was actually Dave's chauffer to the various meetings in and around the midwest area. The whole Winter family have been some of my deepest and best relations in Christ over these many years (I am now 51 yrs old).
All the family difficulties alluded to in the other forum writers re. Dave Freeman I know nothing about. I do remember that Gary Eide had the tapes shut off and then announced Dave's disassociation with our group. I did not understand why at the time, but because of submission to the ordained leadership, I accepted this as the best. I am sure now that there were other factors, and that I may have been wrong.
In regards to the Oshkosh group, I knew, and still do know many of you. Mike Schneider and his wife Cheryl, The Randy and Barb Oskey family, Dave and Wanda Krjerick, Dave and Nancy , Andy and Jean Shanholz (now pastoring in Sheboygan) and many others. Dave Woodall used to go up there regularly to teach in Oshkosh.
Dave Freeman's message was one from a simpler time in the Faith groups, when there was far more openess to what God was doing in the larger charismatic renewal/revival. He never succumbed to the inward-looking tendencies of many associated with Bro Freeman's later years. I don't think he felt it was appropriate to cut oneself off from what God may be doing elsewhere. He believed that other associations were a way of preventing the tendencies of so many groups to dissolve into splinters that had no allegiance to the body of Christ as a whole. (Read that however you want to. I understand the teaching of Dr. Freeman regarding the local church as a local, visible autonomous entity, though I don't think it presents the NT Church as accurately as it should.)
I am always glad to hear of another brother or sister from those early days and see what God is doing in their lives. Thanks for the opportunity to respond.
In Christ,
Doug Jerving
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