Five Years of Waiting, Then Three Children in 48 Hours with Steve Wormer

After repeated miscarriages and five exhausting years of adoption, Steve Wormer and his wife faced another crushing blow when their adoption agency suddenly closed the door. Then, within about 48 hours, everything changed—they were given three children. Steve shares the heartbreak, waiting, surrender, and unexpected redemption that shaped his faith, along with the real journey of helping adopted children heal from trauma and learn safety and trust. Through it all, we explore wilderness seasons, holding onto God’s promises before seeing the plan, and breaking agreement with the lie that you are unworthy.

Steve's contact info:

Email - booknow@stevewormer.com

Website - https://www.stevewormer.com

You Are Worthy Network - https://www.youareworthynetwork.com

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youareworthynetwork

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-wormer-bb54b813/

▶️ YouTube (Steve Wormer): https://www.youtube.com/@stevewormer5957

▶️ YouTube (You Are Worthy Network): https://www.youtube.com/@YouAreWorthyNetwork

🌟Featured Hope Unlocked Partner: Reliht

Welcome to Reliht, the brand new and easy-to-use, online no-chat tool you didn’t know you needed, but will love.

Designed as an alternative to social media, Reliht gives you quiet space to reflect, journal, grow with God, capture and share what He’s speaking—without the distractions of endless scrolling and chat.  Sit with God, listen, reflect, journal, receive, and share.

✨ As a special launch welcome, sign up FREE through September 1, 2026.

Learn more at reliht.com 

🎙️Hope Unlocked Listener Exclusive! Feeling stirred but not sure what to do next? Book a 45-minute Holy Spirit-led 1:1 coaching session w/ Hope Unlocked host Kristin Kurtz, founder of New Wings Coaching. This powerful conversation will help you move from stirred to activated—with peace, clarity, & a Spirit-led next step. Book your call HERE now–special pricing to listeners!

Transcript

Sponsor Relay And Creator Tool

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Before we jump into today's episode, I wanted to tell you about Relay. Relay is a brand new web and mobile app, one without distractions of social scrolling and chat. If you're a content creator, coach, mentor, writer, author, teacher, or leader, relay gives you a dedicated space to capture what God is speaking, organize your content, and share it with those you lead. Ready to create and share God notes with your followers? As a special lunch welcome, sign up is free through September 1st, 2026. Visit Relight.com to get started today. That's spelled R-E-L-I-H-T no G.

Steve Warmer’s Family And Backstory

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Welcome to the Hope Unlucked Podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Steve Warmer to the show. Very excited to have him here today. I know that this is going to be good because we are on round two to get this going. So before we get into your story and what you're up to these days, would you just be open to sharing a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Listen, thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here today. Yep, I have been married for 30 years in a couple of weeks, and I have three children, which, if we have time, which hopefully we will, pretty amazing God story about how we started our family. I've been a pastor for 15 years. We live in Memphis, Tennessee presently. Love the deep south, but have lived in the Midwest also. Let's see, what else? Love the outdoors, love to swim, love to go to the gym, love the ocean, love the mountains, love our dogs. That's probably a good start.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

I love that. Well, we definitely have time to hear your stories about your kids. Do you want to go there first?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

You want to go there first?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I think we should, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Okay. I'm so I'm trying to think if I want to go cliff notes or or somewhere in between that and a long version, but I'll I'll see. We'll do a hybrid.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Yeah.

Miscarriage Loss And Adoption Waiting

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Like a lot of folks, my wife and I experienced several miscarriages fairly early on in our marriage. I think we ended up having five in the first six years of our marriage. And the truth is, I wasn't mature enough to process that in a healthy way, let alone try to help her process that.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And we got into some marital trouble, not because of that, but a couple of years later, we got into some some deep marital issues. Praise God that uh what I what I tell people all the time about that is he not only saved our marriage, but he saved our souls in the process because we weren't Christians at that time. Okay, well, and this is like 04. And shortly after becoming Christians in 04, we started praying about adoption.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

And you know, eventually, like 06, we went through, we found an agency, we went through all their training. You go through foster training classes because that's a requirement. You know, home studies, photo shoots, bios. I mean, all this stuff that I'm describing really quick. It takes a lot of time, actually.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

And we were picked very early on from a mother that was seven months pregnant, and she loved us, we loved her family. My wife went to all her remaining uh medical appointments, and she eventually, on the third day in the hospital, changed her mind and decided to keep her baby girl. Crazy as that is, best day of our lives spiritually. We were that surrendered going into that situation.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

But we'll move past that for time's sake for now. We went on to have six adoptions that did not work out. And going into year five, our adoption agency called me at work one day and said, basically, we're gonna close your case, we're gonna move on. The adoption agency fired us. Tell me. I'm like, what's this all about? Never got a never got a reason why. We've we've got our suspicions on what our age was at that time, may have played a factor, but they can't tell you that, of course. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

I think I was 42 at the time.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Oh, wow. Okay. I remember calling my wife from work and saying, I'm exhausted from this. And we're we're in year five, and it's it's worse than starting over because now we're we're invested and we're exhausted, and we don't have an adoption agency, we don't have any leads.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

And 48 hours later, God gave us another lead. Now, did that situation work out? No, but he did this the whole five years when one would not work out, he would present another opportunity like within days.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

So it just kept you going, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Sustaining us. Yep, that's exactly right. And we were praying for one child, yeah. And I've given you, you know, a couple of minutes worth of roller coaster type ride here. God gave us three at one time.

Three Kids In Forty Eight Hours

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Three at one time. God gave us three children at one time. Now, that there were there was some context to that, obviously. The the there was the older two are a full sibling brother and sister that were being they were in foster care, and a couple in our church was providing that foster care for them. And then they were four and two, two and a half, and the youngest was from a whole different situation in the church. He was one month old, but they came to us within 48 hours. I mean, same time basically. And our world was turned upside down for the better, needless to say.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Okay, I have so many questions. Sure. Okay. So at this time you're pastoring?

SPEAKER_00 6:33

No.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Not yet.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

There's more that that that's later.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Okay. Okay. Were you like were you prepared for? I mean, you were prepared for this, but how were you prepared for this? How did how did this work out? Like you said yes. We were talking a little bit about this before we got started, and you know, when we say yes to something like, how were you prepared for this? Yes. What did that look like for your yes?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Well, I mean, there's a yes and no to that, right? I mean, is is anybody ever prepared fully to be a parent, right? You you learn as you go. So I'm a I'm assuming your question is, were you ready for three?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Multi-faceted, right? Like, give us the real deal here.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

But here's but here's here's the truth of that. We would look at each other, and and and there's more to the story than we have time for the whole thing, but the older two, we were providing some respite care for the foster family. So they they were coming to us on the weekends, we were developing a rapport with them. We knew the situation with with the biological parents, we knew it was iffy, and sometimes things would start to show that that that was a possibility. And we'd look at each other and it's like, is God trying to do these two right here? And then the what I haven't said yet is the youngest that came to us when he was a month old, he was the son of friends of ours in the church whose 19-year-old was pregnant, and we had had dinner with her, and she had already told us, I'm gonna probably try to mother him, but I'm really torn. I don't know if I can do it. If I don't do it, I promise you, you guys are gonna be the parents. So, so it was kind of it was but okay, all of this is volatile, right? Right, and so as things started to progress with each situation, we would catch ourselves eating dinner, like, is it gonna be these two? We'd look and like, well, it doesn't look like those two are happening right now. I mean, it was up and down constantly, and we'd be like, Is it the young one? An unborn one, right? And then I remember one specific time based on new developments. I looked at my wife and I said, You don't think God's trying to do all three, do you? And we were like, We better pray, we better get surrendered, maybe. And that's eventually what he did.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Oh my gosh. Okay, so you're you're bringing them all home at one time. What did that look like? Give us like the first month. Like, how did you oh my gosh?

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Well, I remember I remember our youngest Michael, one month old. He he came into our house first, and he he was a he was a newborn. And I remember we took him in his stroller to Tennessee Child Services office, where they were having a meeting with us for about two hours and showing us the binders that they had on the other two children. And it's basically everything they know, everything you need to know, and basically, do you choose to accept this mission? Wow. It goes back to what we talked about. Are you gonna say yes? And we we said yes. I mean, we've been praying about this for years, so it's kind of a no-brainer in a whatever.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah, as much as you can. In some ways, yeah. And and and then those two, I think, gosh, it's been a while, but I think they came into our house. I think they came into our house the next day or within 48 hours of that meeting.

unknown 10:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah, it was crazy time.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Wow. So, you know, those first few years, like tell us some, I don't know, testimonies, because I I can only imagine like coming out of the the foster care system. Like, did they have any, you know, like I've heard of people having like some attachment, you know, detachments, you know, any struggles that you guys faced as new parents and and trying to parent these children?

Foster Care Trauma And Attachment

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Well, the short answer is absolutely. You know, I've I've the youngest, no, obviously, because he's the newborn and he's gonna attach to us right away.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

The other two were four and two and a half, and you know, without going into a ton of detail, I can tell you that my daughter, who's the oldest, saw things that were horrific.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Um, likely things done to her that are more horrific, and it's it's affected her for life. And I, you know, uh there's some current events that I don't want to go into too much, but it's it's impacted her for life. Yeah, and and it's funny how that works without, you know, without us getting too far down the road of the rewiring of the brain and that whole conversation. My son, that's two and a half, he attached to us pretty quickly. I mean, there there was a little adjustment there for him, but it's like that, and I'm not smart enough, you know, maybe one of your listeners knows more about this, but like he attached at two and a half.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

She was four by the time the adoption was was final, and it's like that year and a half made all the difference in terms of attachment or non-attachment, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

But yeah, I mean, there there was some typical things like hoarding food. There was there was some night terrors in the middle of the night. There was there was some social awkwardness in and social behavior early on that that had to be addressed consistently. So, yeah, some of the so I don't know exactly what you've heard, but a lot of it's probably true.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah. Well, what would you say to, you know, we have I'm I don't know how many children are in the foster, you know, care system right now, but I'm sure that there's you know, maybe some potential parents who might be listening into this today that have thought about it. Um, what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Oh, there's so many places I could go with that. Well, first of all, I used to notice that. I don't know, I'm sure it's changed, but a few years ago, there was 153 million orphans in the world. And if you took the 153 million at this time, maybe five, six years ago, and you made them their own country, they would be the ninth largest country in the world. That's staggering. I think you're probably asking more specifically about foster children in the in the states, though. We sometimes say that we're probably not the greatest couple to ask if you're looking for a couple that's well. I mean, look at our journeys like, do you really want to go through all of that?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Well, you got you've gone through it though, and sometimes it takes somebody going ahead and somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Not everybody wants to do that though, but but I know but there's a place I'm trying to get with this. It has been the experience of a lifetime, it has stretched our faith like nothing else, our intimacy with God, our surrender to God, um, our trust in God. Talk about testing the patience, it's done that for sure. Yeah, but God is faithful, and God is an immeasurably more God, and our story, his story through us is one of many examples. Praying for one, he gave us three. And if if if adoption is on your heart, be wise, be discerning, do what's right for your family. Do not try to do it without God, and and wait in great expectation of what he's gonna do. It is you didn't ask me this, Kristen, but it is more than worth it. Those those those children are not my blood, they are our heart. And you can't tell me they're not my kids, they're God's kids first. Yeah, just just like biological parents, if you think about it, no, they're God's children first and our children second to take care of.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

So good. You have you have so much wisdom there to share with people. What like as you journey and like because how old are they now?

SPEAKER_00 16:01

1917 and 15.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Wow. So if they were to come on here and just say, like, what would they love? What would have what have they loved most about being your kids?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Well, the 19-year-old wouldn't say that.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Not not right, maybe not today. But that's not necessary. Yeah. What what would they say specifically what what would they say about like what have they loved most about being your kids?

SPEAKER_00 16:37

I I I think I think the boys would definitely say because I've seen this on cards recently, that they couldn't have asked for better mom and dad. Now I'm not I trust me, I'm not all that a bag of chips. My wife, maybe she's a saint. Trust me, I've made so many mistakes, but I'm answering your question what they've been saying.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

I think I think they're extremely grateful. They know they're love, they know they're taken care of. And and quite frankly, they've seen us go through it. The it's not like the wilderness stopped just when we got them. They've seen us go through a lot, and we are in the ministry now, and they've seen that take a toll on us, also. So they they they they see that life, yeah, and yet they still are grateful, resilient, and appreciative of us. And I see God in that too.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

That's so good.

Wilderness Seasons And Promises First

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Well, you mentioned a word that the wilderness. Tell us, tell us about that. So tell us a little bit about whatever you're led to share as far as the wilderness goes. I know there's a lot of people that that really feel like they're in a wilderness season and it's kind of been a prolonged wilderness season in relation to people I've talked to recently. Would you be open to sharing, you know, maybe what that word means to you and the experience that you've had in walking it out?

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah, how much how much time you got? I can tell you all about the wilderness.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

I know, I know. And we could we could talk forever. I know. I could share with you too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah. The wilderness. I I think I have a frequent flyer program to the wilderness. The wilderness from my perspective is where God takes you to prune you, to mature you. And it feels like, when you're in it, especially in the middle of it, it feels like it's crushing, it feels like it's hard to breathe, it feels confined, it feels hopeless. But notice the word I used. It feels emotional. And then I read 2 Corinthians 4 8. I'm not crushed, I'm not abandoned. So the facts are scripture says I'm not those things. So scripture helps me get out, or or well, it helps me get out, but it helps me grow while I'm in it. Obviously, we're praying, right? God help me with this, help me to be faithful for whatever this wilderness is, whatever I'm supposed to learn. It helps me, and we learned this during the adoption process, to praise him in advance. And I can even give you an example of that if we have time.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

So it was it was right around that time. I'm taking you back to the adoption journey for just a minute, when we were going into year five and our adoption agency had parted ways with us. And after I got past the initial sting of it, yeah, and then God brought another situation to us that didn't work out, but he he kept sustaining this. I said to my wife, this is gonna happen. And I said it with more confidence. I said, This is gonna happen. Now now I'm convinced it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Now I didn't know it was gonna be three.

SPEAKER_04 20:47

Um or how many?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Yeah, yeah. But I started looking at Joshua three a little closer. And the whole story's great, right? About God parting the second generation, he parted, you know, for the Israelites, he parts the Jordan River. Now there's obedience needed in that. He says to Joshua, have the priests step foot in the water first. And once they did, he did God always does the heavy lifting, he parted the waters, right? And then we move forward, there's the stones of remembrance for the for the different tribe leaders, and then we eventually get to chapter six, and we've got the walls of Jericho, the double fortified walls, the guards on top, uh, they're armed to the hilt, all their artilleries up there. And God says to Joshua, now keep in mind he's coming off this major victory, and they've got the stones of remembrance in their pocket, so to speak, as a reminder. And it's just like us, right? They got through one challenge, and here's another one. And God says to Joshua in verse 2, see, I've already delivered the walls of Jericho into your hands. I don't know about you, Kristen, but like it doesn't tell us how Joshua felt about that, but he's human. I mean, I would imagine, at least internally, he's like, No, I don't see how you've delivered me. There's still double fortified walls, there's still guards up there with artillery, nothing's changed. Yeah, but here's the point it wasn't until a verse later in verse three that God gave him this the crazy, what we think was crazy, instructions that he wanted Joshua to obey, yeah, that God would deliver him. What's the point in all that? The promise comes before the instructions sometimes. And I've learned to hold on to that in other wilderness seasons. And now I have evidence because I've lived it, that he will bring us out eventually when he's ready.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Yeah. And I mean, just even, you know, from the wilderness to the promised land, right? And it's interesting, you know, Joshua and Caleb, I love them. They're like not part of the 10 spies network. They're like, you guys just talk amongst yourself. But you know, you come into the promised land and there's still giants, right? There's we're we're gonna face giants in the promised land as well. So I love I love that visual of, you know, I I haven't thought of it that way before. Of yep, hey, take a look. There's the wall, like you're here. Do you see what I see? Not really. Like I haven't thought about it that deeply before. So when you are coming up against a wall, like let's just say you're walking through something even right now, for example. What is your first, you know, like what's your first reaction? You're like God saying, Oh yeah, you know, wall's down. You're like, there's a wall here. So what is your first line of defense or offense or however you'd want to put it? Like really standing on that promise, what what do you do? Because I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm like, what? Like, what, Dad? Like, really? How do you how do you have like that? How's your moment go? That first moment.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

I try not to overreact. Whatever it is, right? It's gonna feel like to us, there's that emotional part again. It's gonna feel like a punch to the gut. Yeah, okay, that hurt. Okay, that let's be honest. That stinks. Yeah, that's that's my first, that's that's your short answer. That stinks, yeah. But then I try to fairly quickly, and that's objective, what fairly quickly is. I try to fairly quickly not stay there. Okay, how can I pivot from the stinks to God will work this out for my good. How can I choose gratitude even in this stinky situation? It's not easy, and it doesn't happen. I I I don't know the person that does it instantaneously. But as we grow, I think we can make that choice hopefully a little more consistently and a little quicker than we used to.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Yeah, that I think that's a key too. Like, and there's I I just feel like somebody might I've talked to people lately and they they've you know they're they feel shame for you know being upset that this happened and I had a reaction to this, and I should not be feeling this way. What would you say to that person? Like they're having this emotion and they feel like I shouldn't be feeling this way. I'm I'm a believer, I I should just be fine with everything that comes my way. Do you feel like that's a lie that a lot of people grapple with?

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah, because it's shame involved, and and that's where the enemy wants us. My my input to that person would be go get it out. Go go get it out. Go on a walk and scream, go grab a pillow and scream into it, go wrestle with God about it, let him have it. He's big, he can handle it. Yeah, he he knows. Yeah, don't don't stuff it, don't try to be super Christian, right? Process it, go through it, go through it, and you'll you'll you'll come out okay. He he's got you.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Yes, that's okay. Okay, well, I want to speed ahead to where you're you you're a pastor. How did you come into being a pastor?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Well, you can't speed ahead too far on that because the crazy thing about that is go back go back to the kids. Okay, keep in mind we're in a congregate, a local congregation where our 400 plus brothers and sisters have been praying about this with us for five years. Okay, and we walk in that Sunday morning, and there's jaws dropped, there's tears being shed.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

And service is over that particular Sunday, first Sunday with the kids.

SPEAKER_04 28:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

They're not even legally ours yet. You got to wait six months before you can legally adopt them.

SPEAKER_04 28:34

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

And that that's

Pastoring Through Transition And Critique

SPEAKER_01 28:36

that's I don't know if that's a law everywhere. It probably is, but I know it is in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

And we get approached, I get approached specifically by one of our elders saying, I know you've been praying about the ministry, also, which I haven't told you. He says, We have an opportunity for you. We'd like you to pray about it and get back to us on. And that was the beginning of us going into the ministry, and that was 15 years ago, the same week the kids came into our house. We were then shopping my pickup truck for a trade-in for a minivan. I kid you not. So I know you wanted to speed ahead, but that that that had to so it's all yeah, I'm thinking I'm thinking there was some time like nope. Wow. So well, well, yes and no. The it the the opportunity he presented to us, it wasn't a paid opportunity, it was a chance to serve our sister church that was about an hour and change away from where we lived, but it was a chance for me to preach every week, to fellowship with them, kind of be their point of contact in emergency situations. So it got me experience preaching and shepherding from afar, and then that eventually parlayed itself into full-time ministry a couple of years later.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Okay. Now, had you ever thought that you would be a pastor even growing up? Or I mean it sounds like you became a Christian at what age?

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, uh first answer is no. I was I was total pagan. My joke about that was I was a pedestrian, if you know that denomination. Pedestrian, you know, walker. You just walk, you know, pedestrian. Yeah, that's my joke.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

That's great. I'm gonna say, total pagan.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Just knew a couple of big stories in the Bible, and yeah, I became a Christian late. It was a month before my 35th birthday.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Okay. Wow. I love this. All right. So you're you you're pastoring, you're shepherding from afar, you've got kids, a lot of transition happening all at one time, and you're still pastoring. And do you have your own church now?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Yeah, I've had yeah, we've been doing it for 15 years total in the in the church where we're at now in Memphis. Uh, we've been here. Gosh, that's hard to believe. We just yeah, just crossed over six years this month.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Wow. What what do you love most about it? You and you came into it in 2020.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Here in Memphis, 2020, yeah. Uh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

You were you were born for adventure.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Yeah, there's there's a couple of phrases I can use. I I I love serving people. I love I love helping people. I love I love communicating the gospel with people. It's it's wonderful to have a front row ticket to the scriptures changing a life, whether that be somebody coming to the Lord for the first time, or quite frankly, somebody that's gotten off the path a little bit and scriptures reconvict them and they get back on their journey. That's that's that's the fun part. That's because we know God's doing the heavy lifting, and I'm just a vessel. I'm just I have a front row seat to what he's doing.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

That's amazing. And how about your wife as a pastor's wife? How is that?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Well, she she for all these years was even on staff with me until last year. From a pastor's wife perspective, it's it's it can it can be a challenge. It can it can be a challenge because people in general tend to put leaders on pedestals, even though we ask them not to or don't want to be, because it's easy to you're an easy target once you're up in the air on a pedestal like that. Yeah, so she's she's seen that happen, sometimes warranted, sometimes unwarranted. And that's hard to watch your husband go through. Uh and then and then there's kind of those subtle, unexpressed expectations of her, too, which is not always easy to meet a moving target. So um, but she's supportive and we're a team, and I I wouldn't try to do it without her, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Yeah. So what do you like? What do you love most about being a pastor?

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Uh I think it was I think it was that answer of seeing seeing seeing lives change, seeing the scriptures change people's lives, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Yeah. What would be like a really cool testimonial of somebody who came into your church that was transformed through it's it's back a few years.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

It's it's a young man who broken home trying to think how much detail I want to give. He um broken home, poverty, anger, anger at a specific member of his family that physically abused him. I've seen his back before, and it's hard to even see it because of the belt lashes. And watching scriptures move his heart to seeing that even though his earthly father left a lot to be desired, to say the least, that he embraced our heavenly father, understanding that he would never treat him like that.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

And so he he was a remarkable story.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Wow. Well, thank you for for doing what you do. I can't I as as somebody who has never been a pastor, I can imagine I I I see you as somebody who has just a huge heart, and I can imagine like the shepherding and the you know, the feelings, the everything that comes along with you know, wanting to help people, right? And I think it's just incredible. So I know that beyond being a pastor, you're up to some really cool things as well. Do you want to share kind of the journey into the more that God's called you into as well?

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Yeah. Well, I I think you know, a couple of years ago, I started doing some deep mindset work. And you would think a pastor would understand that mindset work and faith go hand in hand, not these separate entities, the way I apparently viewed them for a number of years. Hello, Romans 12, 1 and 2, right there in my face. But anyway, yeah, as I started to do deeper mindset work, this word unworthy kept popping up. And I knew it wasn't true, I knew it was the enemy's lie, I knew the origin of it

Mindset Work And You Are Worthy

SPEAKER_00 35:47

back back a long, long time ago in my family history. The problem was I knew it here, but not here. And as I started to have some consistent victories in the mindset area, yeah, I developed the you are worthy network that you see on my screen there. And it's a private Facebook group, and it was a rebuttal to my own mindset. And it's it's basically the premise of Am I am I worthy? No, not I'm not anything special until Jesus died on the cross. The blood made us worthy. And I tell people all the time their story's not done yet. So I created this podcast, so to speak, that God has blessed back to Ephesians 3.20, more than I could ask or imagine. And I interview different folks, a lot of entrepreneurs, but some people with just amazing stories on what they've overcome and times where they you know didn't feel worthy. And it's really been blessed, and that's given me some open doors to speak quite a bit virtually. I'm looking to speak more in person on stages. I've got some coaching programs. I'm getting ready to roll out my first collaboration here. Matter of fact, I should have a flyer for that later today. So a lot of exciting things and events that I'm being invited to. And it's just, you know, it's it's keep doing what you're called to do, but God's expanding who He wants me to do it for, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Yeah, that's really good. Because, you know, in internally, like we, you know, as a child, even a 20-year-old, even early 30s, you didn't ever expect yourself to be a pastor. But the the vehicle to doing, you know, shepherding people, working with people, speaking, it it transforms. So now you're doing it in a different way, but you're also pastoring. So it's yeah, I think it's really amazing how you know we can walk into something, but it just it it kind of morphs into something different that you can't like I talk about this a lot, like you can't make this stuff up. You know, like two years you said this was two years ago, you started working on like the mindset work. And how did you how were you led to that? Were you did you start working with somebody? Did you like what was that like moment of like realization, like I need to start working on mindset?

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Well, I think it I think it goes back a tad further than two years. I I wrote my first book four years ago, and then I did an ebook pretty quick after that. So then at the time, my wife and I had a nonprofit that had a little bit of an entrepreneur canvas to it, and we had done a large workshop for a church in Florida, so that's that was all in 2022. So I I had had my feet immersed in the water a little bit, hadn't maybe swam out there real deep yet. Okay, but I I started coming into contact with more and more entrepreneurs, and I had a coach at that time. So there was starting to be quite a few seeds planted. So by the time two, well, two years, yeah, on the mindset, I was ready for the next steps, and I was introduced to a business coach who has a heavy emphasis on mindset and life balance. And it was getting to know her that I realized I had way too many plates spinning, and I had really poor, unhealthy mindset towards finances and towards expansion, and she really helped me with that for quite a while for almost a year. And it was it, I I think for general timing, it was kind of at the end of that time with her that God used, you know, God used me to start this. So there was there was a correlation of time in that for sure.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Okay. What what have you loved most about like the entrepreneur journey? I was talking to somebody this week, and she said, Well, I I'm not a business person, even though she's being led into business. Did you have any like rebuttals with the Lord? Like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not this. Did you have any moments like that?

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Um well, I had a little business background. I I was in corporate back in the late 90s, and this I've been I've been in nonprofits for years and years, but before that, you know, I was I was over PL and sales and all those kind of things. So I did have a little bit of a background with it, and and I love the creativity of it. I love that you get to create your own thing from from scratch. I also love the collaboration in the networking part of it. Like take take you and I, for example. You and I were introduced to each other by by a mutual friend, I think maybe I don't know, nine months ago, maybe eight, nine months ago. And you and I've zoomed four or five times. I never would have got to meet you if I wasn't doing the entrepreneur thing, and so I love that part of it. I know Zoom fatigue is a real thing, a real thing, but like I'm meeting people all over the world every week, and I love that part.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

Yeah, and that's all about like think of that expansion, right? You're you're like on ministry, like I feel like sometimes even during this podcast, it's like it's reaching the world. I'm on a mission trip from my office on Zoom. Isn't that incredible? Cool, yeah, yeah. Like, and that's what you're doing too. So you you mentioned you had a book. What's the name of your book?

SPEAKER_00 41:50

The first one was Rivers of Hope.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

And no, but I knew that.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Yeah, I thought I had it, I thought I had it right here, but apparently I moved it the other day.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Well, perfect book name for this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

There you go. I think you're right. Wow. It's but it's it's it's mostly a public thank you to God for the miracles he's done in my life. And if I had to put a percentage on it, I would say 60% of that book is the adoption story, and then and then some other miracles that were tossed in after that.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Okay. Isn't is it available everywhere?

SPEAKER_00 42:30

It's on Amazon, and you can go, you can get it. There's a link to Amazon on stevewarmer.com.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

Okay. So you you just shared your contact information. Could you share your website again with us?

SPEAKER_00 42:45

Yeah, it's it's stevewarmer.com, warmer W-O-R-M-E-R. Easy. There won't be any others, others of those for sure.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I'll have the show not in the show notes. I'll have his website. And it would you have any other ways that people can contact you too? Um what's your Facebook group all about? Could you just share a little bit more about that? Are you are you interested in having more people join in?

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Oh my gosh, yeah. Is it open? Well

How To Connect And Final Hope

SPEAKER_00 43:14

it's it's it's a private, it's a private group, okay, but you can you can just go to you are worthy network. And most of the time it just lets you straight in if you want to join once. I don't I don't know. I don't, it's not the settings, but sometimes it'll ask for approval and I'll approve you. But love to have you in right now. There's almost 17,000 of us in there.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

And but you you can find me on LinkedIn and YouTube and all the other places too.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

Okay, sounds great. Anything else that you'd like to share with us today? I do this for the one, so I always like our guests to just think of that one who's listening in today. And do you have any other words of wisdom or encouragement for this one listening in today?

SPEAKER_00 43:59

I I'll leave you with a couple of thoughts. I have a I have a dear friend in California. We talk five, six times a week, and we're both going through some similar struggles right now. And we like the illustration of your mom baking your favorite cookies. And if you can think of waiting on the Lord in terms of what he's preparing for you is better than your mom fixing your favorite cookie. And remember when you're a kid and she's doing that, maybe if you're really young, you went and sat in front of the oven and you played with the light. Or maybe when mom went away out of the room, you opened the door and got a good smell. Maybe you even took a little piece off. Who knows, right? But then mom caught you opening the door and said, Stop that. You gotta wait till they're done. You're slowing down the process by opening and closing the door. And so I know it's a little childlike, okay, but it reminds me that he's working on our behalf. And here's why I'll leave you with this if you're going through something really, really difficult, and I want to be very compassionate to that, keep going, don't give up, don't go through it alone. That chapter will come to an end. And some of your best chapters are still being written. You have not seen some of your best days yet. And so keep going. Your story's not over yet, and I can't wait to hear about what the Lord's gonna do with your story. Keep going.

SPEAKER_02 46:01

That's so good. Thank you. I love how you ended with keep going, because those are like my two favorite words to speak over myself and to speak over others. This has been so good. We'll have to have you back another time when there's more expansion happening and you can share more with us. So I'm gonna close with the Hope Unlocked anchoring verse. It's may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. So that's Romans 15, 13. And thank you, Steve, for being a brave voice who's setting so many free. I will be back with another episode next week. Thank you, Steve. Have a great day.