hen Steve Chapman, founder of pioneer contemporary Christian music group Dogwood, proposed to Annie Williamson, he didn’t do it the traditional way. “We were so afraid of marriage that I couldn’t say, ‘Will you marry me?’” he says. “I asked, “What do you think about making this permanent?”

By the time Steve and Annie said, “I do,” they had learned some valuable lessons about life and a lot about each other. Their willing attitudes about putting God at the center of their life, faithfulness, obedience and forgiveness, guided them through their early years with Dogwood, nearly three decades of singing together as a duet, raising two children and co-authoring several books. Their story offers hope for those in any type of relationship.

Saying “I do” to love

Steve Chapman grew up in a small town in West Virginia. His father worked as a laborer and pastored a small church. The musical family often sang at local events. During his U.S. Navy service as a yeoman on an aircraft carrier, he “went off into the darkness,” including experimentation with drugs.

Dogwood singing group.

He migrated to Nashville in January 1974, where, even as he continued his rebellious lifestyle, he and a friend began singing together at Belmont Church’s Koinonia Christian Bookstore and Coffeehouse. That March, he realized he needed to yield his life to God. “I had been letting everything else get in the way,” he says. “I finally started a conscious walk with the Lord.”

Marriage was the last thing on Steve’s mind until a spiritual leader told Steve he was praying he’d find a good wife. Steve had thought he was happy being single. If there was someone out there for him, who was she? 
 
His mind kept returning to a girl he knew back in West Virginia. “I started thinking about Anne Williamson. I thought, ‘She’s pretty, sweet, kind and talented – and her dad has 400 acres of prime deer-hunting territory,’” laughs the avid outdoorsman.

Annie and Steve Chapman.

Annie grew up on a dairy farm near the town in which Steve lived. They struck up a friendship in high school during choir but never dated. After graduating, Annie headed off to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to pursue a music degree. While there, she became a Christian and eventually entered home missions.

Shortly after he got out of the Navy, Steve and Annie ran into each other in town. He invited her to hear one of the songs he had busily been writing. After she had listened to the 18 verses of rambling rhyme, he asked what she thought. “It sounds like the product of a very confused mind,” she answered.

Steve found her candor refreshing and heartily agreed with her. In fact, they agreed on a lot, including their opinion on marriage: it wasn’t for either of them and friends who had succumbed to the trap were crazy. “I was anti-marriage, anti-men, anti-children,” Annie saiys “I was a perfect feminist.”

Annie Chapman.

After college, Annie found work in an inner-city ministry in Philadelphia. In November 1974, she went home on furlough. Steve was there, visiting his parents. He told Annie that he thought she was “the one.” Annie’s response was, “No way, Bubba.” Undeterred, Steve asked her to pray about going to Nashville and singing backup for Dogwood.

Her prayers led her to Nashville, but right when she arrived, everything fell apart for the band. “We were going to go on the road, but the tour was cancelled,” she said. “Steve was afraid I wasn’t going to stay. I said, ‘I didn’t come because you invited me. I came because I thought God told me to come.’ We were engaged a week later.”

Saying “I do” to forgiveness

Steve and Annie kept their relationship pure when dating. As they discussed their upcoming nuptials, Steve had no reason to believe that Annie had anything on her mind but normal jitters. However, a terrible secret overshadowed her happiness. She felt she would have to reveal it to Steve if their marriage were to have a chance.

She told him about Bill Gothard’s Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar she had attended during her first year at Moody. There, she heard for the first time that things that happen in the past have a monumental influence on the present. Suddenly, she couldn’t escape a painful memory she had been unable to suppress completely, even after becoming a Christian.

At the age of 5, she had suffered unthinkable abuse by a farmhand. Her parents had been counseled that forgetting was the best thing for her, so the incident was never talked about again. But Annie didn’t forget, and she didn’t heal. Her life spiraled downward from then on, as she harbored immense hurt, shame, sadness, anger and suicidal thoughts.

She likens her life at the time to a farm pond: the first three or four inches looked serene and clear, but underneath was a different story. “When I went to that seminar, it’s like God took a stick and started churning the bottom of that pond,” she says. “What came up just about killed me.”

Her roommate had no idea what was causing Annie’s obvious emotional turmoil, so she called the Gothard headquarters and set up a counseling session for her friend. That 60 minutes spent with a stranger changed Annie’s life.

Desperate to be whole, she carefully followed the scriptural steps the counselor said would end her torment. She had thought that if she continued hating, her offender would suffer; but she realized she was the only one suffering because of her lack of forgiveness. She had to expose her thoughts of hatred and revenge in prayer, acknowledging that she was also angry with God for not stopping what had occurred.

She says she also needed to go to God with prayers of thanksgiving, even for her wicked thoughts, which reminded her to pray and seek God’s help. To remind herself constantly of God’s love and forgiveness, she began quoting scriptures on those subjects. She acknowledged that just as Jesus had died for her, showing her undeserved grace, the Lord had also died for the man who had done the horrible deed to her. 

Cover of Annie Chapman's book about dealing with anger.

In her book, “A Woman’s Answer to Anger,” in which she relates her journey from rage to peace, Annie talks of how she started on the process to forgiveness out of an act of desperate obedience. After a while, she felt a true spiritual desire to honor God and was even able to pray for salvation for the offender. “At the end of about six months, I woke up one morning and I could breathe,” she said. “That was the first time since I was 5 that I didn’t remember waking up mad.”

In “A Woman’s Answer to Anger,” Annie points out that anger doesn’t always come from being wounded. She says that sometimes people lose their perspective and allow themselves to fall into bad habits. The book goes through the steps of what’s needed to control anger no matter what the case.

As she shared with Steve, she calmly left a door open for him. “I told him, ‘You need to understand that you’re getting damaged goods. You may not want to sign up for this.’” His response confirmed that Steve was the man she was meant to marry. “He said, ‘What did I ever do to deserve such a gift?’” she says, a catch in her voice.

The healing process was complete. On March 29, 1975, Annie walked down the aisle with Steve. “Never in a million years could I have imagined such a sweet life,” she said.

Saying “I do” to submission

Annie sang on one Dogwood album, prior to the birth of son Nathan in 1977. In 1980, the same year daughter Heidi was born, Steve decided that life on the road was making him a stranger to his family. Fearing the damage his absence might be doing, he gave the band his six-month notice and began his campaign to talk Annie into traveling together as a family. 

Annie said no, many times, worrying about the effects on Nathan and Heidi. Finally, in the spring of 1981, she realized that God was calling them to work together as a family. “I wanted to be obedient and submit to God, but I began this journey with my heels in the ground,” she says.

 Annie says that over the years, she discovered why it was important that she had listened to God and not Steve. “Traveling with toddlers and teenagers wasn’t easy,” she says. “If Steve had talked me into it, I would have blamed him every time it was rough. Also, there is a lot more comfort in saying, ‘God’s going to help me’ instead of, ‘You talked me into this, and this is horrible.’”

Steve Chapman.

During his last six months with Dogwood, as Steve thought earnestly about his desire for his family to survive, he wrote several songs about family values. They would soon make up “Steve and Annie Chapman,” the first of their many recordings.

The Chapmans received “the gift that keeps on giving” when Dr. James Dobson invited them to do a chapel performance in 1983 and named them “musical ambassadors to the family.” With his seal of approval, their schedule filled up immediately. In 1985, they appeared on Focus on the Family’s film series, seen by millions.

They continued to sing for God and their audience, doing six albums with Star Song. Steve and Annie began self-producing their own albums in 1988. That same year, they started their writing careers, by collaborating with Maureen Rank on “Married Lovers, Married Friends.”

“To me, the friendship factor is as important as being in love,” Steve says. “We could endure the rigors of the road because we were friends.”

The Chapmans have tackled various subjects in more than 30 books including “What Husbands and Wives Aren’t Telling Each Other.” Annie, who often speaks at women’s conferences, has written several books addressing heartfelt, personal issues related to women and offering practical, life-changing advice. She is now working on a book on power over renegade emotions and victory over negative thoughts.

Steve Chapman.

Cover of one of the books authored by Steve Chapman.

A hunter since his early teens, Steve began his devotional series for outdoorsmen and women with “A Look at Life from A Deer Stand: Hunting for the Meaning of Life.” The book shares insights on moral purity in a chapter titled “The Chase,” using the similarities between whitetail bucks in mating season and men.

“The buck becomes a complete idiot, abandoning his normal caution,” Steve says. “You’ll see them sometimes in streets and cities, chasing does, when normally they would be hiding in the woods and not even come out until dark. They’ll run all day long just trying to make kids. In comparison, if Bubba’s not careful, he’ll abandon caution, chase after women and get spiritually shot.” To date, the book has sold more than a quarter million copies, launching other bestsellers.

Saying “I do” to finishing well

The Chapmans’ books and music have given them opportunities in different areas including a third ministry, conducting marriage seminars.

Heidi Chapman Bell recently combined pre-1900 classics with soothing sounds of nature for “Hymns from God’s Cathedral.” Earlier this year, Nathan was nominated for Producer of the Year for Taylor Swift’s album, “Fearless,” and won for Album of the Year.

Steve and Annie’s latest music offering is “Finish Well.” They happily report that their children share their love for God. “They’ve carried the light with them. They all serve the Lord,” Annie says. “That’s the best success we could ever have.”

For music, books and tour information, visit www.steveandanniechapman.com.