Bear Man VanSteenhouse sues Leland Township in federal court over youth ministry dispute
Look for updates as this story evolves …
From staff reports
Lawyers backing Youth for Christ in Leland and Bear man Jim VanSteenhouse announced in a press release on Aug. 11 that they had filed suit the previous day against Leland Township in the federal district court for the Western District of Michigan as part of their bid for a youth ministry in a building VanSteenhouse owns in the heart of Leland’s commercially-zoned business district.
The Leland Planning Commission in April rejected Apollos Properties’ bid for a special use permit following months of deliberation, legal analysis, and passionate public debate. Apollos and VanSteenhouse almost immediately appealed to the township’s Zoning Board of Appeals. That case before the ZBA was pending, as the township took steps to appoint new members and alternates to the ZBA who had not already voted on the Planning Commission or expressed bias in their public views on Youth for Christ.
But Bear Man’s attorneys didn’t wait for the ZBA decision. The five plaintiffs listed on the 169-page lawsuit (which you can view here) include Apollos Properties, Apollos owners James and Elizabeth VanSteenhouse, and Micah and Kya Cramer, the missionaries who sought to recruit Leland youth to their ministry. The VanSteenhouses are Micah Cramer’s uncle and aunt.
Leelanau Lighthouse is the Cramer couple’s chapter of the multinational Youth for Christ organization. Micah and Kya began using the space for a ministry in February 2025. They drew scrutiny in the community for allegedly recruiting students at Leland public school to their ministry while they served as volunteers during lunchtime and recess. Micah was barred last fall from volunteering inside the school.
Then Youth for Christ and VanSteenhouse escalated the already heated debate in March when their lawyers sent letters questioning Fishtown’s tax-exempt status.
The battle playing out in this small Leelanau County town has potential implications far beyond Northern Michigan. The debate over the role of religion in public schools and in the public square represents a microcosm of an explosive reckoning on the national stage.
The lead attorney behind the lawsuit is part-time Leland resident Thor Hearne, a founding partner of the St. Louis-based True North Law Group. Hearne has long represented and litigated conservative causes. His press release states that he served on George W. Bush’s national election counsel. He also represented Donald Trump in several federal cases, including an effort to overturn the 2020 election results in Michigan, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
In a Nov. 21, 2025, letter Hearne sent to Leland School and the Planning Commission on behalf of Youth for Christ USA, he explicitely mentioned Trump and telegraphed future threats.
“Your opposition to the ministry Micah, Kya and Youth for Christ are engaging in Leelanau County is a disturbing demonstration of anti-Christian bias,” wrote Hearne. “President Trump signed two Executive Orders establishing a task force to eliminate anti-Christian bias. … Trump’s declaration stated his administration, including the Department of Justice, would ‘uphold religious liberty and the right to engage in religious speech.’ This extends to ‘faith-based organizations’ such as Youth for Christ.”
Hearne ended that letter nine months ago with a shot across the bow.
“You are embarking upon an extremely risky endeavor. The effort to prevent Youth for Christ from exercising its constitutional right to free speech, to assemble and to worship violates the U.S. Constitution, numerous federal statutes, and Michigan law. Youth for Christ does not seek controversy. But Youth for Christ will stand firm in defense of its right to assemble, worship and declare the Gospel.”
Hearne, whose family has political connections in Washington, D.C., previously sent a letter to the federal Department of Justice on behalf of the Youth for Christ’s push for a ministry in downtown Leland.
The Traverse City firm Parker and Harvey are co-counsel in the federal case; Robert Parker has represented VanSteenhouse’s company Apollos Properties in the zoning matters before Leland Township.
Leland Township supervisor Clint Mitchell confirmed receipt of the lawsuit this afternoon.
According to the True North Law Group’s press release, “The lawsuit asks the federal court to find Leland Township violated the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Michigan Constitution and numerous federal civil rights laws and Michigan state law. The federal lawsuit asks the court to declare that Leland Township’s zoning ordinance is facially unconstitutional and unconstitutional as applied to persons assembling for prayer and Bible study at the private property on North Lake Street.”
VanSteenhouse said in the press release that the matter went beyond matters of zoning.
“This case is much more than a zoning dispute,” he said. “Leland Township’s denial of the constitutional rights and First Amendment freedoms guaranteed by our National and State Constitutions cannot stand.”
VanSteenhouse, known as the “Bear Man” for surviving a grizzly attack in the Canadian wilderness a decade ago—which he credited to divine intervention—retired from a lucrative banking career and launched Bear Man Ministries. He built a luxury home in Leland in 2018.
Apollos Properties applied to Leland Township in Fall 2025 for a land use application to convert the north side of the downtown building, which VanSteenhouse acquired for $1.2 million, into a religious youth activity “clubhouse.”
“Leland Township could have allowed Youth for Christ Club to meet at our property on North Lake Street and there would be no drama,” VanSteenhouse said in the Aug. 11 press release that announced the federal litigation. “We don’t want a lawsuit. All we desire is the opportunity for Leelanau County youth to meet for prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship, and mentoring on private property.”
Look for updates as this story evolves …
Read our previous coverage of the Youth for Christ saga in Leland:
Leland navigates a lighthouse and a rocky shoal, Updated February 18: original story from November 2025
