New Foundation Church makes more and better disciples of Jesus Christ in the northwest part of Des Moines, Iowa. We do this by learning his teachings, connecting with him through Bible study and prayer, building relationships with each other, and serving both inside and outside the church. Our objective is that everyone is given the opportunity to know Jesus and his power to change lives.

Our Beliefs

New Foundation Church is an independent Christian church in the Wesleyan-holiness tradition. Our key beliefs include:

  1. There is one living and true God made up of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  2. The Bible is the inspired word of God. It has been preserved without corruption of any primary doctrine and containing everything necessary to be saved.
  3. God’s purpose for humanity is to abide by the two great commandments to love God with every fiber of our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
  4. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit in the garden, all creation suffered the consequences. Since then, we are all naturally inclined to disobey.
  5. Jesus Christ offered himself on the cross to provide forgiveness for our disobedience.
  6. The Holy Spirit works in myriad ways to invite people to recognize their disobedience and follow Jesus instead.
  7. Men and women must choose to reject their former disobedience and choose instead to obediently follow Christ. When they make that choice, God extends forgiveness and we are reconciled to him.
  8. Good works do not save us from God’s judgment, but rather, they are the faithful response to what God has done for us in Christ.
  9. We believe that all Christians are in the process of being transformed by the Holy Spirit so that their motives are consistently congruent with those of God even if their actions may occasionally fall short of perfection.

Our Team

  • Jeremy Geerdes

    Lead Pastor
    [email protected]
    (515) 344-3037

    Pastor Jeremy Geerdes grew up in northeast Iowa, where he met his wife, Nicole. The couple moved to Des Moines in 2002, where he became pastor of what is now New Foundation Church. The two have two children.

    Pastor Jeremy holds a B.A. in pastoral ministry from Oklahoma Wesleyan University (2002) and an M.Div from Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University (2019). He is passionate about community service, church revitalization, and the transformative power of Jesus.

    In his spare time, Pastor Jeremy enjoys reading, writing, hunting, and fishing. You can find some of his writing at https://jeremygeerdes.com.

Our History

First Pilgrim Church was founded in January 1938 by Rev. Edward Boone with a passion for sharing the gospel of Jesus in ways that were relevant to the time. For Boone, this meant hosting a variety show on radio station KRNT, which was promoted and broadcast across the state. Boone used this platform to invite families across the region to Sunday School. By 1941, the congregation had reached well over 100 people, and the growth continued until more than 300 attended Sunday School by the early 1950s. Originally, the church met at what is now the intersection of University Ave. and Harding Road (what is now called MLK, Jr., Pkwy). However, the congregation’s growth led it to relocate in 1955 to a new, larger facility on Lower Beaver Rd. In 1968, the Pilgrim Holiness Church merged with The Wesleyan Methodist Church, and First Pilgrim became Debra Heights Wesleyan Church.

Unfortunately, after the move and Boone’s retirement, the church entered into an extended period of decline. Efforts to reach the community were frustrated by a number of factors, and both attendance and finances spiraled downward for more than 40 years.

Then, in 2001, the congregation stepped out on faith to embrace revitalization and renewal and call a new pastor. Over the next few years, the congregation intentionally forged partnerships with neighborhood schools, the neighborhood association, and others. These partnerships enabled the church to experience a growing ministry footprint in the community, and as a result, the congregation saw a gradual increase in attendance, salvations, baptisms, and ethnic diversity.

In 2025, Debra Heights Church became an independent congregation and changed its name to New Foundation Church. The new name was chosen as an allusion to Ezra 3:8-13, in which the people of God returned to Jerusalem and built a new foundation for a new temple, and Matthew 7:24-27, in which followers of Jesus are called to build their lives upon the rock of Jesus’ teachings.

Our Vision

New Foundation Church seeks to meet people where they are and walk with them as God transforms them into the people he designed them to be. It aims to be innovatively collaborative, intentionally multiethnic, and intensely community-oriented.

We aim to be at the epicenter of a community which has been transformed for the better because everyone has the opportunity to hear and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do this by building partnerships with local schools, ministering to the marginalized and vulnerable, building community within both our church and our neighborhoods, and ultimately inviting people to join the body of Christ by choosing to follow him and joining in fellowship with other Christ-followers.