f John H. Bergeson has a life verse it’s Luke 11:23: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” Through 60 years of ministry for the Baptist General Conference (BGC), Bergeson has worked to unify God’s people. His philosophy? “We need to love and respect all people in God’s kingdom, and try to pull them together.” Bergeson has lived out that philosophy primarily by planting churches.

After graduating from Bethel Seminary in 1944, Bergeson pastored Opstead Baptist Church in Isle, Minnesota, for nine years. He then moved to Nebraska to fulfill the duties of executive minister for the Platte Valley and Rocky Mountain districts of the BGC. Along the way he has participated in the planting of more than 50 churches in eight states and British Columbia, Canada. About 20 of those churches are located throughout Minnesota, the largest of them being Berean Baptist Church in Burnsville.

Retiring in 1985 after 15 years as district executive minister (DEM) for the Columbia Baptist Conference, Bergeson then accepted a post as the first DEM for the British Columbia Baptist Conference in Canada. Two years later Bethel West (now Bethel Seminary San Diego) called him to teach church planting and spiritual formation at Bethel’s West Coast campus. Finally in 1999 he finished 60 years of ministry with the BGC while serving as pastor to seniors at Edgewood Baptist Church in Edmonds, Washington.

Beginning a life of service

Bergeson was born in Ashland, Wisconsin, but spent his childhood about 100 miles southeast in Ogema. His mother died when he was just two-and-a-half years old. During those days his family was Methodist, but they didn’t attend church much. It wasn’t until his father married again, this time to a pietistic woman of the BGC, that Bergeson adopted a more conservative lifestyle. It happened one evening at a revival meeting that 10-year-old Bergeson felt the Lord calling him, and at meeting’s end the traditional invitation saw him step forward to accept Christ into his heart. Bergeson now admits that he wasn’t completely sure what was going on. “I was in

favor of becoming a Christian, but no one really explained it to me,” he says. Bergeson spent the next five years learning about Christianity and what it meant to be a Christian. He began to read his Bible more and seek answers to his questions at Ogema’s BGC church. When approached about baptism, he said “yes” without hesitation. Until then, he believes he had never fully encountered Christ, but his baptism by another Bethel Seminary graduate, Willard Samuelson (’27), changed all that. “The Lord met me that night,” he says. At 15 years old, Bergeson surrendered his life to Christ and embarked on a journey of service and commitment to God.

The formative years

Bergeson’s decision to attend Bethel College was influenced largely by his pastor in Ogema, C. L. Wessman. A Bethel grad himself, who went on to earn a degree from Bethel Seminary in 1934, Wessman enthusiastically encouraged Bergeson to consider Bethel. So in the fall of 1936, Bergeson headed to St. Paul, Minnesota, to begin his college career. Graduating from Bethel Junior College in 1938, Bergeson enrolled at the seminary for three years of study before finishing his bachelor’s degree at North Dakota University in 1943. He then returned to complete his bachelor of divinity degree at Bethel Seminary in 1944.

While at Bethel, Bergeson worked as director of food service for the entire campus, a job that instilled values and honed management skills that would prove invaluable throughout his life and in his vocation as pastor, church planter, and district executive minister. Among the many lifelong friends he made at Bethel was Gladys Peterson of Chicago. After a courtship of seven years, the two were married on June 10, 1944, by Carl Lundquist, who later served as president of Bethel University from 1954 to 1982.

John and Gladys Bergeson had five children together and now count 11 grandchildren and six great grandchildren among their loved ones.

A life of prayer

Bergeson jokes that he is spending his retirement “just trying to stay well and keep my wife out of widowhood.” More seriously, however, he adds, “I try to be a witness to God whenever I can.”