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Swede-Finns and the Baptist General Conferenceby Clifford Anderson Most of us know that immigrant Swedes were the beginning of the Baptist General Conference. But most of us don't know the part that Swede-Finns played in the development of our denomination. Swede-Finns were Swedish-speaking people who lived in a part of Finland just across the Gulf of Bothnia from Sweden. Signs in some of those town are still in both Swedish and Finnish. (Finnish is not related to the other Scandinavian languages but is more closely related to Hungarian and Estonian.) Many of the people living in this section of Finland now speak both Swedish and Finnish.
Sweden was once a world power and after the 12th century had strong influence over the territory of Finland. Many Swedes settled its western area. However, in 1809 Russia gained control of Finland until 1917 when Finland won its independence. The Swedish-speaking Finns (Swede-Finns) were viewed as more privileged than the Finns. Famous composer Johan Julius Sibelius was a Swedish-speaking Finn. The Swede-Finns helped inspire the vastly outnumbered Finns to resist and punish Russia in the winter war of 1939. When Hitler invaded Russia, Finland felt a common cause with Germany but refused to imprison Jews when Hitler so commanded. When the flood of immigrants from Scandinavia to the United States began shortly before the turn of the century, many from Finland also came. One estimate is that 18,000 Finlanders came in 1905 alone. About one-fourth of them were Swede-Finns. The first believers' baptism on Finland's mainland was on July 14, 1869. Baptist Swede-Finns began their own denomination in Chicago in 1901, called the Finska Baptist Missionforinigen. In the new land, the Swede-Finns were known as hard-working, honest, and determined. They were scattered among the northern states from Massachusetts to Washington. Some learned metal-working and furniture-making, and many became lumberjacks, fishers, and farmers. Women worked as cooks and maids for the upper classes. During its best years, the Baptist Mission Union, the name later chosen by the Swede-Finn denomination, counted about 20 Swede-Finn Baptist churches with about 1,000 members. The churches were determined to preach the gospel to the Finnish people who spoke Swedish and also to those who spoke Finnish. More than a dozen missionaries were sent out, most of whom spoke both Swedish and Finnish. Many of the churches that grew out of their work were Swedish-speaking, but several congregations spoke Finnish as their language of choice. In the United States, as in Finland, the relationships between the Swedes and the Finns was sometimes touchy. The Finnish-speaking Finns regarded the Swede-Finns as different and privileged, and the immigrants from Sweden felt the Swede-Finns were not truly Swedes! Swede-Finns met together for fellowship and to learn what was going on in the "old country." Societies that promoted temperance and that cared for the sick and dying sprang up among them to meet needs. These came together in 1921 as the Order of Runeberg lodge. Picnics, sporting events, choirs, and lectures were sponsored. Newspapers were begun and eagerly read. As the flood of immigrants greatly declined after World War I, the second generation was English-speaking. Swede-Finn churches, like those of other languages (German, Norwegian, etc.), had to make the difficult switch to the English language. In 1961, the Baptist Mission Union (the name of the Swede-Finn churches) went out of existence. Most of its members felt at home with the Baptist General Conference and affiliated with the BGC. Most of the Swede-Finn pastors had been trained at Bethel Seminary, when the majority of classes were taught in Swedish. Many of the descendants of this group have been important leaders in the Baptist General Conference, including missionaries Eric Frykenberg, Ruth Bertell, Herb and Jean Skoglund, and Ken Gullman. Other descendants of the Swede-Finns have played important roles in the Baptist General Conference. Dr. Emmett Johnson was a successful and much-loved pastor and district executive who led American Baptists in evangelism and became a vice president of the Baptist World Alliance. Dr. Clifford Anderson has been a professor and later dean of Bethel Seminary San Diego. At least four moderators of the BGC were from the Swede-Finn background as is Dr. James Erickson, chair of the BGC Overseers for seven years. What a contribution this small faithful group of Swede-Finns and their descendants have made to the total work of God, especially in the Baptist General Conference. Early Churches Had Icy Water Baptisms*
The small white church that stands on the hill overlooking Bethel Seminary was once known as Scandia Baptist Church and was originally located in the village of Waconia, west of Minneapolis. It had a huge baptistry—Lake Waconia—and it was used year-round. The first baptismal service was held February 17, 1856. The baptistry was hewn out of ice three feet thick. The baptizing pastor was F. O. Nilsson, who was the first preacher of the Baptist faith in Sweden (1848) and had been banished from Sweden. He later came to America and preached to the Swedes here. On that first baptismal service in Lake Waconia, Pastor Nilsson baptized Magnus and Christin Peterson. In November 1958, Nilsson's diary mentions several chilly baptisms. Two sisters were baptized in a creek. A day or two later he baptized another woman in a lake. Nilsson's diary entry from Easter Sunday, 1859, explains how he assisted a German Baptist pastor. The announced baptismal service had attracted a crowd of about 400 hecklers who angrily disputed the pastor's teaching about believers' immersion. Nilsson finally got the crowd quieted down. The baptism then took place in the lake where an opening had been cut in the ice. The crowd looked on attentively and in silence. To our pioneer forebears, believers' immersion was a compulsory obedience to the Word of God. They did not wait for it to be warm, comfortable, and convenient. *Information taken from 100 Years of Gospel Work by Paul S. Meyer, and A Centenary History by Adolf Olson. First History Center Dinner Mixes Laughter and InspirationMore than 90 people gathered for the first official History Center dinner on April 4 at the Bethel Seminary Student Center. It was an evening of laughter, tale-swapping, meeting friends from years past, and being inspired by the stories of the beginning of Bethel College & Seminary and the Baptist General Conference. The one unanimous suggestion for the future was, "We need a bigger room to hold more of the people who are interested."
One younger participant remarked, "I had no idea of the problems and sacrifices involved in the beginning of our denomination. There are so many things I understand better now." The Rev. Richard Turnwall served as master of ceremonies. Musical duets were furnished by Jonathan and Lois Larson. The highlight of the evening was the presentation by Virgil Olson on the early struggles of J.A. Edgren in the beginnings of Bethel Seminary. The newly appointed archivist, Diana Magnuson, explained the purpose and future of the History Center and exhibited some of the "treasures." Those present were invited to help provide for the financial needs of the History Center. Approximately $16,500 was raised. Among the suggestions for the future were the following:
Preserve Your Church Records in the BGC History CenterDo you have a church historian? You should. When your church celebrates its 25th, 50th, or 100th anniversary, where will those in charge find old records, pictures, and wonderful stories of your beginnings? Every church needs someone or a committee to preserve those important records. How will you keep those records? There is good news for you: Important records can now be kept in the BGC archives located at Bethel Seminary, under the watchful and skilled eye of archivist Diana Magnuson. Those records and pictures will then be preserved and available not only to your church but to others who are researching important trends and history. Archivist Magnuson suggests some of the things that should be kept:
If you have questions about your archives and how to donate them to the History Center, please contact Diana Magnuson at www.bethel.edu/bgcarchives/. History Center Dinner Scheduled for October 24The second History Center dinner will be held at Elim Baptist Church, 685 13th Avenue Northeast, Minneapolis, on October 24 at 7 p.m. Elim is one of the oldest BGC churches in the Twin Cities and was the site of the original Bethel Academy. The dinner will be held on the evening before the Minnesota Baptist Conference annual meeting at Hilton North Hotel in Brooklyn Park, Minn. (a northwestern suburb of Minneapolis). The program will feature the work and life of F. O. Nilsson, who left Sweden after being banished for his Baptist beliefs and came to America to preach the gospel. He is considered by many to be the founder of the Swedish Baptist work in the United States. He lived his last days in Houston, Minn., where he is buried. Join Friends of the BGC History CenterFriends is a voluntary, self-perpetuating auxiliary to the History Center. Its purpose is:
If you have friends or relatives who might be interested in preserving the heritage of the BGC, please fill out the following form. We'll put them on the mailing list. |
