| August 2007 |
Volume 7, No. 1 |
Contents:
American Swedish Institute to feature Minnesota Baptists
The history and contributions of early Swedish Baptists in Minnesota
will be featured during September 2007 at the famous American Swedish
Institute, 2100 Park Avenue, Minneapolis. The Swedish Baptist history
is part of a special exhibit entitled "Sacred Beauty."
The "Sacred Beauty" exhibit is part of a summer display
highlighting historic art, textiles, and silver pieces that played
an important part in the religious history of Sweden.
The main exhibit will feature the work of metalsmith and author
Anna Stina Aberg, who created silver pieces, chalices, candle holders,
baptismal bowls, and crosses for many of the churches and cathedrals
of Sweden and for the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Historic religious
textiles such as altar cloths, robes, and other vestments from
churches in Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Uppsala will also be on
display.
In addition to the main exhibit, another room is being devoted
for one month to each of four denominations rooted in the heritage
of Swedish immigrants. During June, the Augustana Lutheran Synod
was featured; in July, the Evangelical Covenant Church displayed
its artifacts. During August, the Evangelical Free Church will
be spotlighted. For the month of September, the history of the
Minnesota Baptist Conference (MBC) will be the focus.
The MBC display will feature the beginnings of Swedish Baptist
churches (now known as the Baptist General Conference) and the
people who pioneered those churches and the schools that eventually
became Bethel University.
Artifacts from the early days include some of the paintings of
J.A. Edgren, founder of the first Bethel Seminary. Edgren was not
only a fine theologian, educator, and preacher, but also an artist
of some renown.
A painting by J.A. Edgren of the Swedish Parlimant.
Also on display will be the trunk that F.O. Nilsson brought with
him from Sweden after he had been banished by the king for his "heretical" (Baptist)
beliefs, doctrine that was considered contrary to that of the State
Church (Lutheran). Nilsson preached the first sermon in one of
the earliest Swedish Baptist churches in Minnesota (whose first
building now stands on the Bethel campus). Nilsson also helped
plant the earliest Swedish Baptist church in Minnesota—Houston
Baptist in Houston, Minn.
Frank Peterson The Swedish Baptist exhibit will tell the story of Frank Peterson,
a horticulturalist honored not only for his work in building the
Scandia Swedish Baptist Church, but also for developing apple trees
suitable for the Minnesota climate. He also is famed for his careful
Swedish diaries, used extensively by Vilhelm Moberg for his prize-winning
novels The Immigrant and Unto a Good Land. Peterson's handwritten
diaries are preserved in the Minnesota Historical Society.
Detailed information about Peterson is available in the book Andrew
Peterson and the Scandia Story by Josephine Mehelich of Carver
County, Minn. The barn from the Peterson farm still stands and
is of great interest to a group in Sweden, the Andrew Peterson
Society. Men from the society have come from Sweden to help repair
the barn roof and preserve the building.
Visitors to the September exhibit at the American Swedish Institute
also will see pictures of the earliest Swedish Baptist foreign
missionaries, including Johanna Anderson (Burma), the first missionary
sent by the new churches in the U.S. Other early missionaries included
Ann Sangen (China), Betsy Anderson, Hilda Marrish, and Olivia Johnson.
Stained glass from the old Bethel Seminary chapel and some items
from early immigrant history will be displayed, along with early
wooden communion servers and a mini-quilt compiled of cloth badges
made at early Swedish Baptist annual conferences.
Visitors can also trace some of the conflicts that emerged within
the Swedish Baptist churches. In the 1920s, when the wave of immigrants
from Sweden had slowed to a trickle, churches faced the difficulty
of transitioning from the Swedish culture and language to teaching
and preaching in English as they adapted to the American culture.
Many members believed that the church's only purpose should
be to reach new Swedish immigrants. During this period of conflict,
church growth slowed dramatically. But a new expansion began after
World War II as soldiers returned from combat, and the churches
moved quickly from serving as an ethnic denomination to an American
evangelical stance, and from a predominantly rural association
to more urban congregations.
The display will note the current emphasis on church planting
and the development of some of the outstanding conference churches
of today in Minnesota, such as Wooddale and Eagle Brook.
On Sunday, September 23, at 3 p.m., the Rev. Truett Lawson, director
of the MBC, will host a meeting at the Institute, sharing the history
of the conference from its beginning to its status today as the
fastest growing religious denomination in Minnesota.
The American Swedish Institute is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays,
and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m.; on Wednesdays from noon to 8
p.m.; and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 per person;
$5 for those over age 62. (Admission is free for current members
of the institute). There are special rates for teens, children,
and tour groups. Further information is available by calling 612.870.3344
or visiting the website at www.americanswedishinst.org.
Pastoring on the South Dakota Prairie:
"The Barn Jumped
Over the Cow"
by Stan Rendahl, Bethel Seminary Class of 1941
Everyone's heard the line from the old
nursery rhyme:
"The cow jumped over the moon,"
but have you ever heard about
"the barn that jumped over the cow?"
It happened to a BGC pastor's family
during the Great Depression in 1933. My father worked for a religious institution with offices in Chicago.
During the Great Depression in 1933, the group lost its contribution
income base. With no income, my dad ended up unemployed. He sought
all sorts of new jobs, especially among churches, but no one cared
to promise support to a man over 50 years of age with four children.
Finally a church on the prairie of South Dakota heard of his availability
and made him an offer. "We have no cash income, but if you
come to be our pastor, we will supply a house with all utilities
and we will give you ample enough to eat." Though their cash
flow was nearly nonexistent, they indicated the crops and the cattle
could keep our dining room table filled.
Dad reasoned that if he didn't need to pay rent or buy fuel
and food, he would be able to keep his family alive. When the school
term was over in the spring, our household items were loaded on
a friend's truck and Dad and his brood drove west.
U.S. Highway 18 was a paved federal highway that got us to the
South Dakota border, but beyond the state line gravel roads burned
the rubber off our tires. Thirteen hours later, we stopped in the
yard of a partially lit church. The waiting delegation greeted
us and helped unload our belongings into the parsonage next door.
The switches on the walls indicated that the homemade electricity
worked. Mother soon found a well-stocked pantry; one farmer indicated
he would bring over some chicks in the morning to add to it. Another
said he would bring over a cow, and a third indicated he had a
couple of little pigs. What more could we city folk want?
As we arranged the furniture the next day, the new additions to
our family were beginning to arrive. We got instructions on how
to care for the chicks, milk the cow, and slop the pigs, but they
forgot to tell us what to do in an emergency. A week later, we
had to find that out for ourselves.
The sky was clouding over with a strange dark coloring; the wind
grew stronger as it whipped across the prairie. Mother got worried
about the little chicks who were feeding in the yard and coaxed
me to help her get them into the garage. I opened the large doors,
drove the car behind the church building, and we began to run after
little chicks. Some obeyed our efforts to shoo them toward the
building, but some didn't. The threatening sky seemed to
be descending upon us, and Mother suggested, "forget the
rest and just close the doors." We did, and made a run for
the house.
As we mounted the porch steps, I looked back and saw that we had
left the upper half of the barn door open. "I'd better
run back and close that door," I said. "We don't
want any of this wind inside." Racing to the barn, I pulled
the door halves together, fitted in the latches, and sprinted back
to the house. I hit that porch with my best high jump and opened
the screen door. As I did so, I turned to look back at the building
I'd just left. The barn was being lifted up and over the
cow that was housed inside! The black and white creature just stood
there, still securely tied to her stanchion. I stared at the scene.
A few rods out into the pasture the red building began to tremble
and then disintegrated into pieces. Not only the barn, but all
the other outbuildings suddenly lay flattened in the pasture. The
length of the windmill had fallen exactly across the path I'd
traversed not 10 seconds before.
When the tornado had spent itself, Dad rescued the cow, discovered
the pigs had found enough mud to protect themselves, and Mother
and I corralled the straggling chicks; they had nestled into tall
weeds or grass, out of harm's way. The barn that went over
the cow soon became fuel for our kitchen range.
Seventy-four years later, I can still see that building being
lifted cleanly up and carried away by the wind. Truly it was a
case of "the barn that jumped over the cow."
History
Buffs Celebrate 150th Anniversary of Scandia Church
Scandia Church as it is today
on the campus of Bethel
University in Arden Hills, Minn.More than 125 people gathered at Bethel Seminary at noon on July
6 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Scandia Church, whose
original building is now part of the Bethel University campus.
After a picnic-style luncheon, the Rev. Truett Lawson, director
of the Minnesota Baptist Conference, related details of the beginnings
of the church, trials and tribulations experienced during its early
years, and the eventual move of the old building to the Bethel
campus, where it now stands as a reminder of the heritage of the
Baptist General Conference. The little Scandia Church was the one
of the first Swedish Baptist church buildings in Minnesota. The
current congregation of the church, now called Oakwood Community
Church, meets in the high school in Waconia, Minn.
You Can Help Save Our History
With only a small group of volunteers and a part-time archivist,
a remarkable effort has been launched to preserve and disseminate
the astounding stories of God's work among the churches and
the people of the BGC. Though limited by a bare-bones budget, we
send out TrailMarkers, rescue valuable historical documents from
destruction, and pass on the stories of the miracles God has done
in our midst. We could do much more if we had resources at our
disposal. Your gifts to the Baptist General Conference History
Center at Bethel University would go a long way in helping manage
this immense, but important task. If you wish to contribute toward
this effort, send your gift to Jim Spickelmier at Bethel University,
3900 Bethel Dr., St. Paul, MN 55112. Checks should be made out
to "Bethel University" and designated for the History
Center.
Have You Visited the History Center Tour Website?
Before you plan your next vacation, visit the History Center Tour
website at www.bethel.edu/bgcarchives/tour. You can click on the
places you plan to visit and quickly discover if there are sites
nearby of historical importance to the development of God's
work in the Baptist General Conference. Enrich your trip with a
visit to Dr. John A. Edgren's house in Chicago, or the Klingberg
Home in Connecticut, or the church in New York City where many
of the early leaders of the conference were baptized. This website
is still under construction; if you have information that you feel
should be included, send an email to j-spickelmier@bethel.edu.
Steering Committee of the Friends of the Baptist
General Conference History Center
Richard Turnwall, Chair; Diana Magnuson, Archivist;
Alvera Mickelsen, Editor, Trailmarkers; Richard Burton; G.William
Carlson; Jonathan Larson; Dwaine Lind; Marv Lindstedt; Mary Jo
Monson; Virgil Olson; James Spickelmier; Flossie Winquist
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