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BGC Celebrates 60 Years of Missionary Service By Virgil A. Olson
In the Bible it says, "In the fullness of time God sent forth His son. . ." Everything was ready for the coming of Christ and the beginning of the Church. Likewise, in the mid-1940s, the Swedish Baptist General Conference had come to a "fullness of time" in its history. The conference had begun to emerge out of its cocoon as a Swedish ethnic minority with a mission to reach Swedish immigrants. Because Swedish immigration had slowed to a trickle, some thought that the conference should merge with the American Baptist Convention. But a new day was dawning after World War II, and several young, visionary leaders of the churches wanted to push the aging Swedish Baptist conference into new mission opportunities. They desired for their conference to have its own foreign missions program. "Why do we need that?" cried some of the older pastors and leaders. A good working arrangement had been established with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) through which the church supported veteran missionaries like Mr. and Mrs. Bengt Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. August Berg, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Holm, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Tegenfeldt, and several women. In addition, many missionaries and ministers were involved with the American Baptist pension program, which could be jeopardized with such a break. But there was a fly in the ointment. The ABFMS had an "inclusive policy," which meant it accepted candidates who denied such basic teachings as the Virgin Birth of Christ. This caused deep conflict. In a compromise move, the trustee board of the BGC decided to recommend that the BGC maintain its present commitments to all its missionaries, and that all its missionaries declare their faith in the fundamental doctrines of the Bible held by Baptists. But many people were still dissatisfied. Articles for and against a separate mission board for BGC appeared in the Standard. The annual meeting of the BGC began on Thursday morning, June 21, 1944, at the 4H building of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. The first order of business was to vote on the recommendation of the trustee board to continue specific cooperation with the ABFMS. It was adopted without discussion. Some delegates had not arrived when the vote was taken. When Albert Bergfalk, a strong proponent for an independent mission, arrived and heard that the question had already been decided, he objected to the timing of the vote. He asked those to stand who had not been present for the vote. Many stood, and a motion to rescind the previous question was passed. During the noon hour, a large group of those who wanted a separate mission board met at the chapel in the old Bethel campus. Pastor Anton Sjolund of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis led the session. Walfred Danielson was asked if he would be the secretary of the new foreign missionary program of the Swedish Baptist Conference if a program were started. Danielson had been a missionary to Assam with the American Baptists, served as the first dean of Bethel College, had been on the headquarters administrative staff of the ABFMS, and was currently executive director of the Minnesota Baptist Conference. He agreed. In the afternoon session of the BGC, the people from the Bethel session returned with a new motion to set up a foreign mission program with Danielson as the leader of the new mission. Discussion continued all through Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. On Friday afternoon the motion to begin a new missions program was passed with enthusiasm. Danielson told the delegates, "The pattern, which is being woven before our eyes, is unmistakably of divine origin." A new day had begun for the Swedish Baptist General Conference. A committee was formed, made up of one representative from each of the conference districts, to draw up the basic lines for the new foreign mission board and to act as a preliminary board of foreign missions. The district representatives, under the leadership of Danielson, met in Chicago in November 1944. I was then a young pastor in Lower Michigan and moderator of the district conference, and thus attended the meeting. To be a part of the formative movement was an experience I will always cherish.
At the next annual meeting of the Baptist General Conference in 1945, also held in Duluth, Minn., the World Mission Board was formally organized. Danielson presented to the conference delegates a six-year ADVANCE goal to appoint three missionary families and one single missionary each year, so that by the centenary year of the conference, 1952, there would be 52 missionaries. His additional goal was to raise $52,000 to get the program going. The goal of 52 missionaries was not only reached two years early, but also the goal of $52,000 was exceeded by $30,000! In five years, five mission fields were opened: China; North Bank, Assam, India; Japan; the Philippines; and Ethiopia. The fullness of time had come for the Baptist General Conference. But let us not only celebrate the past. Today is our day. May the fire of the Holy Spirit energize us to accept the opportunities that lie before us. With faith, like the prophet Habakkuk, we see the day coming, and I believe is now at hand, when the "earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14). This is a condensed version of the speech Virgil Olson gave at the BGC Annual Meeting in Denver in June 2005. Baptist Pioneers in Isanti County Faced Many Struggles In the spring of 1851, three Baptist families from Sweden arrived and settled near Chisago Lakes, nine miles west of what is now known as Taylors Falls, Minn. They expected their spiritual leader, Gustaf Palmquist, to join them soon. However, he was unable to get a boat up to Taylors Falls and thus did not come. Meanwhile, there were Swedish Lutherans in the area, and they did not welcome the Baptists, although the Baptist families occasionally worshipped with them. The Lutherans considered the Baptists to be dissenters from the true Lutheran faith. The Baptists had been severely persecuted and sometimes imprisoned by the State Lutheran church in Sweden. Neither group trusted the other. On June 17, 1854, F.O. Nilsson came to Chisago Lakes and helped organize the little group into a church, as he did with several of the churches in Minnesota. The Chisago Lakes group had a very difficult time, both because of the intense opposition of the Lutherans (common at that time both in Sweden and the United States) and because of problems with Native Americans in the area.
The Wastado church had similar problems. In 1861, there were only seven members, and the minutes of the Minnesota Baptist Convention read, "This little feeble church has had trials and temptations. Sometimes we thought Satan would put down entirely the standards of the cross. Enemies are on every side, but we will still exist as a church in the order of Jesus Christ. Brother Norelius preaches to us once a month, but we have met regularly on the Sabbath, and once in each week." With rarely more than a dozen members, the Wastado church survived until 1901. In the days when travel was either by foot or horse and buggy, new churches began as Swedish immigration escalated. In 1888 a church was organized in the village of Cambridge. In 1890, after much debate, the Isanti church decided to move a few miles southeast where a Sunday school had been conducted for many years. However, those not in favor of the move went back to the Tamarack Church site in 1893 and built a new church. Today these churches are the South Isanti Baptist Church and the North Isanti Baptist Church, where the Friends of the BGC History Center program is being held on October 15, 2005. There are now seven BGC churches in Isanti county: North Isanti Church (south of Cambridge); South Isanti Church (northeast of Isanti); Elim Baptist (Isanti); First Baptist (Cambridge); Spring Vale Baptist (west of Grandy); Stanchfield Baptist (in Stanchfield); and Country Roads (Stacy). In honor of the 60th anniversary of the BGC Mission Outreach that began in 1945, special recognition was given at the CBE annual meetings in Denver to the 40 missionaries who were appointed during the first five years of the mission board. They represented the four fields that were established during the first five years—India, China, Japan, and the Philippines. Of those first 40 appointees, 17 are known to be living today, but only one was able to be present in Denver—Alma Bjork Olson. Others still alive include Warren Johnson, Ethel Hagstrom, Dana and Ruth Larson, George and Dorothy Johnson, Harris and Judy Youngquist, Connie Bjelland, Elvina Nelson, Elsie Funk (Wessman), Peggy Swanson, Pearl Sorley, Joy Phillips, Helen Bergfalk, and Mayburn Merchant. Friends of History Celebration October 15 at North Isanti Church
Answers to these questions will be demonstrated and discussed at the fall meeting of the Friends of the History Center on October 15, 2005. The meeting will be held at North Isanti Church beginning with a brunch at 10 a.m. Members of the surrounding BGC churches will provide the program, which will make the struggles of the 1850s-1900 come alive. Dr. Tom Coleman, retired missionary of the BGC and an avid researcher of early Swedish Baptist history, will tell about conditions in Sweden that impelled so many Baptists to come to America as well as discuss the role of the State Church and its persecution of the people who dared to study the Bible with friends in their own homes without the presence of a Lutheran pastor. He will also recount the revival movement in Sweden between 1840 and 1870 as well as other social and economic factors that encouraged the movement of hundreds of thousands of Swedes to America. Members of the current churches in Isanti County will present a brief drama depicting the forming of the first church in Isanti County in 1860. This will be followed by a media presentation with pictures and interviews highlighting the stories of Andrew Blomgren and Eric Lodien and their early work in the churches of Isanti County. Following the program, there will be an optional tour of the cemetery where many early leaders are buried, including short historical commentaries at several gravesites. Directions: The North Isanti Baptist Church is approximately a 40-minute drive from Bethel University. People driving north on Highway 65 will go three miles past Isanti, then turn east on County Road 43 (313th Ave. NE) to the church. Those who drive on Highway 35 go to North Branch, turn west on Highway 95 to Cambridge, then turn south on Highway 65 for 2.5 miles to County Road 43. Turn east to the church. Steering Committee of Friends of the Baptist General Conference History Center |
Sixty years ago in Duluth, Minn., the Baptist General Conference voted to organize its own World Missions Board. What preceded this was a colorful saga.
A highlight of those meetings was the appointment of Sten Lindberg to China as our first missionary. Sten had grown up in China with missionary parents from Sweden. Fluent in the Chinese language, Lindberg was the right man, in the right place, at the right time for a new day. He had already been given an assignment by the U.S. government to go and establish relations with the Chinese government. He left in April 1945. Lindberg also began work in Tsingtao in the Shantung province on the northeast coast of China.
In 1857, 11 members of the Chisago Lakes church moved to Wastado, Minn., and began a church there. By 1862, there were only a few members left in the Chisago Lakes church. All the church members moved together to the Cambridge area, where several became active in the 1860 Tamarack church there. Of the 14 charter members of the church, nine came from Chisago Lakes and five from the Wastado church.
Why did so many Baptists from Sweden emigrate to Isanti County and play such a strategic role in the development of the BGC?