About Us

Connecting people with God, each other and their mission in the world.

Bethlehem News

History of Bethlehem Lutheran Church

As Ministers of Christ, we, the members of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, began our mission, rooted in the congregations of two Norwegian Lutheran congregations: Bethlehem Lutheran Church and Golgotha Lutheran Church.

In June of 1890 more than 2000 men and women gathered at Trinity Norwegian Lutheran Evangelical Church in south Minneapolis to establish the United Norwegian Lutheran Church in America. Amidst controversies within the new synod, about 200 members of Trinity decided to leave Trinity, organize a new congregation and remain with the United Church. On January 1,1894, the "friends of the union" met at Tollefson's Hall to register their names, adopt a charter and elect officers. Bethlehem was born.

The congregation called their first pastor, the Rev. Gerhard Rasmussen, in the fall of 1894 and purchased land for a building in June 1895. With help from the ladies Aid and the Youth Groups, the congregation paid off their debts in 1907, allowing them resources to reach out and spread the Gospel to others. Meanwhile, Our Saviours' Lutheran Church established a Sunday School and Ladies Aid as a mission in south Minneapolis.

In April 1908, the mission organized as the Pleasant Avenue Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church, eventually changing the name to Golgotha Norwegian Evangelical Church. Bethlehem and Golgotha merged to become Bethlehem Lutheran Church on March 14, 1923, to avoid competing within the same "field." Additions to the staff and building programs continued until the church, as we know it today, was established.

Bethlehem continues its commitment to the Gospel, providing for the spiritual life of all members, while reaching out to our community, nation and the world. Pastor Emeritus Maynard Iverson quoted Pastor Reigstad at Bethlehem's 100th birthday celebration, "If we can see a little farther, it is because we stand on the scaffold built by others."

Bethlehem Council

May Council Meeting Notes

The Church Council is currently reviewing the outcomes desired for each of the 5 purposes - Worship, Grow, Connect, Serve, Reach - in light of the vision to bring 20,000 people to Christ by 2020. At our May Council meeting, Maria Bucka led us in a review of the "worship" purpose. This was a lively and interesting discussion as we all know that we can't actually bring 20,000 people into our sanctuary, so we had to think of creative ways that worship could be used in other settings or through some form of technology. The more we talk about the 20,000 by 2020 the more achievable it becomes!

We also had a number of visitors from Spirit Garage bring us up to date on what is going on there. Amazingly, Spirit Garage is now 10 years old. We saw a video made to celebrate their 10th anniversary that was just terrific. You can see it at www.spiritgarage.org. You will see some familiar faces including Pastor Chris Nelson.

We meet next on June 24. Pastors Chris and Mary, Jeff Siedel and Sandra Anderson attended a conference at Saddleback in May, and will bring us a report on their experiences.

Council information is available on the Bethlehem website, minutes of the meetings are available at the mailboxes across from the office, and there are Council people at coffee on the last Sunday of the month. Let us know your thoughts.

April 2008

At the April meeting, the Council continued our discussion of how to connect people with God, each other, and their mission in the world, which includes how to reach 20,000 people by 2020. We are looking at how each of the five purposes fit into this and at this meeting we focused on "grow." Grow includes education for people of all ages in a variety of settings and formats to help make the Christian message relevant to people's lives today.

Part of "grow" is being a teaching congregation. Pastor Mary reported that we will have a new intern who starts in August. His name is Andrew Behrendt and he is a student at Luther Seminary.

Diane Waarvik gave a presentation on health ministries at Bethlehem. She talked about how the program has evolved from taking blood pressure on Sundays mornings to advocating for health needs of members of all ages. Diane and Lynnea Forness also work part-time with the Wellness Connection, a non-profit that helps connect the Somali community in the Phillips neighborhood to healthcare resources.

February 2008

At our February meeting we enjoyed a field trip to the new third floor space to hear a ministry team report on Junior and Senior High Ministries. The space is great and we were amazed at all the programs available to our youth which make Bethlehem a place where they can connect with God, each other, and bring their friends.

The financial report shows giving a little behind our projections. A credit line was approved if needed to smooth out cash flow.
We are required to review governance every five years. Jeff Hedlund will lead that team.
The Council will form Goal Teams around the new vision statement: "Transforming the lives of 20,000 people in the metro area in the next decade with the good news of Jesus Christ." The teams will identify the ways to meet the goal and maintain the vision. Let us know if you're interested in serving on a team.

Visibility and Communication - Minutes are posted near the mailboxes by the office or by email, contact Nikka in the office. We will have a Council email address soon. Watch for Council members at coffee on the last Sunday of the month. We look forward to talking to you. A Council member will write for the Beacon monthly.

March 2008

For the March meeting, the Council spent some time discussing the financial status of the church, met with Greg Meyer for an update on Jacob's Well, received and approved grant applications for submission to the Foundation Board, and commenced a review of Pastor Nelson's thoughts for tying our mission, values and vision together to achieve our goal of reaching 20,000 new people with the Good News of Jesus Christ in the metro area by the year 2020.

Greg Meyer asked two non-former-Bethlehem members to speak to Council about what Jacob's Well has meant to them and their faith journey. Jacob's Well counts about 130 families as members, and continues the good work of reaching people who have given up on church and who are unconnected, uncommitted and unfocused. Greg thanks all members of Bethlehem for their financial support and prayers as he continues this most important ministry.

In preparation for the Leadership Retreat on Tuesday, May 6, 6:00 - 8:30 pm, the Council reviewed Pastor Chris' thoughts for connecting our purpose-driven church (Reach, Serve, Connect, Worship and Grow) with our new vision of "connecting people with God, each other, and their mission in the world." The retreat will focus on using our well-developed purposes and volunteers to create strategies for accomplishing our new vision. Included in this discussion will be: 1) the use of technology to spread the Word, 2) developing new and innovative Christian communities, 3) equipping people to pass on their faith, and 4) resourcing people to use their gifts for their mission in the world. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

Finally, the Council approved Foundation grant applications, which would fund leadership travel to a purpose-driven gathering at Saddleback Community Church; partial funding for "The Emerging Artist" program for the Music Series; and funds for a wilderness experience for Bethlehem's young leaders hosted by Ben Cieslik.

Bethlehem's Purpose Driven Story

Bethlehem before Purpose-Driven

Bethlehem has long been a strong congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), but starting in the late sixties to early seventies, as more families were moving out to the suburbs, Bethlehem began shrinking as most urban churches did. By the mid-90's Bethlehem was still considered a "strong urban congregation" because it was only declining slowly. So slowly, in fact, that it was easy to pretend that it wasn't happening. At this time the existing staff and leadership decided that it wasn't necessary to acquiesce to the trend of urban decline. So we began looking for a model of ministry to couple with our theology and heritage to help us reclaim God's plan for our church. It was then, 1996, when a brochure for the Purpose-Driven Church conference arrived. What? Lutherans learn from Southern Baptists? Not likely, but the allure of southern California in spring and the silent intention of the Holy Spirit moved us to take a chance. The Spirit also inspired us to set another earthshaking precedent, for which we also can't take credit, that was sending all our pastors, program staff and congregational president together.Most of us spent the first day and a half arguing with Rick Warren in our heads, after all we have theological and practical differences with him, but the Spirit was still at work. We soon quit arguing, knowing there will always be differences, but the principles Rick Warren was talking about apply to any church. Bethlehem hasn't been the same since.

The Purpose-Driven Transition

Where did we start the changes? Where we could! Starting with that first sermon after the conference, the pastors began retooling their sermons to not just be biblically and theologically sound, and relevant to the congregation, but directed towards life change. Not to make God love us more, or to ‘get us saved' but because God's grace is transforming. We started expecting God to make things happen at Bethlehem; we held up a lofty vision of the Christian life and asked for commitment. And rather than chasing people away, it attracted them. We were sent scrambling to find programs and materials to meet the needs of a large congregation responding to God's call to become Christ-like. We also took the idea of balancing the purposes of the Christian faith seriously for ourselves. If God was going to use us to lead this congregation, we needed to be willing to take the first steps of recommitting our lives to Jesus Christ.What we didn't do was to try to officially become a "Purpose-Driven" church. We didn't want the label, but the health. PD isn't our identity, it is a model of ministry that helps us be the best Lutheran Christian church we can be. Neither did we try to change our governance to a PD model, instinctively knowing this would only attract resistance and criticism before people experienced the benefits of health through balancing God's purposes of the church.

New life with our Lutheran theology and heritage and Purpose-Driven insights

In 1999 Bethlehem was in the first class of churches to receive the Purpose-Driven Church Health Award. One of only five congregations nationally. Indeed, Warren's commonsense understanding of what it means to be the church helped us to become a healthier congregation. Since 1996 our worship attendance has grown from 650 per Sunday to over 1300. Giving, ministry, education have grown at a faster rate, beginning with growth from within; growing dramatically in worship attendance for several years before adding many people to membership. Bethlehem has learned how to be more generous than ever as well. Three successful capital funds campaigns have been undertaken to help us stretch into the ministry God is calling us to. In each one 15% of the total raised has been given away to mission. Since 1999, in fact, Bethlehem has averaged more than $1 million in outreach giving over every three year period. Spirit Garage (www.spiritgarage.org), an emerging congregation aimed at the unchurched in the nearby Uptown neighborhood, was launched in 1998 as a satellite, and in 2006 another congregation, Jacob's Well (www.jacobs-well.net), was launched to reach the unchurched community of south Minneapolis.The pastors and staff continue to ‘learn and return' in the purpose-driven tradition. Church Transitions (www.churchtransitions.com) conferences are held regularly at Bethlehem. The staff also consults with pastors, staff and lay leadership of churches of all denominations throughout the country and in India, Papua New Guinea and Argentina.For more information about Bethlehem's purpose-driven adventure see our story on the Purpose-Driven website, and their news story, "Becoming purpose driven doesn't mean losing your church's distinctives."To learn more about Purpose-Driven for your church click the logo below.

Come Inside

Bethlehem’s Gothic-design building was constructed in 1926 of Minnesota blue limestone with a 100-foot central tower. The pillared sanctuary seats over 500 with the center and front aisles forming a cross. The baptismal font and altar painting were brought from Bethlehem’s first church dating back to 1898. Bethlehem’s Casavant 55 rank pipe organ was designed and built in 1966 by Casavant Freres. The organ has 2944 pipes, 3 keyboards and a Zimbelstern. The stained glass windows, “the glory of jewel-like splendor.

Directions and Map

Bethlehem Lutheran Church is located at the corner of West 41st Street and Lyndale Avenue South in south Minneapolis.

View interactive Google map, Yahoo map, or Mapquest map online.

map to Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Philip Quanbeck, Visitation Pastor

Rob Norris-Weber, Spirit Garage & Youth Pastor

Greg Meyer, Jacob's Well Pastor

More staff to come . . .