BETHLEHEM BAPTIST CHURCH (MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.):

Bethlehem Baptist Church was organized in 1871 as the First Swedish Baptist Church of Minneapolis. It was an off-shoot of First Baptist Church, Minneapolis. Within two years the church had a pastor and broke ground for its first building, which was constructed at the corner of 6th Street and 12th Avenue South. That building burned in 1885. In May of that year the congregation purchased the Second Congregational Church building, located a few blocks away at 8th Street and 13th Avenue South, which continued to serve them for more than 100 years. In 1893 bi-monthly services in English were added. Swedish-language services were discontinued in the mid-1930s. The name of the congregation was changed to Bethlehem Baptist Church in 1946. The old sanctuary was demolished and a new 1400-seat sanctuary was constructed on the site and opened in 1991.

Bethlehem was involved in starting several new Baptist churches in the Twin Cities area, including Elim, Spring Lake Park, Edgewater, Wooddale, and Immanuel Baptist.

Bethlehem Baptist Church is affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, which operates Bethel College and Seminary in St. Paul. It is also affiliated with the Minnesota Baptist Conference.

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There is information about the history and development of the congregation from a small ethnic church into a large and influential metropolitan church; its programs and ministries with and for men, women, and children; and about missionaries and lay workers it sent out into the wider world, both at home and abroad. There is information about pastors; church anniversaries; building programs; the congregation's finances; its Sunday School programs and its ministries to teenagers and young adults; and the activities of a wide variety of organizations within the church. There are minutes of congregational business meetings, and of meetings of the Board of Deacons and of the Board of Trustees. There are some ministerial records. Card files give information about members and others in the community, compiled by Elsie Viren in the course of her long visitation ministry.

Correspondents include Viren, pastors, lay leaders, and others. There are a few printed materials from the Swedish Baptist General Conference of America, the Swedish Baptist Conference of Minnesota, and First Swedish Baptist Church (later Payne Avenue Baptist Church) in St. Paul. Much of the early material is in the Swedish language.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Bethlehem Baptist Church Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,938.

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the audiovisual material are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audiocassette and videocassette were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into MOV and WAV files.

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, May 2007.

Digitization and encoding by April Rodriguez, March 2023.

Digital audiovisual material transferred from the master film, audiocassette, and videocassette by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (March 2023).

Catalog ID number: 990063985090104294

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Before 1930 most annual reports are contained in the corresponding volumes of business meeting minutes of the church.

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Location

Shelf Q-9-A (Room B-105.7)

From Bethlehem to Main Street, undated. 1 master film reel (12 minutes, 51 seconds): silent, color; super 8mm. reversal positive print and 1 user video file: MP4 (943 MB).

Film project presented by Bethlehem Senior High School that recreates the story of Jesus' birth.

Note: Credits indicate a sound editor and music, yet there was no soundtrack on this print nor any related audio materials.

Digital version

Location

Internet

Bethlehem Baptist Church History compilation, circa 1941, 1946, 1996, 2002. 1 master video file (1 hour, 21 minutes): MOV (18.5 GB) and 1 user video file: MP4 (779 MB).

Compilation includes:

Glory days: Remembering the old sanctuary, 2002 (17 minutes, 15 seconds).

Extra footage (23 minutes, 50 seconds).

When Swedish was the language of heaven: First Swedish Baptist Church of Minneapolis (1871-1945), 1996 (27 minutes, 10 seconds).

Wilford Anderson films, 1941 and 1946 (12 mintues, 43 seconds).

Digital video

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This weekly publication contains the order of service for Sunday worship. Prior to 1950 it also served as the church newsletter, publishing news of special events, births, deaths, illnesses, and weddings.

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Directories contain alphabetical listings of all church members, their addresses, and telephone numbers. Until 1946 the annual amounts of money each member pledged and contributed are also listed.

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Minute books contain minutes of annual and quarterly congregational business meetings, "special" meetings, prayer meetings, and minutes of congregational committees and organizations. The earlier minute books are in Swedish.

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Elsie Viren joined the staff of First Swedish Baptist Church in 1929 as a full-time "Church Missionary." Under this title she administered the church office; carried on correspondence with church members, friends, and missionaries; taught Sunday School classes; and visited the families of the congregation as circumstances warranted.

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Consult the catalog for the locations of other print materials published by the church, which are cataloged separately in the Minnesota Historical Society library.

Some additional historical materials were donated by the congregation to the Baptist General Conference History Center, which is located at Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Baptists -- Minnesota.

Baptists, Swedish -- Minnesota.

Church records and registers.

Church work with young adults.

City churches -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Sunday schools -- Minnesota.

Swedish Americans -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Bodien, Olof, 1857-1912.

Chalberg, Ewald.

Fleming, Bruce S.

Viren, Elsie.

Organizations:

First Swedish Baptist Church (Minneapolis, Minn.).

First Swedish Baptist Church (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Payne Avenue Baptist Church (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Swedish Baptist Conference of Minnesota.

Swedish Baptist General Conference of America.

Types of Documents:

Church bulletins.

Church records.

Directories.

Motion pictures (visual works).

Photographs.

Video recordings (physical artifacts).

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