The Church's History (1871-1979)

The first building at Bethlehem Baptist Church’s current location. Photo taken from 140th anniversary Celebration Program.

Bethlehem Baptist is, after more than 150 years in Minnesota, a religious force to be reckoned with—but it hasn't always been that way. The church began in 1871 when twenty-two members of the First Baptist Church in Minneapolis split to form the First Swedish Baptist Church of Minnesota. By 1873, First Swedish Baptist had acquired a pastor, John Ring, who emigrated from Sweden after being  imprisoned “for his Baptist faith.”¹

The congregation also bought a piece of land located at 6th Street and 12th Avenue in Minneapolis, where they began to build their sanctuary.² Much of the support to purchase the land and build the sanctuary came from the Baptist Union which exhausted its funds—a grand total of $400—to help.³ 

By 1874, the new church had 87 established members and a new $4,000 sanctuary. However, just a few years later, in early 1885, this sanctuary burned down.⁴ The congregation bought another plot of land in May of 1885 at 8th Street and 13th Avenue South in Minneapolis. This church is still located here today, but in a new building.⁵ 

Quonset Huts in the parking lot of the church at the current downtown site. Photo taken from 140th Celebration Service Program.

The ’55 Educational Building. Photo taken from 140th Celebration Service Program.

The congregation supported integration into American culture early on, with anecdotes like the following peppering their records: “Put every Swede, every Dane, every Norwegian, every German etc., who comes to this country into the public schools and educate him and he becomes an agent for good.”⁶

In 1893 First Swedish Baptist Church added bi-weekly English services to its program of services. The church conducted all other services in Swedish.⁷ It is possible that the inclusion of English services at the church, in addition to being a practical response to an increasingly English-speaking congregation, was driven by the immigrant desire to assimilate. In 1919, the church decided to begin a conscious shift to English services, and at the Annual Meeting in 1936 the church voted to switch to all-English services—with the exception of one Swedish Sunday School Class.⁸

In 1944, the church needed more space for Sunday School classes. The congregation could not afford a permanent addition, so it built three “Quonset Huts” in its parking lot.⁹ In 1946, First Swedish Baptist Church changed its name to Bethlehem Baptist Church, although it remained on the same site. In 1955, the church constructed an education building containing 10 classrooms, an office, a kitchen, and a chapel.¹⁰

Over Bethlehem Baptist's first century, the congregation moved from a barely-funded, scrappy immigrant community to an increasingly established and American religious institution.