The Baptist Pietist Clarion, June 2010

7/28/2019 The Baptist Pietist Clarion, June 2010

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Contents1 Gordon Johnson: Encountering the

Gospel o Jesus Christ |

Leland Eliason

The Baptist General Conerence in

the 21st Century | Vic Winquist

2 Inside this issue o the Baptist Pietist

Clarion | G. William Carlson

3 Celebrating Gordon Johnsons My

Church: A Manual o Baptist Faith

and Action| Bruce Peterson

7 Becoming Baptist Again |

Glen Scorgie

9 God, and the Lie He Has Given

Us, Is so Good! The Ministry and

Vision o Gordon Johnson |

G. William Carlson

12 Celebrating a Baptist Heritage:The Pietist Poetry o Signe Olson

Peterson | G. William Carlson

15 Angela Shannon: We Carry Our

History With Us | G. William

Carlson

17 Distinctive Baptist Bees |

Stanley Anderson

The Baptist PietistCLARIONVol. 9, No. 1 In essentials unity in non-essentials liberty in everything charity June2010

Edited byG. WilliamCarlson, Proessor o History and Political Science at Bethel University; ronsaari, Senior Pastor at Central Baptist Church

Previous issues can be ound at http://www.bethel.edu/cas/dept/history/Baptist_Pietist_Clarion

continued on p. 4

continued on p. 17

Formerly published by theCommittedPastors

& layleadersdediCatedtoPreservinGPietism,

evanGelism, andCivilityintheBGC.

Edited by:

G. WilliamCarlson | Proessor o History

at Bethel University

3900 Bethel Drive p.o. 60,

St. Paul, Minnesota 55112

([email protected])

and

ronsaari | Senior Pastor at Central Baptist

Church 420 N. Roy St.

St. Paul, Minnesota 55104

([email protected])

Gordon Johnson: Encountering

the Gospel o Jesus ChristA Tribute to G. G.

Johnson by LeLand

e L i a s o n ( D e a n ,

Bethe l Seminary

1994-2009), October

31, 2009 Grace Point

Church, New Brigh-ton, MN | Gordon

Johnson was born on November 19, 1919.

That means that in less than three weeks,

hell be celebrating his 90th Birthday. As

we visited yesterday, I suggested that today

would be part o that birthday celebration.

I thought I should begin today by disclos-

ing something that maybe has been hidden

all these years, namely that Gordon Johnson

was thrown out o Bethel. Thats right liter

ally and physically thrown out o one o the

main buildings. Heres how it happened

Gordons home was right across rom where

the Edgren dorm was on the old campus. He

and his riends, one o whom was the son

o K. J. Karlson, Dean o Bethel Seminary1925-1948, had found ways to get into the

Bethel Seminary Gymnasium so they could

play there.

A big burly student took strong exception

to these kids being there and came tearing

out to where Gordon was. He picked Gor

don up and threw him down to the landing

in ront o the outside door. Then he ran

down to where Gordon had landed, opened

The Baptist General Conerence

in the 21st CenturyVic Winquist, or-

mer Baptist General

Conerence Pastor

and ormer BGC

De nominat iona l

Director. Presented

at Baptist General

Conerence History

Center Event Calvary Church, April 2009 |

I have been asked to report on the BGC in

the 21st century. The question I would like

to address is, Is the BGC in the 21st century

the same as it was in the 20th century or are

we dierent? The answer to both o these

questions is yes. It is air to say that we are still

the same in that we arm the major pietistic

Baptist tenets o our aith: the necessity o

the new birth, lives o holiness, commit-

ment to the Bible as our guide or aith and

practice, believers baptism by immersion

as taught in the Word, the autonomy o the

local congregation, a congregational orm

o church government and religious liberty

and its corollary, separation o church and

state.

But there are dierences. We can start by

saying that we are a larger denomination

In 1954 we had 383 churches in the United

States with a total membership o 51,272

By 2005 we had grown to 1,034 churches

with 140,494 members and an average of

213,285 worshipping in our churches on a

weekend.

Alongside this growth have come dier

ences in how we understand and apply our

historic pietistic Baptist principles today


2/20~ 2 ~

Inside this Issue o the Baptist Pietist Clarion

G. WiLLiam carLson,

Proessor o History

and Political Science,

Bethel University|

This is the tenth is-

sue o the Baptist

Pietist Clarion. Therst issue emerged

in March 2002. Earlier issues ocused on

the theological vision o John Alexis Edgren,

the challenge o the civil rights movement,

history o Bethel College and Semi-

nary, Baptist pietist spirituality as

expressed in the lie and witness

o Carl H. Lundquist, Baptists

commitments, religious liberty

and the separation o church

and state (exploring the contri-

butions o Walred H. Peterson

and C. Emanuel Carlson), social

justice and gender issues in the Baptist

General Conerence, history o Swedish Bap-

tist pietism, and the history o theological

disputes in the BGC.

One o the reasons or the Baptist Pietist

Clarion is to publish materials o the pro-

ceedings o the Baptist General Conerence

History Center and relevant presentations

on BGC heritage and values. Previous is-

sues o the Baptist Pietist Clarion can be

ound at: http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/history/

Baptist_Pietist_Clarion. The Clarion cannot

be published without the assistance o the

Baptist General Conerence History Center.

The History Center is ably administered by

Diana Magnuson, Proessor o History atBethel University. Further inormation can

be ound at: http://www.bethel.edu/bgc-

archives/.

1. The rst theme o this issue o

the Baptist Pietist Clarionis

to celebrate the publication

o Gordon Johnsons My

Church.

Gordon Johnson served

as BGC pastor, proessor

o preaching, and dean o

Bethel Seminary from 1964-

1984. My Church, published in

1957 became an essential monograph in

understanding the historical, theological

and missional develop o the BGC. It was

constantly used or church membership

sessions and provided a base or evaluating

and championing Baptist distinctives which

dene the BGC.

2. A second theme o this issue o the Bap

tist Pietist Clarionis to explore the mean-

ing o being Baptist.

We asked Glen Scorgie, Proessor o

Theology at Bethel Seminary, San Diego

to refect on his own spiritual journey as a

Baptist. Scorgie, a Canadian, joined Bethelaculty in 1996 ater serving as academic vice

president o North American Baptist College

in Edmonton, Alberta. His writings include

The Challenge o Bible Translation(2003)

and The Journey Back to Eden: Restoring th

Creators Design or Women and Men. In the

last issue Terri Hansen reviewed Scorgies

work, A Little Guide to Christian Spirituality

(Zondervan, 2007).

3. The third theme analyzes the signii-

cance o changes in the Baptist General

Conerence especially ocusing on issues

o identity and mission.

In April 2009 a symposium, sponsored by

the Friends o the Baptist General Coner

ence History Center, discussed issues related

to the signicance o being Baptist in the 21s

century. Vic Winquist developed a presenta

tion entitled The BGC in the 21st Century

and Stan Anderson, proessor o philosophy

emeritus at Bethel College, explored the

distinctive Baptist belies in an acrostic

ormat. It is a helpul base or members o

the BGC to explore their core belies.

4. A ourth theme is the inclusion o two

distinguished poets: Signe Olson Peterson

and Angela Shannon.

They both relected on their Baptist

heritage. Signe Peterson was a distinguished

Swedish Baptist poet. Anna Swedberg

considered our well-beloved Signe, a

signicant Swedish poet whose poetry appeared in many Baptist General Conerence

publications. Angela Shannon is an associate

proessor o English at Bethel University and

a signicant African-American poet. She was

a eatured poet at the latest Pietism coner

ence at Bethel University in March 2009.

In essentials

UNITY

In non-essentials

LIBERTY

In everything

CHARITY

Baptist General Conerence refects a

Baptist Pietist Heritage:1. We are an immigrant people. The commitments to religious liberty are rooted in our

history as a persecuted people. It is the prime reason or our continued involvement

in such organizations as Baptist World Alliance and Baptist Joint Committee.

2. We are a counter-culture community of believers. The early Swedish Baptists chal-

lenged the lielessness o the state churches who seemed concerned only with correct

belie, proper religious practices and maintenance o political power. They established

a heritage that suggests the need or a more experiential Christianity that is concerned

with moral living and born again revivalism.

3. We are committed to intentional Christian spirituality. Our origins lie in the devel-

opment o the lsare movement. These are small group Bible study and prayer groups

under the direction o lay leadership. It remains necessary or all Christians, as Carl

Lundquist, ormer Bethel University President, stated, to develop renewal groups that

are committed to a devotional understanding o Scriptures.

4. We are an educational and missional Christian community. There is an intense

commitment to evangelism and social and economic outreach. We are Christians whose

heart and mind are under the Lordship o Christ.


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Celebrating Gordon JohnsonsMy Church: A Manual of Baptist Faith and Action

Bruce Petersen,Pas-

tor o Bethany Bap-

tist Church, October

31, 2009 GracePoint

Church, New Brigh-

ton, Minnesota |

Gordon Johnsons

My Church, A Man-

ual o Faith and Practice, was rst published

in 1957 and signicantly revised in 1994.

In it, Gordon identies and discusses eight

Baptist distinctives:

1. The New Testament is the sole and su-

cient rule o aith and practice. We believe

the entire Bible to be the inspired, written

revelation o God, but it is the New Testa-

ment that gives us the authority or aith andactivity in the church.

2. It is the privilege o each individual

to have direct access to God through Jesus

Christ. This is known as the universal priest-

hood o believers.

3. The church and state are to be com-

pletely separate in their respective elds. The

state is not to interere with the distinctly

religious unctions o the church. It is to

give complete liberty to all o its subjects to

worship according to the dictates o theirconsciences.

4. The churchs government is a simple,

democratic orm. A democratic church gov-

ernment is called the congregational orm.

This means each member in a Baptist church

has as much authority as any other member,

including the pastor.

5. Baptism is or believers only and only

by immersion. The qualication or baptism

is not a matter o age but o aith. Baptism

ollows trusting in the Lordship o Christ.

6. Church membership is or the regener-

ate (i.e., spiritually reborn) only. An unre-

generate church membership soon leads to

a weakened church, with the possibility o

ungodly practices.

7. Christ is the supreme head o the

church. He must be Lord o the program

and practices o the church.

8. The evangelism of the world is our task.

Baptists take seriously the Great Commis-

sion. Each member is responsible or the

task o witnessing.

Gordon concluded that these eight dis-

tinctives sum up the distinct Baptist belies

that make Baptists what they are. It is well or

Baptists to review them requently so as to be

amiliar with them. These distinctives make

or a rich heritage o which any

Baptist can be proud. To un-

derstand those doctrines is to

make each o us a conrmed

Baptist desirous o shar-

ing these convictions with

others, but always ready

to ght or the liberty o

others to disagree. (My

Church, p. 149)Gordon acknowledges

that while other Baptist

writers may ormu-

late these in dierent

ways, making some

subsidiary to others,

these distinctives are expres-

sive o belies that all Baptists hold in com-

mon. That does not mean that we hold them

with equal commitment. Unlike some o

the major ast ood chains whose goal is tomake sure that upon entering one o their

ranchises anywhere in the world, the prod-

uct will never vary in taste and quality, no

two Baptist churches are alike even when it

comes to our commitment to these historic

distinctives.

For example, Norman Maring and Win-

throp Hudson in the American Baptist

manual contend that under the principle o

local church autonomy each Baptist church

can decide whether or not to require believer

baptism by immersion as a prerequisite or

church membership. Gordon, I believe,

would be a bit more dogmatic on that is-

sue.

Our history as well as the diversity among

the more than one hundred ninety-five

groups and thousands o local churches o

Baptists worldwide underscore the act that

we are more o an ongoing movement than

a nalized and closely dened community.

The question that gave birth to the Baptists

What saith the Scripture? remains or us

an open question that reuses to declare the

conversation over even when it comes to our

distinctives.

We have our convictions, but i we are true

Baptists, we are reticent to codiy them lest

they become tests o orthodoxy in addition

to Scripture. Gordon Johnson

contends that Bap

tists hold no creed

or statement o aith

as binding upon the

church. We believe

there are values in creeds

and statements o aith as

indications o our understanding o New Testamen

doctrine, but none o these

can be authoritative or

the aith and practice o the

church. (My Church, p. 146)

We who take the Scrip

ture as authoritative are also

compelled by it to coness that at

present we know in part. It is this awarenes

that allows us to respectully dialogue with

those rom within and outside our ellowshipwho are equally committed to the authority

o Scripture but who have come to dieren

conclusions about what it is saying. The BGC

among various Baptist groups has cut a airly

wide swath by the high priority we give to

the principle o soul reedom.

Leith Anderson in his preface to the 1994

revision both promotes and demonstrates the

principle. He urges the reader to: (1) keep the

Bible rst, that is, to read My Churchin ligh

o Scripture; (2) decide or yoursel, rather

than simply accepting what My Churchsay

simply because Gordon Johnson says it; and

(3) compare your church and dont get upse

i you notice some dierences.

Soul Freedomand BaptiSt

diStinctiveS

As Gordon points out, the principle o

soul reedom or soul competency under the

authority o Scripture and the Lordship o

continued on p. 19


4/20~ 4 ~

continued on p.5

Encountering the Gospel, from p. 1

the door and physically threw him down

the next fight o stairs. Im sure i you had

asked him that day, i he thought hed ever

work at Bethel, his response would have been

less than enthusiastic! Later, another student

came and apologized or the brutal behavior

o the rst student.

In 1936, the economic upheaval o the

Great Depression led Gordons ather to take

a job in Winona, Minnesota. No Swedish

Covenant church existed in that town, but

the pastor and members o the American

Baptist Church were on the ball. When they

heard a new amily had moved to town, they

visited them. And so the pastor, deacons and

Sunday School teachers all made visits to the

Johnson home. As a result, the whole amily

began to attend the Baptist Church.

A converted Jew, invited by the small

Nazarene church in town, conducted evan-gelistic services in the larger sanctuary o the

Baptist church. As the invitation was given

to receive Christ, Gordon thought, Either

youre going to do it now or probably you

never will. Both he and his sister became

Christians and soon the whole amily was

baptized and joined the church.

When it was time to go to college, Gor-

dons best riend encouraged him to go to

Bethel. But that was not the leading that

Gordon experienced. He attended Moodyinstead. A lovely young lady at First Baptist

Church Minneapolis also was encouraged to

attend Northwestern College. Ater all, that

was the school born at First Baptist.

But she also elt led to attend Moody.

Thats where Gordon and Alta met

and both o them were so grateul

that in each o those cases, they didnt

listen to the advice o otherwise dear

riends! Their partnership and deep

love or one another was one o the

hallmarks of Gordons life for sixty-

our years.

Gordon JohnSon: education

and early miniStry

The expanse o Gordons ministry over

the next decades can only be highlighted

here. His education includes exposure to a

wide variety o kinds o schools. He gradu-

ated from Moody Bible Institute in 1941.

For two years he attended Bethel Junior

Eective Preaching NeededGordon G. Johnson, Dean o Bethel Seminary, September 22, 1965

Recently I have elt an increased burden in relation to eective preaching. The concernor more good preachers has been expressed by laymen. The lack o persuasive preaching

may also account or the small attendance at evening services in many churches.

Dear student, there is no short cut to becoming an eective preacher, but every one

o you can become that. It will demand a lie o

discipline, not only now while you are a student,

but throughout your ministry.

Good preaching is the combination o

well-prepared material that is relevant to con-

temporary human need and a delivery that

demands attention and response. Neither o

these is a mere git rom God. He gives gits,

but they must be developed through a lielong

discipline o work.

One must work diligently to have some-

thing signicant to say every time one comes to

the pulpit. That will take careul and continuous

study o literature and lie. But one must deliver the sermon in a captivating manner.

That skill takes constant practice and self-evaluation to determine areas of need for

urther development.

Churches across the country are anxiously awaiting you who may become eective

preachers. And the Lord is awaiting such servants.

College and then enrolled in the Univer-

sity of Minnesota for a year. In 1944 he

joined the Navy and completed his senior

year o college at Harvard University. Due

to Harvards residency requirements, the

University o Minnesota granted him his

bachelors degree in absentia.

Gordon returned in 1945 to BethelSeminary rom where he received his B.D.

degree. He studied at Princeton Seminary

rom where he earned a Masters degree. His

Th.D. was granted rom Northern Baptist

Theological Seminary.

During his education he was always deeply

involved in ministry. He was youth pastor

and was ordained at Central Baptist Church

in St. Paul in 1946. He was pastor at Dalbo,

Minnesota and at Milltown, Wisconsin. Dur-

ing the time he was pastor at Bethel Baptist

(1948-1951) in Montclair, New Jersey, heattended Princeton Seminary.

In 1951 he began his ministry at Central

Baptist in Chicago. During the next eight

years the church grew rom two hundred to

our hundred ty; our hundred twenty new

members were received, more than two hun-

dred twenty by baptism. During Johnsons

ministry a new building was completed.

While pastor at Central Baptist Gordon

Johnson was also enrolled at Northern

Baptist Theological Seminary. His disserta

tion was on The Impact o Neo-orthodoxy on

Contemporary American Preaching. When he

came to deend his thesis, he was invited no

to deend, but to present his ndings to the

entire aculty at Northern Seminary.

Gordon JohnSon: a proFeSSoroF

preachinG

There was great excitement on campus

when Gordon Johnson came to be teacher o

preaching at Bethel Seminary. I still remem

ber the deeper lie series in the all o 1959

my second year o college.

His teaching o preaching molded and

shaped the hearts and minds o hundredsand thousands o preachers. Anyone who

thought that you could go to his classes and

pick up 3 or 4 easy steps to speak effectively

experienced a very dierent set o classes

He taught us to wrestle with the text until its

meaning became clear. Dont read into the


5/20~ 5 ~

continued on p. 6


Our Campus Says Something: We Trust It will Always Be

Used to the Glory o Our LordGordon G. Johnson The ClarionOctober 11, 1965

This campus says something about God. Our God

is characterized by power, eternalness and the Creator

o beauty. As one approaches the buildings, the ap-

pearance o the brick walls, the deep set windows, the

brown hue in the color and the solidity o the setting

suggests that our God is strong. They also say that He

endures because these buildings are likely to endure.

There is beauty in the whole setting

These buildings also say something about commu-

nity. We desired a continuing experience o Koinonia

or ellowship. This is discovered in a number o dier-

ent ways. Spaces are provided or good conversational

activity in an inormal atmosphere. Some o these areas

are carpeted and urnished with easy chairs. An open

view to the outside beauty through large windows is evidentAn excellent esprit de corps

will be possible or the total community o aculty and students alike. An atmosphereo receptivity and riendliness is created by the very orm the buildings have taken.

These buildings urther express some o our academic ideals.The seminary student

must become a mature student. He must become a capable thinker and leader, or he will

lead other people in thought and lie. He must discover his own capacities o personal

study and community sharing.

In light o this our buildings have been built. With the exception o two classrooms we

have departed rom the traditional. That was done to encourage dialogue and interac-

tionThe library is geared to independent study. There are no large tables or study in

large groups. In some areas there is more o the cloistered experience that would suggest,

Now is the time or work and study.

The aculty oces are o such size that our or ve students may meet with a acultymember or discussion. Several conerence rooms are also available in the library or

similar activity.

Our campus suggests our mission. Our task is to communicate the Word o God

to a world in need o that Word. We must train men and women to become the bridge

between the biblical world and the contemporary world. The location o our campus is

ideally suited to suggest that very thing. We possess a sense o isolation or solid biblical

study in our location, but it is also very conveniently located within easy reach o the

whole metropolitan area. Here our students enter into active eld education or witness

and service.

Our campus does say something, and it says it signicantly. It expresses that which

we believe and eel. It will become one o the beauty spots o the area, and we trust it

will always be used to the glory o our Lord.

text what you want it to say, he would say,

read out o the text whats really there.

That simple principle challenged many o

us greatly. And when we learned to do that

simple but challenging task, we were deliv-

ered rom the hazard o having three or ve

avorite sermons which one would preach

out o any text in the Bible!

Many o us remember the three step

hermeneutic. What did the text mean when it

was written? What is the theological meaning

o the text in order to get at the timeless

truths o Gods word? And then, what does

it mean?

He preached without notes and tried to

teach all o the rest o us to do the same. Each

o us who were thus challenged, remember

the rst time we tried to do what Gordon

had taught us!

Gordons memory or preaching withoutnotes was phenomenal. I will never orget a

Monday night banquet at Bethels Founders

Week when he preached on the implications

o the population explosion or the church.

He quoted rom memory a prodigious

recitation o acts and gures ending with a

powerul challenge to be world Christians.

Because o his preach-

ing eectiveness, Gor-

don was in great demand.

One year he spoke 235times. Churches used to

hold 8 day evangelistic

campaigns and Gor-

don would be gone or

stretches like that quite

requently. Over the

years he preached deep-

er lie weeks at Bethels

Deeper Lie Week in

1951, at Wheatons in

1958, and for Moodys Founders Week.

Gordon JohnSon: deanoF Bethel

Seminary (1964-1984)

Five years ater coming to teach at the

seminary, Gordon became Dean o Bethel

Seminary and he oversaw an incredible pe-

riod o growth. When he became dean there

were 103 students enrolled; when he let

there were 550. He led the creation o and the

beginning o Bethel West on the campus o

College Avenue and then oversaw the process

o having that extension site accredited.

He assembled an incredible group o

biblical scholars young, gited, committed

teachers who provided a powerul ethos in

which students could grow. His vision or

seminary education was a whole person

vision which arose out o the rich tapestry

o educational experiences at the diverse

cluster o schools mentioned above, and

what Gordon knew was necessary to be

eective as a preaching pastor. In addition

to understanding the cultures and thought

patterns o the Bible, so radically dieren

rom those o the 20th century, students mus

practice the discipline of self-understanding


6/20~ 6 ~


to compensate or weaknesses and avoid

preaching on pet themes; learn to know God

personally and experientially in order to live

what we talk about; and plan ahead out o a

vision or what the congregation needs.

Another hallmark o Gordons ministry

was his pastors heart. He counseled thou-

sands o students and pastors over those

years. I was one o those who sat in his o-

ce on more than one occasion. I came to

him or his wise counsel and to receive his

prayers. His careul listening coupled with

his spiritual discernment made his prayers

times o rereshment and guidance.

During all those years Alta was an in-

separable and integral part o each o the

ministries. Two children, Gregg and Gayle

joined the amily. Alta was wie, homemaker,

mother, gracious hostess, counselor, teacher,

and leader o womens ministries. She was aconstant companion to Gordon all through

those years. Their partnership continued

while serving at the Seminary and at the

College Avenue Church in San Diego. How

she would have loved today to celebrate the

accomplishments o this man she loved so

dearly! Overall, Gordon and Alta served or 33

years at Bethel in one capacity or another.

Gordon, it is a great pleasure and privi-

lege or me to be here today. You have had a

proound and lasting impact upon my lie.You believed in me in such a way as to call

orth the best rom me. You supported me

in urthering my own education I would

not have earned my doctorate without your

support. And your prayers or my lie and

ministry including the 12 years at Whit-

tier and then during the last 15 have meant

more to Carol and me than we can say.

Gordon JohnSon: authoroFMy

ChurCh

Now we must backtrack a ew years. Dur-

ing the decade o the 50s, Gordon was as

active as any pastor could be. While serving

as the pastor o the thriving Central Baptist

Church and pursuing his doctoral degree, he

served on numerous boards and committees.

He served on the Outline Committee or

the Uniorm Bible Series o the National

Sunday School Association which prepared

lessons used by more than 3 million people.

He chaired the Board o Publication or the

BGC. He served or a year

as president o the Board

o Trustees. During 1959

he and Alta made a 54-day

trip during which time he

visited individually with all

o the missionaries in India,

the Philippines, and Japan,

preaching 52 times (nearly a

sermon a day!).

In 1956 he was on Bethels

campus and knew that the

Board o Bible School &

Youth was meeting upstairs

in the old library at the cam-

pus on 1480 N. Snelling Ave.

He stopped in to greet them.

When he did, they told him

o their concern that more

leadership materials were needed or the BGCand they were unanimous in believing that

Gordon should write one o the books in a

series o books being planned. This board and

the Publications Board were working together

to meet a need or a more eective Christian

education program in the growing churches

o the Baptist General Conerence.

At rst Gordon thought their oer was

made in jest, but ater he let the meeting,

he started thinking about their oer. He

realized, as he thought o the content, thathe could preach these themes. And he also

incorporated the writing o the materials as

a project in his doctoral program. In the end,

he preached all but the chapter on history in

a series o sermons that became the text o

My Church.

Johnsons book was planned as part o a

series. He wrote My Church. Clarence Bass,

Systematic Theology proessor at Bethel

Seminary was asked to produce a book on

New Testament Writings and Writerswhich

would be an introduction to the New Testa-

ment. Lawrence Swanson, who headed the

Board o Bible School and Youth, wroteBuild

an Approved Sunday Bible Schoolas the third

book in the series.

The bookMy Churchstruck a unique bal-

ance between solid content and readability.

Though more in depth presentations o

Baptist belies were available in a number o

orms,My Churchwas both theologically and

biblically solid, yet readable and accessible

to lay men and women in churches and waseective with new believers as well.

The rst copies o the book became avail

able in 1957. 3000 copies were printed ini

tially, but they sold out immediately and soon

second and third printings were ordered. My

Church quickly became the principle book

that Conerence churches used in orienta

tion classes or new members and in Sunday

school classes or adults who wanted to ex

plore the backgrounds to their aith.

By 1982, after 25 years in publicationmore than 100,000 copies had been sold. A

ceremony o recognition was held or the

Johnsons and an endowed scholarship was

established at Bethel Seminary, where Johnson

was then Dean, to honor the longest continu

ally published book in Conerence history.

During the next 20 years, over 23,000 more

were added. Last year, 273 copies were sold. A

of Sept. 1 this year, 87 more copies had been

sold. Another printing o the book is currently

being planned and will refect Converge

Worldwide renaming and restructure.

Gordon, we meet here today to honor you

not only or your distinguished lie o service

but or shaping the understanding o church

and what it means to be a devoted ollower

o Jesus Christ within the Baptist Genera

Conerence. We all resonate with the tribute

that says, MyChurch, more than any other

writing, has shaped the principles and ethos

o the Baptist General Conerence and kept us

true to Gods word and our Baptist belies.

Gordon Johnson greeted by Bethel Seminary Dean

predecessor Edwin Omark.


7/20~ 7 ~

continued on p. 8

Becoming Baptist AgainGLen scorGieProes-

sor Theology, Bethel

Seminary West | I

was a small-town

Baptist preachers

kid. Early on I g-

ured out that we

Baptists were prettyordinary olk. Our building was modest, our

worship was simple and unadorned, and

our people were mostly farmers and blue-

collarnot quite up there with the local

Presbyterians and the Anglicans, with their

proessional careers and more aesthetically

pleasing edices.

About the time I started school, as I

remember it, we got an inestation o bats

above the raters o our little Baptist cha-

pel. It fell to my Dad, the one-man staff, tosolve the problem. While trying to umigate

those creatures his oot, and very quickly his

whole leg, went through the ceiling, putting

a mighty hole in the plaster right above the

pulpit. The next Sunday morning the con-

gregation was intrigued by this architectural

innovation, but no one was scandalized.

They shrugged it o. We were, as I said,

humble and unpretentious olk.

Once I collaborated with some other six-

year old colleagues in lobbing stones through

a window o our church. It had seemed like a

good idea at the time. My ather disciplined

me in the Proverbs-style way, and then re-

inorced the teaching moment by taking me

along with him to the hardware store, where

he had some new glass cut and bought putty

to x it up again. Looking back, I am grateul

that it was only clear Baptist glass we boys

had smashed, and not that ornate stained

glass the higher-brow churches enjoyed.

Our next Baptist church, in downtown

Toronto, was an upgrade or my Dada

large brick structure with a bell tower. From

street-level you climbed upstairs to the sanc-

tuary on wide, creaky wooden steps. There,

high above the pulpit and the rows o dark

wood pews, were King James words in large

Gothic calligraphy: O Worship the Lord in

the Beauty o Holiness. There was an archaic

majesty to these inspired words that was

never quite matched in our Baptist goings

on every Sunday morning. Even as a boy I

wondered who had chosen and inscribed

that exhortation, and whether it could pos-

sibly have been one o usmore likely than

not, I surmised, a hired Catholic.

Hal way through the service theyd take

us out or childrens church, and try to evan-

gelize us weekly. The teachers put chorusesup on the slide projector or us to sing along,

like this one:

Rolled away, rolled away, rolled away,

Every burden o my heart rolled away.

All my sins had to go

Neath the crimson fow

Hallelujah! Rolled away . . .

Still embedded in my memory is the

picture on the projector. An alarmed guy,

teetering over a cliff with a huge Sisyphus-

sized rock on his back, was about to tipbackwards and hurtle down into hell. It was

an enormous relie on the next slide that the

rock somehow rolled away when he looked

up to a cross, silhouetted on a hill above him.

I think the old Baptist giant John Bunyan

would have approved.

There were lay olk in that church who

cared about us kids (and our eternal welare),

and they were remarkably creative about

rounding up neighborhood young people

and incentivizing them to attend Sunday

school. One week it was

a ree goldsh in a small

plastic bag o water or

anyone who brought a

riend. That plan, un-

ortunately, went south

when most o the ish

inexplicably died beore

Sunday school ended.

On Sundays the atten-

dance would always be

posted at the ront o

the sanctuary, next to

the numbers o the

hymn selections, and

we tracked that numbers rise and all the way

richer people ollowed the stock market.

Some day, I knew, I too would have to be

baptized, and stand at the ront in a bor-

rowed white robe that would become totally

transparent the moment you hit the water. I

knew this for a fact, from eye-popping pas

experience in which moments o great spiri-

tual ecstasy had been incongruously mixed

with burlesque. For a baptismal service little

burgundy drapes would pull back to revea

an amateur painting o a scene along the

banks o the River Jordan.

We called baptism an ordinance, becausewe did not buy all the sacramental stu that

some Christians espoused. And yet or all o

our disdain or any element o mystery in

this ancient Christian initiation rite, it was

oten a palpably sacred moment wherein the

supernatural realm was only thinly veiled

rom sight. The baptismal candidate would

come up out o the water, the congregation

would lurch into another verse o Trust and

Obey, and deep spiritual emotion fowed

thick all round. The moment was too sacredor any applause; symbolically, someone had

just chosen to die, and had risen again to live

henceorth or Christ alone.

Baptism is an especially dicult step or

introverts. I vividly remember the benevo

lent joy welling up in the eyes o the minister

who took my hand and led me into the chilly

waters. There was the plunge beneath the sur

ace, a powerul tactile reinorcement o the

meaning o Romans 6 orever etched on my

soul. And aterwards, there was an awareness

o having really crossed the Ru

bicon, or more accurately, hav

ing been immersed in it. I had

a sense o my heavenly Fathers

pleasure, and also o relie, that I

was nally a bona de legitimate

(because obedient) Christian.

We Baptists started out as

a variety of 17th-century Puritan-

ismone with an extraordinary

appreciation or reedom and au

tonomy that made us a nuisance

and even a threat, to those more

aligned with the establishment

But over time our robust Puritan

spirituality got concentrated in the up-front

conversion cluster o repentance, aith, re

generation and baptism. Unortunately or

many Baptists today, meaningul spirituality

tends to peter out ater the initiation crisis

The soul-hungry among us are often obliged


8/20~ 8 ~

Becoming Baptist Again, from p. 7

to go oraging outside our own tradition to

nd helpul guidance and mentors. On the

international scene, Baptists are requently

persecuted, and out o this experience has de-

veloped a spirituality o suering that is cer-

tainly very genuine. But generally speaking,

Baptist churches o North America maintain

a rather serious spiritual trade deicit in

relationship to other Christian traditions.

Thisthe lack o a deeply transormative

post-conversion spiritualityhas become

an Achilles heel o our tradition.

Signs o this deiciency abound. Years

beorehand our Baptist church in Toronto

had been the scene o an acrimonious split

between two camps o ollowers o the Baptist

Fundamentalist champion T. T. Shields. City

newspapers gave front-page coverage to the

subsequent shenanigans. There was, or ex-

ample, the night one action backed a truck upto the theological library o the other group

and literally drove o with their books.

Some o our own congregational meetings

were unmitigated disasters. As a child I was

protected rom the details, but I did notice

when a ght broke out in the stands at a foor

hockey game between two Baptist churches.

One o our senior deacons totally lost it,

shouting and failing about, suspending the

game itsel while his sobbing wie pleaded

or him to settle down. Congregational politywithout spiritually mature pastors and laity

is always an accident waiting to happen, or,

more accurately, a bomb about to explode.

Eventually my weary parents ound reuge

in a Holiness denomination that seemed to

maniest more grace in relationships and o-

fer more soul-nourishment in its spirituality.

My own personal ormation then continued

in this post-Baptist environment for years to

come. But its a curious thing how precious

denominational testimonies or takes on

truth tend over time to acquire unimpeach-

able authority and a virtually divine status

equal to the Bible itsel. Eventually I ound

my own reading o Scripture and conscience

no longer a good match or the Procrustean

bed o this denominations idiosyncratic

doctrines. I was teaching systematic theology

at the time, so there was no place to hide. I

needed to jump beore I got pushed. But

where could I go?

As it turned out, my old riends the

Baptists oered me a sae place to land,

viewing me, no doubt, as a prodigal com-

ing home. But they were a dierent kind o

Baptist this time around. They were German

Baptistsimmigrants to Canada with roots

in a European Pietism that maniested itsel

in beautiully sung harmonies and, more

importantly, a warm-hearted love for Godand his word.

And while they took the Bible and doc-

trine seriously, as good Baptists they were

reluctant to tether their consciences to any

humanly composed doctrinal statement or

conession. They regarded their conession

o aith more as a collective testimony than

as a binding contract upon the soul. They

were active in missions, but they were also

proud o Walter Rauschenbusch, one o their

own, who had underscored the importanceo living the Gospel in the midst o human-

itys heart-rending needs. And it was such a

breath o resh air to stumble into a group

o Baptists who, due to geographic and lin-

guistic isolation, had essentially missed the

Fundamentalist-liberal controversies of the

early 20th century in North America and all

the resultant polarizations and edginess.

Then, thirteen years ago I received an

unsolicited call, inviting me to join Bethel

San Diego and the BGC. It

may have helped that the

call came during a nasty

blizzard one winter night in

northern Alberta. But even so

I would never have said yes

i I hadnt been assured that

BGC olks were the Swedish

cousins o my German Bap-

tist riends, and no strangers

to the warm-hearted piety

o their common European

ancestry. I noted the reputation of Carl Lund

quist and his Order o the Burning Heart, the

large library o devotional literature he be

queathed to Bethel, his riendship with A. W

Tozer, and the act that the seminary magazine

was still entitled Heart and Mind.

Looking back, Im very grateul or the

opportunity given me to join this new el

lowship. At the same time its been sobering

to discover how much o this wonderu

Pietist heritage has atrophied away. None

theless, some still understand that a heart

or God, disciplined attentiveness to his

voice, and openness to his contagious, loving

disposition, are the necessary spiritual ue

o any sustainable movement. And they also

grasp that true piety is not a privatized, self

indulgent aair, but an inner wellspring that

will always fow outward to the world.

And happily some still appreciate thajust because Baptist worship is simple i

need not be cheap, supercial. Its elementa

nature, when guided by a reverent spirit

can actually make it more authentic, deeper

and proound. To paraphrase the poet W

H. Auden, even the ordinary can be tinged

with glory. We too can worship the Lord in

the beauty o holiness.

A cultural shit is going on. The other

encouraging thing is that our heritage o

Baptist Pietism now resonates in a remarkable way with the longings o the emerging

generation, who are disillusioned with

top-down power structures, impersona

programs, relational disconnect and shal

low religiosity. We have an opportunity to

preserve the best o our heritage, and adapt i

with creative innovation, so that its enduring

strengths can nourish souls today.

The genuine Baptist tradition is a no-frills

option or the humble. Therein lies one o

its strengths, because it remains so accessible

to ordinary people. It has provided a simple

oundation upon which many churches and

denominations have diversely built. But at

its heart is a vision o a community o ree

truly liberated Christians, united in love and

voluntary association. They bow beore God

and Gods word, and precisely because o this

they reuse to be intimidated or controlled by

any mere humans. This heritage o reedom

in Christ is why I am grateul to be a Baptis

once again.photobyGregSc

hneider

Bethel Seminary San Diego, Caliornia


9/20~ 9 ~

continued on p. 10

Gordon, Alta, Gregg and Gayle Johnson,

Montclair, New Jersey

G. WiLLiam carLson,

Proessor o History

and Political Science

Bethel University |

For a short period

of time, 1948-1951,Gordon Johnson

was pastor o Bethel

Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey.

This was my home church. During this time

he worked on his Th.M rom Princeton

Seminary. Members o the congregation

remember this time ondly because they

valued his preaching skills and his commit-

ment to the proclamation o the gospel o

Jesus Christ. He inspired many to value Bible

reading and prayer.My parents enthusiastically supported

Gordons ministry. My ather, as a member

o the Bethel Board o Education, was really

pleased when Gordon was selected as Dean

of Bethel Seminary in 1964. The defense of

the Baptist pietist heritage was well articu-

lated in his book, My Church, a book whose

various editions were always prominently

displayed in our home.

Although he valued the Armation o

Faith as a statement which articulates the core

belies o the Baptist General Conerence,

Johnson always argued that the Bible is the

nal authority. He advanced the belie that

God, and the Lie He Has Given Us, Is so Good!The Ministry and Vision o Gordon Johnson

we are always to be lsare people, readers o

The Book. All creeds and statements o aith

are to be viewed as an expression o mans

understanding o the New Testament teach-

ings which are our authority or the church.

(My Church, p. 12) We must put ourselvesunder the written Word o God so that we are

tuned to the purposes o the Lord. It is our

commitment to this Word that directs us in

the kind o emphases we seek to express in

our teaching. (Johnson, Armations or a

Theological School p. 6)

Many have commented correctly on the

unique contributions that Gordon Johnson

has made to the Baptist General Conerence

and the Seminarys educational mission.

These include helping to acilitate the moveto the new Seminary campus, developing

a powerul aculty team, obtaining ull ac-

creditation or the school, encouraging new

degree programs including

the development o Th.M.

and M.A.T.S. programs, help-

ing grow the study body, and

the creating a second seminary

campus in San Diego.

This issue o the Baptist Pietist

Clarionhas ocused on a major

contribution o Dr. Johnson, the

writing o My Church. The book,

published rst in 1957, has become

a standard or understanding the

belies, history, church practices, and

societal interactions o a Baptist denomina-

tion. In an age of anti-denominationalism

and a desire to move away rom a Baptist

identity, one wonders whether this work

will be shelved to the archives or revived as a

vibrant aspect o todays church. In this essay,

I would like ocus on our areas o Dr. John-sons contribution to the lie o the Baptist

General Conerence community especially

through his leadership at Bethel Seminary.

First, Gordon is a strong supporter o

the Baptist General Conerence Archives

and the preservation o denominational

history.

He valued the work o David Guston and

Norris Magnuson. Housed in the Seminary

complex, the archives ound a home and

a base o operations. Seminary librarians

were given the assignment o attempting to

maintain and expand the collection.

Oten statements o church belies ignore

the historical ramework or their originWhat does it mean to be part o the Swedish

Baptist pietist community o aith? Does our

history matter? How does our past contrib

ute to an understanding o todays mission

Will it be ignored or validated?

Johnson, in My Church, developed a

chapter attempting to answer these ques

tions. He identied some o the core belies

o the Baptist community in the lie o the

Anabaptist communities o the Reormation

O most importance was the belie that aithin Jesus Christ must precede baptism and

that religion was a voluntary matter not to

be orced upon an individual.

The irst actual Baptis

church was ormed by John

Smyth with other English im

migrants in Holland. How

ever, most o Gordon John

sons ocus was on the role

o the Baptist church in the

United States, starting with

Roger Williams and mov

ing through the expansion

o Baptist churches during

the Great Awakening. Emphasi

was placed on the development o mis

sions, rise o Sunday Schools, commitmen

to religious reedom and establishment o

distinctive Baptist armations. (My Church

pp. 136-44; 145-149)

Several o the early leaders o the Swedish

Baptist community in America were immi

grants who needed to nd a new home sincethe State Church o Sweden endorsed the

use o the government to persecute Baptists

in Sweden. F. O. Nilsson was banished rom

Sweden in 1851 after he had been baptized

by German Baptists and wished to start Bap

tist communities in Sweden. He helped to

establish churches in the Midwest, especially

Minnesota.

Johnson not only wanted people to un

derstand BGC history, but he also valued the


10/20~ 10 ~

Ministry and Vision, from p. 9

Gordon Johnson with longtime secretary Edna Schultz.

continued on p.11

work o ormer educational leaders in provid-

ing a base or Bethels heritage and mission.

In a moving tribute to A. J. Wingblade, who

was Principal of Bethel Academy from 1912-

1936, he prayed that todays church would not

orget the heroes o the past.

We enter into the labors o the present because

o the work o those who have preceded

us

Far too oten we who are younger orget that

we are what we are because o those who

laid the oundation.

We thank You or those whom we honor today

because o all they have meant to us in

this school.

Some o us have been inuenced by our per-

sonal contact with them; others have been

inuenced through the work in the class-

room; and still others indirectly throughthe work o our school in which they have

shared so signifcantly

As we look toward the uture, may we have

some measure o the oresight that led them

to build as they did.

May we remember that the successes o today

are the result in large measure o the work

o those who have preceded us.

Be glorifed in us as You have been in them.

Second, Gordon is a gited story tellingpreacher.

This is especially true in his eorts to

include the stories o the

Bible as part o the sermon

narrative. A recent inter-

view in Heart and Mind

on his latest book, en-

titled Making God Known

Through Story, empha-

sized Gordons story tell-

ing skills. Engaging and

compelling are Gordons

tales o men and women

who have aithully served

the Lord on the mission

ield, and o his many

trips to visit missionaries

the world over. Names o evangelical leaders

roll o his tongue, and the history o vital

overseas ministries is woven into the abric

o his maniold career. Thereore Johnsons

readers learn rom a master.However, what is most important is that

the Christian lie is the creating o ones own

unique story, shaped and understood by the

story o Christ. The Bible is not a systematic

theology. There are minimal expressions o

abstract doctrines in a philosophical rame-

work in the Bible. The discovery o teachings

about God is observed in the stories o

women and men as they are conronted by

God in the midst o their human activity.

What is seen are truths coming through thehuman situation.

It took until the ninth decade o Dr.

Johnsons lie to get these

ideas in a published or-

mat. The book has been

a major part o his own

spiritual journey and

he inally had the op-

portunity to share them

with others in a mono-

graph orm. However,

they are an expression o

his commitment to com-

municate eectively the

gospel o Jesus Christ.

He writes that Revela-

tion is God making him-

sel known. He takes the

initiative. He wants the

seeker to nd Him. God

has taken the initiative

throughout the ages by his encounters with

men and women in vital experiences o

knowing Him. Gods story must arise eec

tively rom the Biblical text and lead people

to accept Gods call o salvation throughJesus Christ.

Third, Gordon is a person committed

prayer and Bible study.

In a powerul sermon entitled The Joy

o Studying the Word Johnson suggests

that when people expose themselves to the

message o the Bible things begin to happen

People act in daring ways. Lives are trans

ormed. A dead church comes alive again. A

Bible teacher becomes eective in relevan

communication.

The Bible is Gods personal letter to us and

the study o it helps us experience relation

ship to the Friend o all riends, the Lord

Himsel. Why is the Bible so important or

the Baptist Seminary Dean? For Johnson i

allows us daily to re-experience the joy we

rst had when we accepted Christ as Savior

and Lord. Dont orget the excitement o the

early experience with Christ and allow it to

appear again and again as one experientially

reads the Bible through the stories o Gods

interactions with people.

Several years ago, Marie Schultz, ater

reading an issue o Baptist Pietist Clarion

gave me an original copy o Edna Schultzs

typed copy o the Prayers o Gordon John

son. Edna worked at Bethel from 1951-1985

She was secretary to the Dean o Bethel Sem

inary from 1964-1978 and was instrumenta

in recording or posterity many o Gordon

BecauSeoF thy holineSS

Because o Thy Holiness we hesitate to talk

to Thee, but we are aware that not only art

Thou holy but Thou art merciul.

Increasingly we become conscious o our need

O Thy control in our lives

- in the kind of world in which we live,

- with the pressures that come upon us,-with temptations that make us deviate from that

which we know is best or ourselves.

We want You to control us.

We want You to be our guide.

In this hour o worship may we sense

- Thy presence,

- Thy leadership, and

- Thy work in each of us as individuals.

In Jesus name we pray.


11/20~ 11 ~

Ministry and Vision, from p. 10

a prayerFor thoSe Who are hurtinG

Our Father,

You are the Mighty God and Creator.

Yet You are not aloo rom us.

Through your loving concern You have come to us.

In Jesus Christ you have identied with us.

No struggle o lie is beyond your understanding.

Every human need is within Your concern.

O Lord, may we love people as you have loved.

May we reach out to hurting persons as

You have touched the wounded.

May no person be too lowly or too mighty

or our genuine concern.

We pray this in the name that is above every name

Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Johnsons lectures and presentations. From

1978 to 1985 Edna Schultz was Registrar of

Bethel Seminary.

Three major themes are ound in Gordon

Johnsons prayers. People o aith need to

worship the Holy One and recognize His

presence in our lives. It is important to bring

the tough issues to God and ask or His

guidance. It is important or Christians to

recognize God as teacher, master and guide

o our lives and understand that dying to sel

brings a great ruitulness in lie.

Fourth, Gordon Johnson has a heart or

those who are hurting.

Johnsons commitment to social and

economic justice is ound in his reading o

the Bible and expressed in his vision or the

Christian church. Swedish Baptists must al-

ways remember their immigrant experience.Some early Swedish immigrants suered

rom religious persecution in the homeland.

Others struggled economically and sought

or better opportunities in America. Many

struggled in the harsh economic and social

environments o American industrializa-

tion. For these reasons Johnson is an active

supporter o the vision and mission o the

Baptist World Alliance and the Baptist Joint

Committee.

Gordon Johnsons personal les in theBaptist General Conerence Archives include

several speeches that he gave while he was

Dean o the Seminary. They refected on the

Vietnam war and signicant economic in-

equities throughout the world. Johnson was

not a pacist and served in the U. S. military

during World War II. However, he expressed

troubled eelings about the Vietnam war.

For Johnson it was a tragic war. Our nation

had lost its sense o purpose.

We have the resources, stated Johnson, to

do almost anything the mind o man can

conceive. However, a primary use o that

power and wealth was oten or destruction.

He believed that there was a need to devote

large amounts o human energy and money

to wrestle with the problems o poverty, racial

tensions, and illiteracy right in our own coun-

try. We should be aiding developing nations

in their own struggle against poverty and

economic crises because more serious results

are bound to come i these needs are not

soon met. As Christian citizens we should be

deeply troubled that our nation is not usingits vast resources o wisdom and possessions

in purposeul, constructive service.

Johnson, in My Churchdevelops an analy-

sis o a core Baptist principle. This principle

is the inherent right o every person equally

with every other person in the world and in

every age to deal personally and directly with

God through Christ and, thereore, to deal

with other persons. It means that every

individual has direct access through Christ

to God. No man or group o men or organi-zation can stand between an individual, and

God. It urther means that all men are on an

equal plane in the sight o God and in their

responsibility to God. (My Church, p. 77)

For Johnson this principle

had several implications. Jesus

teaches that every believer is a

priest beore God and there

should be no hierarchy be-

tween the individual and God.

Conversion breaks down class

barriers. We are all on an equal

plane in Christ Jesus (Galatians

3:28). Johnson illustrated this

idea with the ollowing story:

A wealthy lady one day

invited a riend to accompany

her to church. They rode to-

gether in her coach driven by

her chaueur. When they ar-

rived at the church, the riend

was amazed to discover that

the coachman was to bring the sermon o the

morning. She was so disturbed that she said

something to the wealthy lady about it. Do

not be disturbed about that, she replied. In

Christ we are all one. He is not a coachman

and I his employer. We are ellow believers

in Jesus Christ. (My Church, p. 79)

Gordon Johnson ound it important to use

prayer as a way to express the need or socia

and economic justice. He oten asked God

or orgiveness or bigotry, clannishness and

an unwillingness to seek out those who are in

need especially when it is done in the name

o piety.

We Bow in Humble Adoration Beore You

We live in a world ull o want and despair.

And we have done so little to right the wrong

which in every corner o the world cry ou

to be righted.In this land o plenty we have thought too much

in terms o our privileges and our rights

and too little in terms o our duty

Make us aware o our helplessness to so liv

and inuence our world apart rom You

work within us.

In this moment we submit to Your Lordship in

our individual lives so our lives can make a

dierence in a wounded, troubled world.

Since Gordon Johnson retired rom being the Dean o Bethel Seminary he has

remained active in the lie o the church. He

served as minister o pastoral care at Col

lege Avenue Baptist Church in San Diego

taught preaching at Bethel Seminary San

Diego, and served as interim pastor at Firs

Baptist Church o Lakewood. When asked

about retirement, Gordon stated that you

cant retire rom opportunity and activity

but you must recognize that they will be o

a dierent sort than what we did earlier.

Relecting on his lie as educator and

pastor he concluded that being a Christian

is the most secure way to live. It provides a

sense o stability. Being strong in Christian

aith doesnt mean narrow, but it is a genu

ine worldview, a perspective that makes lie

rich. God, and the lie He has given us, is so

good!


12/20~ 12 ~

continued on p.13

G. WiLLiam carLson, Proessor o History

and Political Science Bethel University | In

recent issues o the Baptist Pietist Clarion

we have published the poetry o Signe Olson

Peterson. Under the name Signe, she wrote

around 300 poems and essays which werepublished in at least eight Swedish newspa-

pers and journals rom Port Arthur, Canada,

to Chicago, to New Britain, Connecticut.

Signe immigrated rom Varmland, Sweden

to Port Arthur, Canada in May 1911. Signe

worked as a domestic or a widow in one o

Port Arthurs grand homes.

More than eighty of her early Swedish po-

ems were written while she lived in Canada

between 1911-18. During Signes stay in

Port Arthur she was an active participantin the lie o the Swedish Baptist Church.

The church was ounded in 1905 under the

leadership o Fred Palmquist. Ater meeting

in homes, a church building was completed

in 1909. The church was pastored by John

Olander, Reverend Grondahl, and Axel Carl-

son. Several o Signes early poems dealt with

the lie o the Port Arthur church including

an analysis o the ten year celebration o the

Celebrating a Baptist Heritage:The Pietist Poetry o Signe Olson Peterson

history o the church and a arewell poem to

pastor Grondahl.

After moving to St. Paul, Minnesota, she

worked as a cook at Bethel Seminary and

eventually married Rev. E. B. Peterson.

She raised six children, and ministered to

churches in Fish Lake, Eveleth and Kerk-

hoven, Minnesota. Several o

Signes poems discuss aspects o

the ministry o the Baptist General

Conerence. She showed strong

support or Klingberg Childrens

Home which was ounded by John

Klingberg in 1903 in New Britain,

Connecticut.

Signe was a strong supporter of

the Swedish Baptist Conference,attending some of the meetings,

interacting with several major

pastors and supporting women

in ministry. She communicated

in writing with Ethel Ruff, who

was a powerful preacher and the

rst woman to be ordained in the

Baptist General Conference. One

poem recognized the tragic death

o missionary Olivia Johnson, the

rst graduate o Bethel Academy

to become a oreign missionary to

the Philippines.

For Signe the lie and history o the Baptist

General Conerence was important. Several

o her poems celebrate the lie o Minnesota

conerence events, document the witness o

missions and honor the work o conerence

leaders. Signe admired the lie and educa-

tional leadership o Dr. Carl Lundquist. Her

poem honoring missionary E. O. Schugren

expressed Signes delight in the spread o the

gospel through evangelists and missionar-

ies. A number o her writings were used

by the blind evangelist A. J. Freeman who

was a signicant witness in Swedish Baptist

churches in the early twentieth century. The

ollowing is an illustration o her refections

on a Conerence event.

a thouGhtFromthe conFerence

Svenska StandaretSeptember 15, 1918

(translated by Tom Coleman)

I stood looking out over the crowd

gathering here,

They were coming to take in the

conerence this year,

And eelings came or which I had no

thoughts that were clear,

They were churning in the depths

o my heart.

East, west, north, and south were here

meeting one another,

In joyul tones they were calling

every man brother,And with the tenderness that thinks

rst o the other,

They were asking o each others welare.

My own mother tongue there

rom every mouth I heard,

And every conversation to the same

theme reerred,

They rom death to lie had passed

according to Gods word,

They were united in aith and baptism

I you my conerence brother

nd courage lapses,

And the hope that you were

relying on collapses,

Remember there are honorable

Swedish Baptists,

Whose number reaches to

thirty thousands.

A n u m b e r o

Signes poems and

letters celebrated

the work o J. W.

Hjertstrom, Erik

Sjostrand and Wal-

demar Skoglund,

who were active

in Swedish Baptist

newspaper pub-

lishing. Signe was Erik Sjostrand


13/20~ 13 ~

den and Waldemar Skoglund became editor

o a local newspaper entitled Dalslannigen.

Signe wrote a scathing letter of protest

of Skoglunds forced resignation. It was

published in the August 1931 edition of the

Svenska Standaretand triggered a signicant

response by various leaders of the Baptist

General Conference. It is possible that one

of the issues was whether the news-

paper ought to expand its English

language materials or whether it

needed to expand its support base.

Signe challenged the work of the

Literature Committee which asked

for Skoglunds resignation. Re-

cently, I received a translated copy

from Gordon Skoglund, the son of

Waldemar Skoglund. It provided

an understanding of the depth of

relationships that developed be-tween the editor and the poet. Signe

wrote:

The reason for Skoglunds resignation

sounds completely plausible in the ears of an

outsider. Without doubt he received friendly

hints and knew very well from which direc-

tion the wind was blowing long before the

storm broke out. Therefore, he began to

make his own plans

to prepare him-

self in the face ofwhat was coming

on

Brother Sko-

glunds accom-

plishments within

the literary sector

will never be ac-

knowledged until

he is gone and

only the noble

memories of him

will be left. He

is soon going to

shake the dust

from his feet. If

his new ground

for service will

be Sweden, I feel

sorrowful on be-

half of his Swed-

ish colleagues

who have given

Signe Olson Peterson Poetry, from p. 12

continued on p.14

extremely thankul or those editors who

launched her literary career and published

many o her poems. Sjostrand edited the

Svensta Standaretfrom 1911-1917. It became

the ocial organ o the Baptist General Con-

erence in 1911. During his editorship Signe

published over 25 poems. Sjostrand was also

a poet and had numerous poems published

in the newspaper. He was orced to resign

over a theological controversy dealing with

the issue o atonement. Signe published a

supportive poem.

a FareWell GreetinGto SJoStrand

Svenska StandaretMarch 1, 1917

(translated by Tom Coleman)

With my thanks let me greet you tenderly,

For all that you my brother did or me,

For all that you taught me throughout lie,In your striving you always took the stance,

That step by step our Standard should

advance,

And lead us to triumph in our strie.

You were in controversies hard and tough,

And the road through your struggles

always rough,

Which to victory will lead us on.

Without ear you pursued the task

you ound,With xity o purpose you were bound,

To lead till all hindrances were gone.

From no one else now comes this

word o praise,

Which in my simple way I want to raise,

Receive it as gits rom me alone.

A special debt to you I want to pay,

You were my help when on the poets way,

I made rst steps o those I have gone.

From 1917-1931 the Svenska Standaret

was edited by Waldemar Skoglund. Skoglund

had begun his journalist experience in Swe-

den and came to the United States in 1912

hoping to nd work in American Swedish

journalism. Around 100 o Signes poems

were published in the Svenska Standaretdur-

ing Skoglunds editorship. At a 1931 Baptist

General Conerence session in Minneapolis

Skoglund was asked to resign as editor. In

December 1931 the amily returned to Swe-

chriSt alone(Svenska Standaret, Vol. XX, No. 38, September 23, 1930, p. 3)

Ring out his blessed, holy name,

His mighty power to save proclaim.

Tell the perplexed and sin sick soul,

Without an aim, beyond control;

No other conquering power is known,

But Christ alone.

Tell him o Calvary and the cross,

Whos in the grip o moral loss,

O bitter ailure and deeat,With trembling ear his judgment meet:

Upon that hill Gods grace was shown

Through Christ alone.

No other source, no other git,

A allen soul rom sin can lit.

Through lies temptations saely guide

And tested, tried and justied,

Him place one day beore Gods throne

But Christ alone.

him memories to bring back to our common

homeland. It will be a disgrace for our unti

now respected name: Swedish Baptists o

America.

Signes poetry often reected her com

mitment to a Baptist pietist heritage. Major

themes included a need for a born again

experience, a delight in prayer and Bible

study, a celebration

of the community o

faith, a desire for holy

living and an anticipa

tion of heaven. These

Biblical beliefs were

pillars of strength to

Signes life and wit

ness. The following

pietist, Baptist po

ems, Christ Alone

and My Only Hope,were some of Signes

rst English poems and were published dur

ing the last stages of Skoglunds leadership

in the Svenska Standaret.

Waldemar Skoglund


14/20~ 14 ~

Signe Olson Peterson Poetry, from p. 13

He walked along the road one night.

Twas dusty, rough and dreary.His tangled hair was silvery white.

His downward look was weary.

Some strangers asked, as they drew nigh,

About his destination

With gratitude in his reply,

He gave this inormation.

An aged, orsaken man am I,

The years Ive met are many.

My ormer riends no more stand by,

And wealth I havent any.My manhood strength is leaving me,

My hold on lie Im losing.

Ive ceased to climb the hills you see,

My task no more Im choosing.

I have no home, I am alone

To ace the strie beore me.

And no one I can call my own

Is ever watching oer me.

From place to place I roam and stray

By hunger mostly driven.

My daily bread I seek to pay,

Where work to me is given.

My lot is a result o sin,

Sin has my lie been molding.

It was my choice, I entered in,

Ive tasted all its holding.

It took my health, my youth rom me

And age was passing oer me.

I saw the dark eternity

Without a hope beore me.

And so one day, in my despair,

I yielded to decisionAnd knelt beore my Lord in prayer

In humble, deep contrition.

What depth o love! He heard my plea,

And the assurance gave me,

And died or allen ones like me,

And sought to lit and save me!

Six years ago this spring it was

Since Christ, my Savior, ound me,

Where in the shadow o the cross

He placed His arms around me.A joy complete, throughout these years,

My sin-sick soul has tasted.

But now I shed regretting tears,

Because o all Ive wasted.

Ive stayed and waited much too long,

Been robbed o years o blessing.

I I had come while young and strong,

My Saviours name conessing,

I couldve done some good or Him,

For all his love so tender.

But strength is gone, my eye is dim,

No service I can render.

Bring out my sad and deep regret

To those who now are meeting

The battles and the stries Ive met,

Bring them my warning, greeting.

Twill not be long that I shall stay,

Im old, I can not tarry,

The heavy burdens o today

I soon would have to carry.

177. my only hope

(Svenska Standaret, Vol. XXI, No. 4, January 27, 1931, p. 3 )

I have been homeless here below,

But Christ His word has givenThat He beore His own would go,

Preparing room in heaven.

My hope, my only hope is He,

My Rock and my Salvation,

Who died to rescue even me

From death and condemnation.

Signe Olson Peterson, 1940s, Kerkhoven,

Minnesota


15/20~ 15 ~

continued on p. 16

G. William Carlson, Proessor o History and

Political Science Bethel University | Several

years ago I had the opportunity to interview

several candidates or a position teaching

poetry and creative writing at Bethel Uni-

versity. Each candidate was well received.

However, ater reading several o AngelaShannons poems rom her bookSinging the

Bones Togetherand listening to her discuss

her aith journey and literary commitments,

I was certain that Ms. Shannon would be an

excellent addition to the Bethel aculty.

Angelas poems oten express a deep com-

mitment to the church and her Christian

e x p e r i -

ence. She

ocuses on

the value

o history

and com-

m u n i t y .

A n g e l a

was born

in Tulsa,

Oklahoma

in 1 9 6 4 .

Her am-

ilys story

i n c l u d e s

the ugly history o American racism, es-pecially the Tulsa Riot o 1921. The am-

ily church, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, was

burned. There was great pride in the amilys

role in the rebuilding o the church.

She grew up in Tampa, Florida and re-

ceived a B.A. in theater rom Florida State

University and a MFA rom Warren Wilson

College in North Carolina. Her parents were

active educators. Her ather, Dr. John L.

Smith, was past president o Fisk University

and her mother Dr. Juel Smith taught atthe University o South Florida where she

ounded the Institute on Black Lie and a

oundation or women in leadership.

In her poem Carrying Homeshe refects

on the need or the poet to share the stories

o the past:

carryinG home

I am carrying home in my breast pocket:

land where I learned to crawl,

dust that held my ootprints,

long elds I trod through.

Home, where Mother baked bread,where Papa spoke with skies,

where amily voices gathered.

In my palm, this heap o earth

I have hauled over hills and valleys.

Releasing dirt between my ngers,

I ask the prairies to sustain me.

May my soil and this soil nurture each

other,

may seeds root and develop beyond mea-

sure,

may the heartland and I blossom.

(From Singing the Bones Together, p. 54)

Angela Shannon became active in the

theater community in Chicago. It was there

that she met Rohan Preston at a lecture by

philosopher and civil rights activitist Cornel

West. They were married in 1993 and moved

to Minnesota when Rohan became the lead

theater critic or the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Donna Johnson, associate campus pastor at

Bethel, read some o Angela Shannons poetryand invited her to give a reading at Bethel Uni-

versity. When a position opened up, Angela

applied and received the appointment.

The Psalms have great meaning or the

poet. Shannon argued that they speak to

the soul. She never tires o reading O Lord,

O Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all

the earth! The African-American church

was instrumental to her self-understanding

and the message o the church needs to be

eectively communicated to students. In arecent interview she stated that My aith is

part o my heritageI pray or my students,

and Im always looking or God in whatever

were exploring.

Shannon recognizes that the history o the

Angela Shannon: We Carry Our History With Uscivil rights movement in the United States

is signicantly a result o the courageous

activities of the African-American church

Survival in segregated America was greatly

acilitated by the lie o the extended amily

and the community o aith oten associated

with the church.

prayinG FriendS

We brought church home,

kneeled around the oak table,

a song simmering in our chests.

We hummed a history until testimonies

blended with halleluiahs,

and the sound o sparrows lled the space.

Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes.Sparrows at the window,

specks o light and song futtering.

Through the room, through hearts,

until burdens were surrendered like worn

fags,

and praise amplied into praise,

and arms extended like wings.

It is a joy to include Angela Shannonspoems in this issue o the Baptist Pietis

Clarion. Shannon is currently an Assistant

Proessor o English at Bethel University. She

was asked to read two o her poems at the

March 2009 Pietism Conerence at Bethe

University during the cultural heritage ex

pressions. She believes that it is importan

or the poet to get their poems into a place

or others to read and enjoy. She is the author

oSinging Bones Togetherand has published

works in several anthologies and journals

These include Beyond the Frontier: Arican

American Poetry or the 21st Century and

Where One Voice Ends, Another Begins: 150

Years o Minnesota Poetry.Recently one o her

poems, First Signature, was published in

a book entitled Hip Hop Speaks to Children

A Celebration o Poetry with a Beat(edited

by Nikki Giovanni).


16/20~ 16 ~

Angela Shannon Poetry, from p. 15

Freedom BaptiSt

ater Faith Ringgolds The Church Picnic, 1987

Seven families sit on home-sewn quilts

like cousins in Senegal whispering

among baobab branches. Woven baskets

take reuge under oak arms, as i the women

had just returned rom market. But they

are dressed or Jesus in vivid patterns

o ruby, emerald and jade

the ladies hats stacked with resh peonies,

the men in humbled suits and Sunday smiles

lean toward gourds o yams, collard greens,

biscuits. A breeze pins a lea to Sister Willies

bosom and she starts a stumbling testimony,

I, I, I, that simmers like roots into spiritual.

I love the Lord he heard my cry.

Hums spill over into waves, hallelujahs echo,

tapping spines like Gods blue breath.

Rev. Walker and Doris, the history

carrier, take to dancing: this is Freedom

Baptists Picnic, Chicago, Illinois, 1909.

And an ocean away unripe ruit all

rom the baobabs grasp as i they heard names.

Freedom Baptist illustrates Gods magnitude and connection

rom Arica to America. It is inspired by The Church Picnic, a

quilt made by Faith Ringgold. The quilt is currently housed at the

High Museum o Art in At-

lanta, Georgia and can be see

at one o the ollowing web-

sites: http://www.cc.gatech.

edu/projects/hmuseum/

themes/city/church-picnic-

story.html or http://www.

faithringgold.com/ring-gold/d05.htmThe poem is

ound in Shannons Sing-

ing the Bones Together.

mlK, Jr. and prayer poWer

With my head in my hands,

I bowed over the kitchen table

and prayed aloud. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Prayers kept him company at night.Prayers dressed him in starched shirt,

Sunday suit and steadast soul.

Prayers pushed him orward,

pulled him through barricades and barriers

hands clasping Andy, Rosa, and Jessies.

Prayers whispered a letter in a Birmingham jail,

propelled him on a pilgrimage,

doused curses and burning crosses.

Prayers lined worn-out shoes

with a high step or Jesus, anointed

Alabama roads with visions o justice.

Salty prayers dripped rom speeches,

stemmed rom hurting hearts, Lord,

seasoned and lled silence.

Prayers hitched rides on songs,

I aint gonna let nobody turn me round,

turn me round, turn me round.

Prayers lead the way, passed barking dogs

and brutal troopers, prayers marched

like the Holy Ghost beyond bloody attacks.

Prayers rose like angels, rose

like angels liting Martin rom his knees,

liting a nation to higher ground.

Prayers rooted the dream,

Martin and a multitude o aces, know,

prayers rooted the dream.


17/20~ 17 ~

BGC in the 21stCentury, from p. 1

continued on p. 18

This presentation will zero in on ve areas

or discussion.

identity

The rst area is the question o identity.

Who are we and how do we project that

identity to the world? We started, o course,

as the Swedish Baptist Conerence. This

was clearly our identity. Culturally, we were

Swedish pietists compared to other Baptist

groups and we were Baptist in contrast to

those Swedes who were Lutheran.

But today, rather than our identity as

Swedish Baptists it is more appropriate

to identify us as a multi-ethnic Baptistic

evangelical group o churches. While we

retain our Baptist distinctives, Baptist as an

identiying term has become less popular.

In the 1954/55 annual I could not nd one

church listed that did not have the word Bap-tist in its titles. In the 2004/5 annual 47% of

our churches did not have the name Baptist

in their title. And the national oce while

legally retaining the name Baptist General

Conerence is now known as Converge or

Converge Worldwide.

At the local church level this change is

driven by a conviction that the word Baptist

in a churchs name is a barrier to evangelism.

This presentation is being given in Calvary

Church, ormerly Calvary Baptist Church.Ed Stetson in his bookPlanting Churches in

a Post Modern Agestates that surveys show

that 50% of people in the United States have

a negative image o Baptists. Whether this

is true or not it is the perception and this

drives churches, sometimes through painul

debates, to change their name or to publicly

identiy under a dierent name than their

legal name.

At the national level I believe that the name

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