Our History

1871

In 1871, First Baptist Church of Minneapolis commissioned a small group of first generation Swedish immigrants to plant First Swedish Baptist Church. Their first building was located in a poorer area of downtown Minneapolis. The church thrived among the Scandinavian population that lived there. Even in their earliest days, the people of First Swedish were an evangelical witness to the Swedish-speaking populace. Members of the church would meet the immigrant trains arriving into the city and welcome the influx of newcomers to Midwest America.

1886

First Swedish’s building burned to the ground in 1886, which led to their purchase of a thirteen year-old building located at Bethlehem Baptist’s current location of 13th Ave & 8th Street South.

1945

By the end of World War II, the Swedish Baptist denomination to which the church belonged was declining rapidly, due to decreased immigration to America and second and third generation immigrants transitioning to English-speaking churches. In 1945, the denomination reorganized under the name Baptist General Conference, and First Swedish Baptist Church changed its name to Bethlehem Baptist Church.

1980

In 1980, Bethlehem was a smaller, older congregation of faithful saints. Many of the elderly members lived in the suburbs and drove into the city for church. It was at this time that the pastoral search committee decided to call Dr. John Piper as Bethlehem’s new pastor. The 34-year-old had taught for six years in the Biblical Studies department at Bethel and had never pastored a church.

2000’s

God blessed the church under Pastor John’s leadership. As the pastor’s present and former students began attending the church, the congregation grew in both numbers and diversity. Many followed the example of Pastor John and his wife Noël and moved into the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the church. Bethlehem grew over the next thirty years as her people sought to fulfill the mission statement adopted in the mid-90s—“to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.” When Piper retired from the pastorate in 2013, Bethlehem had launched two additional campuses. The North Campus was established in Mounds View in 2003, and the South Campus in Lakeville in 2006.

2018

In 2018–20, the elders at Bethlehem’s three campuses became increasingly convinced that the pathway forward for the church is toward more contextualization. In 2020, the congregations voted to affirm three preaching pastors at the three campuses, and then to give authority for electing officials and membership matters to the individual campuses.

2022

In 2022, the three congregations voted to move toward establishing the three campuses as three distinct and self-governing churches.

On December 1, 2022, Bethlehem’s South Campus was planted as South Cities Church.