Dear Harley, After many years, I realized that it was appropriate to let you know what an impact you have had on my life. This came about through the Bethel Bible Series. Isn't it a shame that most folks never learn of the force they have been in the lives of others? I decided that I would write an open letter, giving the opportunity for others to see how your Bethel Bible Series produced changes in my life and subsequently in the lives of others. For those who are reading this letter, and are unaware of the substance of the Bethel Bible Series, I can offer a few brief comments and a link to the present Bethel Bible Series Home Page. I was introduced to the Bethel Bible Series around 1963. The material covered the Bible in its entirety, and was based on a clever presentation of representations that greatly aided the student's ability to remember the material presented. But the most significant part of the course that I cherish is the memorization of Bible "concepts" that were a part of the weekly training. One more item that I have to mention is the timeliness of the Bethel training in my life. I had accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour in 1962 at the age of thirty, and the Bethel Bible Series gave me an opportunity to read and learn something about the Bible from cover to cover. What a blessing that was! For those interested in obtaining more information on the Bethel Bible Series, the website is available for access: The Bethel Training It is not my intent to describe the Bethel Bible Series methods and materials. That is best left to those who manage the programs today. But my desire is to offer some comments on what the course meant to me in my early Christian walk and how it has had an effect on my life. Harley, I want you to know how the training affected me personally. Norbert Mueller of Christ Lutheran Church in San Pedro California was my Pastor, at the time I was saved. Our congregation decided that the Bethel Bible Series was for our church and signed up Pastor Mueller for the teacher training course led by you, Harley, in Madison Wisconsin. Pastor Mueller went through the training program and returned to our church to train teachers. The idea was for the pastor to train lay people to teach the Bethel Series to others in the congregation. What a great idea that was. Anyone who is involved in church activities knows how important it is to involve lay people in every area of church activities. That provides ownership and dedication to the area of involvement. Well, Harley, you trained Pastor Mueller well, and he recruited ten of us to go through the teacher training with him. The materials were ordered and we started out in the Fall season with the Old Testament. We met weekly on Wednesday evenings, and went through the materials in an orderly manner. The homework, however, was the major commitment. Imagine, I was going to read the entire Bible as a part of my homework assignments. Also, I was going to have to memorize Bible Concepts weekly. As I remember, you had it set up so that there were usually about ten concepts to memorize each week. You called these "concepts" and concepts they were. But as you will see, this student decided that verses would be beneficial to have, and I memorized parts of verses with the concept. More on that later. The weekly sessions were a lot of fun. As anyone would imagine, we had a group of Christians who were devoted to the Scriptures. We were tested by having to stand in front of the group and give a presentation of the week's materials. We also had written tests! Wow, can you imagine such rigidity in a Lutheran Church? It worked. I can't speak for others in our little group, but I was getting an overview of the Bible in a way that enabled me to remember it. A lot of Scripture is chronological and historical. But I must admit being baffled by the Psalms. It wasn't until years later that I began to understand them. Also, the minor prophets were difficult. But Pastor Mueller was always ready to answer questions. We had some wonderful times. Then we got to the New Testament. I will never forget reading Matthew 10:5-6. I explained to Pastor Mueller my dismay that Jesus had told His disciples to "Go not into the way of the Gentiles." I knew I was a Gentile, and read that Jesus said to "go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Also, I pointed out to Pastor Mueller, that in Matthew 15:24, Jesus told a Canaanite woman: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." I was genuinely concerned that we Christians had it all wrong! I have to laugh now, Harley, but Pastor Mueller had to explain the big picture to me. Interestingly, Harley, when we started the New Testament, I had a wonderful thought; Why not memorize the verse number for the concept, as well as the book and chapter? I talked to Pastor Mueller about this, and he encouraged me to do that. Amazingly, I found it no more difficult. And, do you know how helpful that is when you are leading a Bible class? You can give the reference, and the student can go right to the verse you want to examine. I wonder how I did this because I don't have a very good memory. But I persisted, and the verses stuck with me. One funny one was a concept your materials gave for Luke 22: "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." I looked for the verse in Luke 22, so I could remember the verse as well as the Chapter and Book. But the verse wasn't there. So I looked in Matthew, and found the verse, Matthew 26:41. That is the one I memorized. It turns out that the verse would have been in Luke 22 between verses 41 and 42. Harley, did they fix this in the lesson materials yet? Sorry, I couldn't resist. And, I must say, I am unaware of any other error. You do good work! Every time I look at this concept/verse card, I think of Harley Swiggum. How did Harley put this all together with such accuracy? And, as I remember, you built the Bethel Bible Series in a very short time. I remember your description of how you decided it was needed, and how you went about it. We continued on through the New Testament and we were ready to begin teaching the Bethel Series to the congregation. That was a big step for this new Christian who had now read the Bible through once. Teaching the Bethel Bible Series This was the most challenging part of my experience with the Bethel Series. I had a group of about thirty folks sign up to attend the class I was going to lead. I clearly remember the first week. Can anyone remember the first time they led with prayer in front of a group? My knees were knocking. My voice was shaky. I was scared to death. Needless to say, I got through it, but it was truly a life experience. Then came the lesson. I was well prepared, and my professional background had given me some experience speaking to groups. But this was different. I was the young new convert leading a study of the Bible to a substantial group of lifetime Lutherans. I didn't know what they knew, and my understanding of the Scriptures was in the form of an overview. But we followed the script as written by Harley Swiggum. Harley, it was amazing; week after week, we had a wonderful time. I obtained an ample supply of blank business cards and handed them out for the group to use to memorize the concepts. And as near as I could tell, they went at it in earnest. And they did the reading. This was a dedicated group and they were reaping the rewards of their efforts. One thing I learned through teaching the Bethel Series is that the teacher gets the most out of the classes. Naturally, I had to do the reading assignment each week, and I had to be prepared to explain the message being presented by the drawings. This meant that I got to read the Bible in its entirety a second time. What a blessing this was. I was actually getting into a position of tying the message together. I realize that one can study the Scriptures daily for a lifetime and not fully grasp all that is presented therein. But this certainly was a strong beginning for me. I look back now and realize how fortunate I was to be introduced to the Bethel Bible Series right after accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Teacher Training in Madison Harley, this had to be the most fun. Jim Brinkman offered to send me back to Madison to go through the teacher training. It was a major step for the church to initiate a new group of teachers for the Bethel Series. I would be trained, and then come back and train other teachers to lead groups in the Bethel Series. Our church was growing and the potential was there for many new people to become acquainted with the Bethel Series. So, off I went to Madison to receive training. I clearly remember the first morning when you came into the room full of folks all ready to start out. The first thing you did was to quote Proverbs 27:14. "If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse." We heard a few words about how you were not a morning person. You had us in the right mood. Then you explained how you would soon know all of us by name. It seems that you reviewed our information sheets, and intended to study them further. Also, you pointed out that it was the nature of folks to always sit in the same location for a class like yours and that would enable you to soon be able put a name to each face. It is the same for church. We all are inclined to sit in the same spot each week. One can walk into church, and know who is missing by the empty pew. I realized that you were right. Do you know that since that time, I have made it a practice to always sit in a different location at church, and a different area of the room for studies? I guess that says something about my personality. I will leave that for the professionals to figure out. The training studies went well. I was ahead of the curve, having attended the Bethel Series taught by Pastor Mueller. I had memorized my concepts, and I knew the materials. But there was some fun to be had. One would probably figure out that the attendees were most likely going to be Pastors, from churches all over the country. But I was a lay person. In fact, I think I was the only lay person in the group. So, when we divided into small groups for interaction and discussion, I was always with a number of pastors. This was no problem for me. The small group would be chattering away and exchanging ideas and experiences with me sitting right there. I joined in, but eventually, it would come out that I was a lay person, not a pastor. It was so funny; All the pastors would clam up! The interaction stopped and we became a professional group with serious comments only. The same thing happened at meals. I tried to always sit with a different group at each meal. As soon as they realized I was a lay person, the conversation died! I sort of understand. The pastors felt they had an image to project and didn't want to let their hair down in front of this non-pastor. Oh, well, no matter, we got through the materials and were sent home. Training Other Teachers Well, I might have been mistaken. Perhaps this was the most fun. I had a small group sign up for the teacher training. Now I was going to get to read through the entire Bible for the third time. One begins to get the idea that the Bethel Bible Series got me into the Word in a major way. The materials were very familiar to me now, and the Scriptures were becoming more than an overview. Each time I read through, I realized how interconnected the Old and New Testaments are. More than that, I was strengthening my memory of the concepts. My friends from church had some fun kidding me about my memorization of the concepts. You see, Harley, I drove a small sports convertible to work, covering two freeways on my half-hour commute. During that time, I reviewed a stack of concepts, which I changed out every day. So I had about an hour a day dedicated to memorization of concepts. But my friends could see me in my open convertible with a stack of business cards in my free hand. Yes, I had resorted to using business cards for memorization of my concepts. When someone left or changed titles in my company, I got their old business cards. I needed them because I was adding to the list of concepts that you provided in the Bethel Series. What prompted memorization of new verses? Well, it was reading through the entire Bible and seeing relationships between the text in the Old and the New Testaments. As an example, look at 1 Corinthians 9:9. I think that the Bethel Series had us memorize the concept in Deuteronomy 25, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." (Verse 4) But how could one pass up the opportunity to memorize 1 Corinthians 9:9, "For it is written in the law of Moses, 'You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.' Is it for oxen that God is concerned?" And the text explains that God is concerned for those spreading the word of redemption. It is for this kind of concept that I had to add to the concepts. And, I am still adding, as I wend my way through daily reading. Yes, the Bethel Series got me into a mode of daily Bible reading, and I am continuing in that mode. Also, after I retired, I decided that I had to find time to keep up on the concepts. So I generally spend an hour in the late afternoon looking at a stack of cards. You, Harley, can take credit for that impact in my life. So, I had a little group of dedicated Bible Students. And we did our homework. The group included Michael and Marilda, Jim and Janice, Bob Martin, and Alice. Wow, did we ever become close. Bob Martin has gone to be with the Lord, but I doubt that there is anything I could ask of these folks, that they wouldn't respond with love. And I know from our weekly gatherings over two years that they ended up with a tremendous grasp of the Bible. Long Term Effect So, you ask, what was the long-term impact? It was more than substantial. I became a Bible Class leader on a regular basis. The pastor knew me and trusted me with leading a class on just about any topic. As you might expect, I usually picked a book of the Bible and covered it thoroughly. Sometimes that is not so good. I distinctly remember Ron mentioning "the eternal study of Isaiah". I learned to change topics after six or seven weeks. One of the best experiences came from a suggestion by Ellie that we do a "Through the Bible" study that covered the Bible in a year. While one could not adequately cover all the material we read each week, we did pick some interesting and important topics out of each week's reading. Then I would put a five-question quiz in the Sunday bulletin to tantalize the congregation. That worked. I remember Marie coming to the class to find out if it was right for a widow to remarry. She was a regular attendee after that. She must have liked the teaching that she could get remarried! But what might have been the greatest result of my Bethel Training was the subsequent involvement in Home Fellowship Groups. Having an overview grasp of the Bible, with memorization of concepts throughout, placed me in a good position to lead weekly Bible studies in small groups. I remember the occasion that our church decided to form small groups. At the time, I was responsible for "assimilation" at Christ Lutheran. Home fellowship groups were deemed an assimilation project, so they put me in charge of forming the small groups. That was relatively easy, but I did not see myself in a small group. So I got two other couples that I knew were also not inclined to want to be in a small group. "Let's form our own small group" was my suggestion. They liked it, and guess what: These other two couples are, to this day, numbered among my closest Christian friends. Amazing! Then I retired from the aerospace world, and moved to Reno NV. Guess what: I am still called on to lead Bible Classes in our church, and I am the Home Fellowship leader for two Home Fellowship groups. While the leadership in our church here in Reno may not know about the Bethel Bible Series, they can see by my involvement as a student in classes led by others, that I have a good grasp of the Bible. So here I am surrounded by Christians who have a sincere desire to know the Word and how it should be applied in ones life. I couldn't have better friends than those in my Home Fellowship Groups. One more thought: What got me off the dime, and writing out this letter? Well, I was with my son, David, and his friend, also named David, on a fishing trip. And my son's friend brought his father along too. That fellow and I had so much in common that it was mind boggling. The more we talked, the more we found in common. Surprisingly, our discussion brought out the fact that he had gone to school with Harley Swiggum. Yes, one of us must have mentioned the Bethel Series, and out came this little bit of information. I explained to George what an impact the Bethel Bible Series had on my life. And I got to thinking that I had never shared that with you, Harley. So, here was the impetus, and now you know that it was George Schenck that got me off the dime. Thanks to George from Barry. And, thank you, Harley, and let me say that I am still doing my best to memorize new concepts. You had an impact! Barry Pearce |
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