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.
To continue reading Barry's letter to Harley Swiggum, click
Teaching the Bethel Bible Series
here, or in the frame on the left.