A South Minneapolis Anchor Since 1899

Bethel Lutheran Church has stood at 4120 17th Avenue South, on the corner of 17th Avenue and 42nd Street in the Bancroft neighborhood of South Minneapolis, since 1899, when a group of Norwegian immigrants gathered to start a congregation. More than 125 years later, the church remains rooted in the same neighborhood and still proclaims the same underlying message of God's love and grace for all people.

The congregation describes itself this way: "In gratitude, Bethel Lutheran Church amplifies God's grace, nourishes all creation, reaches out, and builds community." A Reconciling in Christ congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Bethel states plainly "All Are Welcome Without Exception" and recognizes that "God welcomes all people into relationships regardless of age, race, economic situation, gender identity, or sexual orientation."

Beyond worship, the building functions almost like a community center. Seven 12-step recovery groups meet there each week, two homeschool cooperatives use the classrooms, four Boy Scout troops and two Girl Scout troops call Bethel home, and a Spanish-speaking sister congregation, Casa de Oración, worships in the sanctuary on Sunday afternoons and Friday evenings. Pastor Brenda Froisland calls the church "a place where many people, organizations, neighbors, children, and strangers gather to attend various meetings and events."

Worship on Sunday Morning

Sunday worship is at 10:00 AM and is live and livestreamed on YouTube, with recordings of past services saved to the Bethel channel. Visitors are told simply: "Come as you are! Tie or dress, jeans or shorts, we welcome you to this space to hear and proclaim God's Good News."

Communion is open to all and is served at every service. Children are welcome to stay in the pews or play in spaces set aside between rows, and the pastor is known to pick up little ones during the sermon. The liturgy draws on traditional Lutheran patterns, with hymns from a wide variety of sources and plenty of opportunities to sing.

For Holy Week and Easter, Bethel offers a Maundy Thursday service jointly with neighboring St. Peder's, a Good Friday Service of Darkness, and an Easter Sunday festival service with breakfast and an egg hunt the day before.

The church sits on an expansive lot with a sizable parking area off 42nd Street. Handicapped-accessible entrances are located off the parking lot on the south side and off the circle drive on 41st Street on the north side. Several accessible parking spaces are reserved.

Music and the Schlicker Organ

Music sits at the heart of Bethel's worship life. The 1957 Schlicker organ leads most services, with four levels of memory, a crescendo pedal, six general pistons, and four divisions: Great, Swell, Positiv, and Pedal. The Great division includes a 16-foot Quintadena, an 8-foot Principal and Rohrfloete, a 4-foot Octave, a mixture, and chimes. The enclosed Swell features a Salicional, Vox Celeste, Nachthorn, and an 8-foot Trumpet with tremolo. The Positiv division carries a Krummhorn and a mixture, and the Pedal rounds out the instrument with a 16-foot Bourdon, 16-foot Posaune, and a 4-foot Schalmey.

The Bethel Choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings during the school year and sings at least twice a month plus high feast days, performing four-part SATB anthems ranging from Bach to Rutter, chant to gospel. The Handbell Choir rehearses once a week and plays about once a month, with a four-octave set of Schulmerich handbells and a four-octave set of Malmark handchimes. Instrumentalists of any age are invited to play during services.

The music director, Bernie Asher, holds a Master of Sacred Music from Luther Seminary and has led church music across the Twin Cities and Wisconsin, including a two-week guest musician stint at Holden Village in the Cascade Mountains. He works alongside musician Anne Phillips, who studied liturgical music and theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University.

Faith Formation and Bible Study

Bethel's Faith Trek Sunday School meets during worship, with children leaving the sanctuary at 10:15 AM for their own time together. The program is open to everyone, members and non-members alike, and does not require attending worship to participate. Confirmation-aged youth meet with the pastor, mentors, and others to explore Christian faith and prepare to affirm their baptismal promises.

A weekly Bible study gathers on Wednesdays at noon over Zoom, with Pastor Brenda. The group discusses the lessons for the upcoming Sunday, often sparking ideas that find their way into the sermon. Visitors can drop in at any time.

Each summer Bethel helps host an ecumenical South Minneapolis Summer Day Camp, partnering with several neighboring congregations, with K through middle school students learning about God's love through art, service, and play. Family Camp, a weekend retreat at a camp center with fellowship, s'mores, swimming, and nature, is open to everyone.

Caring for Creation: The Outdoor Grounds

Bethel takes its call to "nourish all creation" literally. The grounds host a remarkable array of environmental features that double as ministry and gathering spaces.

The rain garden was built to capture stormwater from the building and hard surfaces, using deep-rooted perennial plants to filter runoff before it enters the groundwater. It also serves as pollinator habitat and has reduced the city's stormwater management fees. Wildflowers, ornamental grasses, and native plants fill the basin.

A solar garden on the flat roof consists of 152 panels, rated to generate 40 kilowatts per hour at peak. The system is a community solar co-op jointly owned by Bethel members and neighbors, and it supplies about half of the church's annual electricity needs. Power generated above what Bethel uses feeds back into the grid, with the owners receiving credits on their bills.

The natural playground on the southwest side of the property was researched, designed, and built with help from a local Boy Scout troop. It lets children play the way nature intended, with natural materials to climb and explore rather than only manufactured equipment.

The labyrinth on the property offers a walking meditation open to all. The single winding path leads from the outer edge to the center and back out again, a pattern the church describes as "a path of prayer, a walking meditation, a crucible of change, a watering hole for the spirit, and a mirror of the soul." Visitors are invited to bring a question, slow down, or simply pause. Children are welcome to walk with adult supervision.

Bethel also donates land along 16th Avenue South to the Bancroft Neighborhood Community Gardens, where neighborhood residents can reserve plots for a small yearly fee through the Bancroft Neighborhood Association.

Just outside the 17th Avenue entrance sits a bike repair station with a Saris Deluxe Public Work Stand, the tools to fix most adjustments, and a tire pump with a pressure gauge. QR codes on the stand link to repair videos for those new to bike maintenance.

Racial Justice and Mental Health

Bethel's Racial Justice Initiative is one of its longest-running social justice commitments, focused on issues affecting Indigenous persons, Christian-Islamic relations, asylum seekers and refugees at the southern border, and systemic racism in society. The initiative gained renewed urgency after George Floyd was killed six and a half city blocks from Bethel; many of the congregation's members live in the neighborhood and have for years.

Mental Health and Wellness is treated as a vital part of spiritual well-being at Bethel. The church maintains a curated set of resources, including podcasts from psychologist Elisha Goldstein, links to Mental Health Connect, tips for supporting well-being during difficult times, grief and end-of-life resources from End in Mind, and information from NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Bethel has also partnered with Bread of Life Deaf Lutheran Church (BOLD), gathering for shared worship, social events, ASL classes, and Bible study. Pastor Brenda is a trained facilitator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), which the congregation uses as a tool for reflection and growth in cross-cultural competence.

The Little Free Pantry and Neighbors

Just inside the 17th Avenue door sits Bethel's Little Free Pantry, where all items are free to anyone who needs them. Donations of nonperishable food and toiletry items keep it stocked, and the pantry can be supported through an Amazon Wish List, by dropping items off during office hours, or by sending a check or PayPal donation. Two Little Free Libraries, designed to resemble the church and built by Bethel member Gene Rodi in 2012, invite neighbors to take a book or leave one behind.

The pantry is one piece of a wider Loneliness Project at Bethel, an effort to address what the church calls an epidemic of isolation. Activities include the Little Free Pantry, quarterly Community Fun Nights with free meals, a Paint and Sip in summer, school supply drives, a Fall Festival, Trunk or Treat, and a coat and hat collection each winter. The church also joins the Bancroft Neighborhood Association's annual Ice Cream Social.

Community Fun Nights, Concerts, and Open Gym

Community Fun Nights happen quarterly on the second Thursday of February, May, July, and December, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM in Nazareth Hall. A free waffle dinner (or another rotating meal) is served from 5:30 to 6:15, followed by an activity. Past activities have included making wood coasters, ornaments, essential oil inhalers, paper bowls, and flying saucers.

Open Gym runs twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, with pickleball equipment available to borrow and room for pickup basketball, board games, or just letting kids run. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Bethel's 2nd Saturday Concerts bring high-quality local musicians to the sanctuary November through March, with a $10 suggested donation supporting the music ministry. Past performers have included folk, jazz, swing, brass, and ensemble acts. The series closes each spring with an All Stars concert featuring current and former Bethel music leaders on organ, piano, and percussion.

Bethel also hosts Rally Sunday each fall, an outdoor picnic with yard games, a service project, and a Kona Ice shaved ice machine on the southwest lawn.

Partner Organizations and Support Groups

Long-term tenants include the Bancroft Neighborhood Association, Nokomis Healthy Seniors, the Curiosity Crew homeschool program, the HEdFEx secular homeschool co-op, and the Community Aid Network (CANMN). El Colegio Charter School, located a block away, also occasionally hosts classes and ceremonies at Bethel.

Recovery groups meeting at Bethel include Overeaters Anonymous on Tuesday mornings, AA Amigos II on Saturday mornings, the Continuous Action group on Wednesday evenings, Bridge to Shore on Monday evenings, Up the Creek on Thursday evenings, and El Nuevo Despertar every evening at 7:00 PM.

Life Events: Weddings, Baptisms, and Funerals

Bethel hosts weddings, baptisms, and funerals for both members and neighbors. Weddings can be large or small and may include the music director or other musicians. Couples begin planning by contacting the pastor for premarital counseling and ceremony planning. Baptisms are offered for both children and adults.

Funerals are described as celebrations of life, with the pastor, pianist, and members helping families through the planning and the service itself.

Facilities and Rentals

Bethel's building is available for rent and includes a sanctuary that seats up to 500, a gym and stage that holds 242, a movie theater for 40, meeting rooms, classrooms, a kitchen suited for catering, a private courtyard garden, a toddler room, a nursery, a youth room, a choir room, and a parlor and fireside room with Smart TVs. The expansive grounds include picnic tables, a grill, and the labyrinth, rain garden, natural playground, and parking lot.

Renters agree to a set of responsibilities: supervising their event, keeping youth supervised, leaving rooms clean, no alcohol anywhere on the property, no smoking inside, parking only in the lot or on the Bethel side of the street, and limiting evening events so the building is closed by 9:00 PM on weekdays. A refundable damage and time deposit is required, and full payment is due seven days before the event.

The church office is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM and closed Mondays. Visitors can reach the office at (612) 724-3693 or bethel@bethel-mpls.org. After-hours pastoral care is available at 612-208-3151.