Our History

For one hundred and eighteen years, God and His Word have driven the history and development of the congregation which is known as Bethel Baptist Church in Marquette, Michigan.

Early in the twentieth century, a group of eighteen Swedish immigrant believers organized the Swedish Baptist church and held its first worship service on December 13, 1903 in rented facilities. By 1909, they purchased an old boarding house and by 1924 erected a house of worship on Third and Ohio streets in the city of Marquette. The membership had grown to 66. By 1936, the use of the Swedish language was dropped and all services were held in English. By 1937, the word, "Swedish," in their name was replaced with "Bethel," which means "The House of God." The church gradually grew to an average attendance of about 170 in the 1960s and had outgrown the home they thought they would never outgrow. In May of 1974, they moved into Bethel's current facility on Grove Street. This sanctuary was almost twice the size of the previous one, had an ample gym/fellowship hall and some classrooms for Christian Education

During the latter part of the century, the church experienced spurts of growth and also of decline. Decline occurred largely because of significant changes in the economy, such as the closure of the Air Force base and fluctuations in the iron-ore industry. In the early 1990s, church attendance peaked at 260. In 2019, prior to COVID-19, peak attendance climbed to 357.

In 1998, Hank Steede was hired as the Associate Pastor of Family Life Ministries. There was a significant increase in the number of lay people ministering as they took ownership of the attitude that "every member is a minister." Pastor Hank also served as the interim pastor after Pastor Donaldson resigned in 2003. Pastor Hank retired on October 4, 2021 after twenty-three years of faithful and dedicated service at Bethel. In 2004, Dr. Brian Oberg accepted the call to become our twenty-second pastor and has remained our senior pastor for the past seventeen years. Recently Pastor Brian announced his plans to semi-retire to do interim pastoral work. He keeps fulfilling his calling with dedication and love for Christ and his people. As Bethel grew so did our staff. Our current staff is as follows. In 2006, Becky Nelson was hired as the Director of Children's Ministries and Julie Motta was hired as the Director of Music in 2011. In 2016, Chris Mauser was hired as Director of Youth Ministries and Discipleship, in 2021 he completed his doctorate in Philosophy of Religion. Dave and Alma Thomas are Directors of Senior Ministries. These together with Diane Case as our organist and our part-time administrative secretaries, Julie Motta and Ellen Oberg, are our team of leaders who continue to work together harmoniously to help Bethel fulfill the mission God has given them.

In the last twenty years, significant changes in regard to the facilities has occured, the church offices were renovated and a canopy over the main entrance was constructed. In 2002, the church purchased an adjoining property which was developed into a playground for young children. A house on the adjoining property on Grove Street was also purchased. This has become the "youth house." In 2008, Bethel constructed a Family Life Center which added eight classrooms. It is 6,000 square feet in size with a lower level that is 5,700 square feet. In 2019, an elevator was installed from the upper to the lower level of that facility. Presently, in 2021, the basement is being developed to add additional classrooms and other usable space. In 2018, the two main restrooms were completely modernized, and the nursery has been expanded. In 2021, an entirely new sound system was installed in the sanctuary, along with acoustical wall panels to improve sound quality. Currently, all of the windows in the sanctuary are being replaced.

Evangelism Explosion was started at Bethel in 2001. Bethel preferred to call it Everyday Evangelism (EE). Pastor Brian joined that ministry as soon as he came and co-led the effort. The main focus of EE was to train others to become faithful witnesses. Two semesters of it have been held annually for the past nineteen years until just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic. In 2020, we began live streaming our worship services which has added to our mission of connecting with our community. Our history is His-story that is still being written. More than a century later, as with our founding fathers and mothers, our "final authority for faith and living" is still the eternally relevant Word of God. We continue to strive to systematically teach and disciple our people to obey the two great commandments to love God and others as He has loved us and to fulfill the Great Commission--to go, tell, baptize, and make disciples teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded. God has brought us this far and, with His strength and grace, we will press on to that end in the days before us until Jesus comes.

Pastors of Bethel past and present

E.A. Asplund 1904-05
C.G. Wargren 1905-07
Carl Westerdahl 1907-09
Axel Wicklund 1910
O.A. Arnquist 1911-13
R.A. Clint 1914-18
Hjalmer Johnson 1919-20
John A. Roose 1920-21
Carl A. Anderson 1922-23
Alex F. Olson 1924 to 1946
Frank May 1947-50

Arden Fink 1950-56

Arnold Olson 1956 to 1963
RussellVoight 1963-70
Deane Thompson 1970-78
Joel Goff 1979-86
Timothy Haugen 1987-94
Bryan Buck (Associate) 1990-95
Bob Donaldson 1996-2003
Hank Steede (Family Life Pastor) 1999-2021
Dave Hanson (Youth Pastor)2003-2011

Brian Oberg(Senior Pastor) 2004-2022
Allan Borret(Pastor to Seniors) 2010-2015
Brock Youngren(Senior Pastor)2022-Present