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A 3rd-4th generation Covenanter, I always took for granted the way in which my home church related to its denomination. Attending the conference Bible camp at Hordville (Covenant Cedars) we stayed in cabins named after the various churches in the state. They were named and largely built by members of these very churches...their size and style reflected the pride of their builders to be sure. The "Omaha" cabin rivaled some of our homes, others were conspicuously more modest. But as to the ethos and polity differences, these were long gone and we assumed it had always been that way. A look at the names which these congregations took at the time of their constitutional formation gives a different picture. Assembled from the 25th anniversary book, this is that picture: ....."Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Congregations"
-Stromsburg (dropped Ev. Luth. in 1888) ....."Swedish Mission Congregations"
-Haxton (Colo 1888) ...."Swedish Christian Congregations"
-Laramie (Wyoming 1890) The first group, the oldest, was formed under the leadership of Andrew Hallner, John Peterson and A.N. Sweders. They were typically members of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Synod and we are inclined to describe their polity as "Hallner/Peterson". While an Augustana historian credits J.G. Princell with "leading the Mission Friends out of the Augustana Synod", in Nebraska it was the three mentioned above. Indeed, Hallner and Peterson were among Mission Synod and Covenant founders. The term "Evangelical Lutheran" served, as it did in Augustana, to distinguish itself from "Reformed." This important distiction from the early days addressed the notions of preserving the tenets of the Augsburg Confession regarding the sacraments, scripture and salvation by grace alone. Against these, Calvinism was seen as a threat. This focus faded, though the term "evangelical" assumed a new meaning in America and was retained along with some ambiguities. The term "mission" today suggests "world mission." Historians unanimously point out that in our name, it meant more a mission to one's countrymen...and are clearly correct in that. We should like to observe, however, that the impulse to compassion toward the suffering of the world's least and lowliest may be the mission friends' most ennobling trait. This endures when the need for a mission to Swedes is no longer current. In "Debtor Unashamed", Arden Almquist has carried the point one step further...in solidarity with these to whom we carry out our mission, we recognize our own true selves and learn from them. But is it not true also, that in the term "mission" we meant "to convert?" That indicates the extent to which this movement accepted from the Wesleyans such as Scott in his Stockholm church and from the Baptist movement, the parameter of instantaneous conversion as normative. The same tendency is revealed in the affinity it had for the Moody phenomena in Chicago, linking it with the whole "great awakening" in America. Seen in this way, the title, "Evangelical Lutheran Mission" appears to have internal tensions not unlike an unstable isotope. In the last group of churches, above, even the term "mission" is gone. Most Free churches seem to have retained it, adding to the confusion among outsiders. In Stromsburg, a Swedish Augustana minister named A.N. Sweders helped form the church. He was on a collision course with Augustana polity at nearby Swede Home because of his limiting communicant membership to the regenerate. In Boone, Iowa, he moved the Lutheran congregation there into full independance, and as a result was defrocked by Augustana. He also served the Mead church as a Mission pastor and was conference missionary under the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Association of Nebraska. The first permanent pastor at Stromsburg was C.A. Falk, who had studied with Hasselquist at Augustana seminary in Paxton, Illinois, and at Ansgar mission seminary. The Stromsburg church at one time was pastored by prominent Swedish Baptist minister, L.L. Frisk. This was remarkable since there was a thriving Swedish Baptist church in Stromsburg as well at the time! The church at some time had withdrawn from the Synod...as had Skogsbergh's tabernacle church in Chicago. In the eighties, the influence of Fredrik Franson, a Swedish Baptist from Estina (near Mead) was strongly felt in Phelps County where the largest number of Mission Friends were organized in three congregations, some of whom came from the Moses Hill church above. They followed Franson's notions that denominational differences were hurtful, and his constitutional title for them was "The Church of God", open to all believers whether formerly Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist...or Mission. True to this concept, no Franson churches became Covenant, although at least one, Westmark, made a practice of alternating Covenant and Free ministers. The ideas of Franson and his friend, publisher John Martenson, were found in many Swedish homes in Nebraska through the pages of Chicago-Bladet newspaper. Joining them was the central voice of anti-denominationalism, J.G. Princell. These combined to influence the congregations in the second and third group of churches above to chose "non-denominational" sounding titles. No other explanation seems adequate to explain the phenomenon. It is probable that in Wausa, as elsewhere, there were members who did not object to the old Lutheran Mission Synod concept. But undeniably, the new ideas of independence were irresistable. "Chicago-Bladet" polity left its mark not only on the formally "Free" congregations in Nebraska, but on Covenant churches as well. By the 3rd and 4th generations these distinctions were largely erased, but the evidence borne by the constitutional language of these congregations remains. The clustering of their dates of formation indicates vogue rather than substance. The Swedish Evangelical Free churches in Nebraska appeared in Loomis, Keene, Westmark, Holcomb, Holdrege, Kearney (all in Phelps area), Newman Grove (2), Monroe (Hamilton County), Concord, Polk, Stromsburg, Stamford, Oakland and Gothenburg. The names of Mission pastors serving these included C.M. youngquist, G.D. Hall, J.M. Tillberg, and later Gust F. Johnson. Chicago-Bladet later became the official organ of the Free denomination. The notion that Swedish Baptists and Swedish Methodists would join with Lutheran Mission Friends could only be partially successful...they formed their own congregations wherever possible although certainly some of each found their way into independent Mission churches. The strength of believer's baptism attests to this. Also the notion of having no paid permanent minister merely made a virtue of necessity and was soon forgotten. In just a few quaint vestiges such as "julotta" did members of each of these bodies bely their common origins in the Swedish state church. We continue to look for other such evidences.
To read the history of the Swedish immigrant churches is to struggle with emerging categories and identities which themselves can be a tangle. Once some order is established among this array it appears that there are cracks and fissures even in those established categories and identities. Immigrant congregations in one instance debated whether to affiliate with the emergent Augustana or Ansgar Synods (Des Moines); communities were torn between Lutheran, Baptist and Methodist claims (New Sweden and Swede Bend IA); and later, the debate was between Mission Covenant and Free Mission factions (Marquette, KS and elsewhere) But these were debates among established alternatives. The historian can put a handle on the options. There was another situation emerging, particularly in the context of the dissolving of the Ansgar Synod and the transformation of the Mission Synod into "something new" which eludes such an historical handle. It is significant that the purpose of the proposed new "Mission Covenant" was to unite the Mission and Ansgar Synods... and the "independents." "Independent": this was, if you will, the option of "suspending debate" completely... of refusing to be aligned with any of the categories and identities and remaining completely "independent." Not only is partisanship eluded in this way, but history may be eluded as well. That is, this is a group negatively defined. It cannot be associated with a banner, but rather refuses to raise any banner. It appears on no one's list! Such congregations were described by the Swedish word "friståndare." It looks like "freestanding", and these congregations were this, but the definition of the Swedish term also contains the meaning "isolated." Probably more than anything else, this "isolation" was the doom of the independent Swedish congregations for the long term. It was contrary to human instincts and particularly the ethnic impulse to band together. But it had great popularity in the 1880's and a pointed and powerful journalistic advocacy in John Martenson and J.G. Princell's Chicago-Bladet newspaper. It was also true that a curious predecessor to the "megachurches" of today had appeared in the form of the Skogsbergh Tabernacles (south Chicago, Minneapolis, and later Seattle). These were borderline independent bodies that were big enough to function as denominations unto themselves. Skogsbergh's own decision to endorse the Covenant idea looms as very significant. These persistant independent congregations were a frustration to the emerging Mission Covenant. But in that frustration, little distinction was made by contemporary observers between the independent congregations and those who were forming the variously named organization which became the Free Mission church. An unwritten chapter is that which would detail the frustration which the Free Mission organizers experienced with these independent bodies. Though many of the independent congregations ultimately affiliated with the Free Church, it would be only after many decades of presumed wooing and cajoleing. The appeal of non-partisanship amidst much partisan wrangling, the idealistic themes of Christian unity transcending denominational lines, and the egalitarian appeal of lay leadership were factors so powerful that not only did newly forming congregations go in this direction but old established churches "threw out the books". Examples were the Chicago Tabernacle, Minneapolis Tabernacle, Princeton IL, Stromsburg NE, and others. (we wish to put an "asterisk" by Stromsburg, since learning that it was an Ansgar member which may have simply been "stranded" by Ansgar's dissolution) An interesting example is the Trinity Mission church of Holdrege, NE., which even by the 1930's stood aloof from the Free denomination it would ultimately join, and even featured the remarkable codicil in its constitution which embraced the Scriptures as the Word of God and only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct..."excluding the apocalyptic books." A somewhat fanciful allegorical device comes to mind. Consider the image of a "declassified" government document of the kind frequently seen in documentaries on sensitive issues. There a "report" is shown in its original form, but with certain words or phrases "blacked out" with a crude marker. The fascination lies in imagining what these words or phrases were... a task that is not always that hard to accomplish. Now imagine the constitution of one of these seceding congregations: "The Swedish Evangelical (blanked out) Church of Swedesville." What is blanked out? Mission Synod, probably, or Ansgar Synod. As in the case of Boone, IA, it might be "Augustana Lutheran Synod." Certainly, these congregations would take the trouble of executing a new document and not merely cross out the offending or obsolete terms. But who was fooled? The sign over the store changed, but it was the same old store nonetheless. And even a newly forming congregation such as the one at Wausa, NE, had some indelible markings. It was a John Peterson church; up the Logan Valley from Oakland. The Swedish Christian Congregation of Wausa had an invisible asterisk following its name; and an invisible footnote: "Mission Covenant." That which was invisible would ultimately become visible. Not all such independent congregations had the mark. The old Mission Synod placed a high premium on loyalty; those who wandered afield (such as the Ansgar Synod) were "written off." Some of that instinct survived into the Mission Covenant. The independents wanted to be "on their own"; ...so be it. It is an interesting question whether more of the independents would have finally joined the Covenant if that attitude had been different. This might be fairly called the "Bjork factor." Another "Bjork factor" is only in part attributable to him, but surrounds the fact that he and most other founders were not seminary trained clergymen. "Gloved and perfumed priests" were held in low regard, if not contempt, by the rank and file of immigrant congregations. Who needs them? It was a question that did completely die out in time, but it took time. Chicago-Bladet trumpeted the example of New Testament churches in which one of the local members was "in charge" and the office of "ordforeståndare" in the immigrant churches became more powerful than that of the preacher. This impulse can still be perceived. Part of its appeal to the early churches was economic. With an itinerant, traveling ministry (apostolic, in Chicago-Bladet's view) there was no need to support a local minister and his family. The flip side of this was the preacher who supported himself, usually by taking his own homestead or, if he were able, to act as land agent. In some cases, these local preachers became so well established that they functioned as virtual bishops. More often, the preacher who had to rely on "love offerings" rather than a stated salary found himself and his family condemned to poverty. This impulse can also still be perceived. But it was from the work of these lowly mission preachers that respect for the clergy finally reimerged and from their patient urging that independent-mindedness finally made its way into greater loyalties. They are the unsung heroes of the story. A variation on the scheme of traveling apostolic itinerants was the adaptation of calling permanent ministers from the various denominations in rotating fashion. The most common example may have been the alternating of Covenant and Free pastors, but in Stromsburg it extended to Ansgar Lutheran, Swedish Baptist, and Swedish Congregational clergy. (Falk, Frisk, Peterson) This bold experiment now seems unbelievable. To secure these various ministers, Stromsburg leaders sought denominational and seminary advice. The same process would be seen in those churches not seeking such variety, but simply looking for a minister from their own organization. This process had the effect of strengthening both seminaries and denominations, for they were seen as the source for ministers. In this process yet another weakness appears in the independent mindset. Which congregation would be preferred by a ministerial candidate: one that did not join or support an organization, or one that did? |
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