Bethlehem Baptist Church — Attraction in Minneapolis

We know and fellowship with many families that go to Bethlehem baptist and have attended the mounds view campus. We had recently relocated back to the twin cities and were looking for a bible study group to join for a season while we got reaclimated to Minnesota.

We are solid bible believing Christians and thought joining our friends bible study for a year or so would be a good idea since we shared the same faith values and were looking for fellowship.. Our friend said he had to ask for permission from the church leadership for us to attend since at the time we were going to Eagle Brook Church.

We were shocked when the answer was no....what kind of a church restricts bible study attendance to only Sunday attendees....we have never heard of such an attitude in the 25+ years we have been believers, neither on the mission field or stateside....we are quite sure the kingdom of eternity will be made up of all believers who claim Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior and can only guess this attitude in their church leadership reflective of a "cultic" view towards church doctrines.

The friend gave no reason other than the answer was NO and it was against the church policy......explain that to Jesus...come to me ALL ye who are weary and heavy laden.....this attitude is Pharositic. ...beware...

i went there 9 years ago, most middle class only, pretentious, defensive, young adult yuppie, esp -meat market church, i've ever seen, i went there for a season an went to a few different groups, and church many times, only a few guys were ever willing to even speak at all, not one female ever spoke to me! other than a couple barely saying hi only when everyone was looking at them, everyone talking about their vacation, and dating, but i saw little love, only middle class selfish pride, them smiling laughing having fun with each other but never did they speak to any of the somewhat poor people; saw few who didn't have a bad look on their face when i would try to say hi to them after church in the crowd, only once did any person ever invite me to hangout to do anything with their friends, i saw almost no depth of god or christian values at all except by a few. the church preaching was to westernized, to professional speech, to much of a one man show, barely mentioning any judasim context of the NT, other eise know as a typical middle class twin...

I've been attending BBC since April 2016. There are 4 things I personally look for in committing to home church. Bible based Gospel centered teaching Gospel centered worship Opportunities to serve within and out. Fellowship with those in same/different life stages.

#4 is a work in progress at BBC. Given that this church is fairly large, connecting to people and plugging into a small group has been a process that took longer than I hope. It will take a lot of initiation on the "seeker's" part. Attending their "Meet Bethlehem" or BBC Meetups are great ways to connect with people and get yourself known and transferred to the right people. Their website map is not a full account of all the small groups that exist. We were thankful to have met a member from a TBI course who is in a small group that is looking for new members. Due diligence is required along with patience and grace. It is a work...