“An Absolute Necessity”: The Role of Bethany Lutheran College in the 100-Year History of the ELS

In 1927, the Norwegian Synod (now the ELS) held its annual meeting at Lime Creek congregation near Lake Mills, Iowa. Ten years earlier, Lime Creek had been the site of the first meeting of the synod. The 1918 convention had been a momentous occasion for those former members of the old Norwegian Synod. After losing their church body and Luther College, they were now striking out on their own. In 1927, they were contemplating another risky venture. The purchase of a college would enable the synod to survive by training its own pastors, teachers, and laity.
In 1925, representatives of the failing Bethany Ladies’ College in Mankato had visited the synod convention at Norseland. Their school had been established fifteen years before by an association of pastors and laymen from the Wisconsin and Missouri Synods, but it had not succeeded on as great a scale as the sponsors had hoped. By 1924, the enrollment had dropped to 24 students from a high of 136. Would the synod be interested in buying the school? But in 1925, the synod was not up for such a challenge.
In March 1926, a group of pastors and laymen of the synod organized the Bethany College Association in order to purchase the college. Very soon, pledges had reached the amount needed for the down payment of $20,000. Valued at $400,000 (5.7 million in 2018 dollars), the purchase price was to be $60,000 ($850,000 in 2018 dollars).
Sigurd Ylvisaker, chairman of the Bethany Association, reported to the 1926 convention that the association had acquired the college and would operate it until the Synod might see its way clear to take it over. At that point, the members of the synod, both clergy and laity, were not of one mind on the matter. However, the convention passed a resolution recognizing the Bethany Association and expressed “full confidence” in the association without a commitment to ownership.
As the 1927 convention approached, the association had resolved to offer the college to the synod. But to persuade their colleagues to accept the offer was a daunting task; the debate carried on in the mail and pastoral conferences was cordial and fraternal, but intense.
At the 1927 convention, synod president Christian Anderson had referred to the college in his report, suggesting that the meeting should give serious consideration to the association’s offer. The matter was finally taken up on Friday, June 19, when the convention heard the association’s proposal that “We respectfully ask that this convention consider this matter and take over the ownership and control of Bethany Lutheran College, in order that it may serve the Church as it could and should.”
Dr. Ylvisaker spoke on behalf of the association. “Should the Norwegian Synod have its own school? This is an absolute necessity if we will continue as a synod.” Some held that since the synod had been sending its young people to schools of the Missouri and Wisconsin synods, the synod didn’t need its own college. But Ylvisaker countered that these were not our schools and they did not serve to transmit the confession and heritage of the Norwegian Synod. He concluded with this impassioned plea: The Synod needs just such a school to gather itself around. Without its own school, the Synod simply cannot hope to continue as the Norwegian Synod.
On Saturday the matter was debated all day.
After further discussion, it was Pastor G. A. Gullixson’s turn to speak. “I move we take over the school,” he said. Since it was the end of the day, the session was adjourned until Monday, also following the Norwegian belief that decisions were best made when slept on or over coffee.
On Monday morning, the vote taken: thirty-three in favor and twenty-one opposed. A temporary Board of Regents was elected to work with the association in transferring the school to the synod. In 1928, the Norwegian Synod held its eleventh annual convention at Bethany.
With the college, the synod inherited the school’s name and motto: Bethany—“One Thing Needful.” When in 1911 students were invited to submit suggestions for the name of the school, Frieda Trost proposed the name Bethany, the home of Mary and Martha. A brochure for the young college explained: “It is the aim of Bethany Ladies’ College to train true Marthas, who are ever ready to help and serve wherever their service may be needed, but who are at the same time true Marys, above all, mindful of the ‘One Thing Needful.’” “One Thing Needful” fit perfectly with the motto appearing in the masthead of Luthersk Tidende, Der staar Skrevet, — “It is Written.” The synod and its college spoke with one voice, pointing to the word of God with its proclamation of Jesus Christ and his atonement as the one thing necessary for salvation.
Though the vote was divided, once taken, the synod united behind the college and took seriously the words of Ylvisaker: “The Synod needs just such a school to gather itself around.” Many of those who had dissented became some of the best supporters and recruiters for the college!
In order to serve the whole synod, the college immediately became co-educational. The faculty worked to get university accreditation for the high school and college, instituted a three-year teacher program for Christian day school teachers, and, in 1946, opened a seminary department to produce pastors for the congregations.
The college and the synod have lived through several crises together. The depression of the 1930s came close to making the synod’s venture a short and disastrous one. World War II challenged the enrollment of the college, but after the war, returning servicemen swelled the enrollment. Over the years, the clientele of the college has been much larger than the little synod; it included those in the Synodical Conference who desired a Christian, liberal arts education, but came close to failing when the Conference was breaking up in the 1950s. Other financial and enrollment challenges in the last fifty years have threatened the college. But survive it has, and that survival can be attributed to God’s merciful care alone.
Whether or not the synod would have survived to celebrate its centennial without Bethany, we cannot say. But it has played a central role in the life of the ELS. The college has helped provide the synod with a well-educated laity as well as pastors and teachers. “One Thing Needful” remains central. Daily chapel services promote worship faithful to the Lutheran confession and the preaching of the cross in word and sacrament. Ten percent of the minimum credits required for graduation are religion courses, where the study of the Bible and Lutheran teaching are the focus. And finally, the college seeks to promote the confessional and biblical culture of the synod—the culture of a commitment to the Lutheran understanding of God’s word.
Rev. Professor Erling Teigen
Contributing Writer
Bethany Lutheran College
Mankato, MN