Bethlehem Baptist Church is a fellowship of about 4,000 believers who meet for worship in three locations: downtown Minneaapolis, Mounds View and Burnsville, Minnesota. We are old and young, married and single, urban and suburban, growing in ethnic and economic diversity and we exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

One of the Biblical truths that drives us is the great news that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. This means that worship is a feast for the souls of God's hungry people. Hearts that are hungry for God show the goodness of heaven's delights. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart (Psalm 37:4). Taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). So we go hard together after God.

And this vision of reality radically frees us from the passing and dying trinkets of the world and compels us (as joy always does) to spread what we love the most through radical acts of love. We long to see those who do not treasure God now, whether in the American urban centers or suburban sprawls or among the unreached peoples of the world, come to know true and lasting Joy — which is found only in God through Jesus Christ.

In all of our excitement about the vision of God and the philosophy of ministry we embrace at Bethlehem, we freely acknowledge that we are a church in process. We have many weaknesses and blind-spots and much remaining sin. If you are drawn to join us in our pursuit of the glory of God we don’t expect you to be anything other than a fellow pilgrim on the Calvary road. May God transform us together. May He use us for His glory in the process.

The Baptist General Conference

Bethlehem Baptist Church is affiliated with the Baptist General Conference. The BGC consists of more than 194,000 attendees in 875 churches in the U.S. The BGC statement of identity reads: The Baptist General Conference is a fellowship of Baptist churches whose theology is biblically evangelical; whose character is multiethnic; whose spirit is positive and affirmative; whose purpose is to fulfill the Great Commission through evangelism, discipleship, and church planting; and whose people celebrate openness and freedom in the context of Christ's Lordship.