While preparing another presentation of the
20 Questions/Answers of Bethel's Past for the
2022 Online Heritage Sunday service, it came to mind that there might be some interest in the 20-Year "history" of these questions that have been used occasionally over the years. That resulted in this addition to Bethel's
Archives on the history page of the web site. Actually, there hasn't been much change to either Questions or Answers since the beginning, though the form of the presentation has varied some.
The Original "Presentation" was as a
1/2 letter-page insert to the bulletin for the
2001 Homecoming Service when Laura Fisher was pastor. The Answers were in a
3-page QA document and were to be read individually to the congregation in the service (
though printed copies were made available in the narthex). Note that the order of the questions is different in the two documents. The "insert list" is in the order that the questions were first written down. The QA sheet is in an approximate chronological sequence with the original question number in parentheses.
The "Answer Sheet" ended with the paragraph:
In the Old Testament, the original “Bethel” was the site of a monument to a memory of an encounter with heavenly beings and of God’s covenant with Jacob and his people. There is some support for the view that many see Bethel Church as a monument to their own memories, and borrowed memories, of earlier times. Our goal should really be that this Bethel Church be a living witness to an active and growing faith. I encourage you to listen to Laura in a few minutes, as she will be telling us what the meaning of Bethel is under the new covenant of the gospel message.
This paragraph was either dropped completely or shortened in later lists as in the
2005-2007 and
2018 documents.
Though not part of the "20 Questions", there is another document with similar type information that might be used sometime to modify or extend those "20 Questions". In 2015, pastor Karen Alford asked if the
May 3, 2015 Heritage Sunday service could include some remarks about Bethel's history. In particular, she asked about "
those that might have been there during that first camp-meeting, on the banks of Bethel Pond, back in 1834". A search of various records in the district did provide information that "hinted" at members of that original group of congregants. The document:
Notes on Bethel’s Early History was presented in that service. The Notes were reformatted as a
1/2 legal-page insert to the bulletin for the
2018 Homecoming Service.
That
2018 Homecoming service
does have a part in the
History of the 20 Questions. Pastor Ralph Wrightstone asked if they might be presented as a "
Bethel Jeopardy Challenge, showing each "Question for the Congregation" with the "
Jeopardy 'Thinking' Tune" playing in the background, followed by a reveal of the answer. I began working on a set of Keynote/Powerpoint slides to do that. Each question had 4 slides...1 with the question and Jeopardy Tune, followed by 1 with just the question, then a slide with the answer, then a blank "discussion" slide. Click
HERE to view a PDF copy of the slides.
You may have noticed that the slides ended with Question #14...because
Hurricane Michael visited the area and Bethel was without power for the Homecoming service, though the service was held...and some questions were read...but the slides have never been used. Maybe sometime they will be resurrected for a service.
Which brings this "History" to the year 2022 and the Heritage Sunday service at the pond. The "Covid-Time" Online service had been prepared with links to a variety of information about the United Methodist Heritage and Aldersgate, but nothing about Bethel's history...not even the "20 Questions". When pastor Ralph began the traditional "Story Sharing" time at the pond with some of the "20 Questions" the oversite for the online service became apparent to me.
After the "service at the pond" the
online service was modified to add a "
new copy of the 20 Questions/Answers" on the Resource Page and a new
Interactive Format" for the questions was created for "
Remembering some History of Bethel UMC" in that service.
That ends this little bit of Bethel History about a little bit of Bethel History.