NP Berean

The church of my youth, North Platte Berean (a split from a mainline Baptist denomination in 1936), was the one and only church experience for me as a youth with a pastor who had come to serve there in its infancy.  He served it for nearly 50 years so I experienced only one preaching pastor but a number of assistant pastors.  My pastor was “large” in a number of ways as he was a visionary who got it done.  Some 50 churches sprang from ours, a radio ministry, three Bible bookstores, and a very big camp ministry (Maranatha Camp along I-80 near Maxwell, NE).  It was a very dynamic church with only a few bumps along the way!

Sometime around 1955 our church organist left us to serve in the music ministry of The Back to Bible Broadcast in Lincoln.  We used to regularly have Theodore Epp on our platform (the founder of The Back to the Bible Broadcast).

In the 50’s our church had great Easter outreach campaigns – especially large were those of 1957 and 1958.  Both saw a Sunday morning crowd with about 10% of the North Platte population in attendance (NP was a city of about 15,000 then).

Around 1960 a young man from our church, Bob Thompson, went off to Lincoln to play basketball for the university.  He started a Bible study group which grew and moved him to ask our pastor if a church could be started and it was – Lincoln Berean.  I think it was 1964 that Curt Lehman became its pastor and was there for maybe 40 years.  Shortly after the Lincoln start-up, our SS leader, Hugh Clark, moved to Lincoln – a big loss for us as he was a large player and one of the five who started the church in the 30’s (Today Lincoln Berean is pastored by Brian Clark, the grandson of Hugh and son of Eugene – our organist.)

Then in 1964 Grace Bible Institute, asked our music leader and youth leader to come to Omaha to start a campus radio station and he did – KGBI.  Many older ones remember Ward Childerston.  He and Bonnie have been in worship with us a few times in Gretna.

Sometime in 1965-66 I was on the cover of a national church weekly magazine, Power for Living, with a dear friend Tommy Jackson and a NP high school teacher, Paul Fleming.  A few months later Tommy was killed by a drunk driver after working all day at Camp Maranatha and returning home from a Youth for Christ rally in Gothenburg.  I had been with Tommy at camp that day but opted not to go that evening – it has been a watermark day for me (April 16).

That summer, 1966, I worked with Paul Fleming on his father’s farm south of Sutherland, NE.  Paul then left NP the following year to teach HS literature in Millard, NE.  A few years later he moved to CA.  (You see the huge impact our church had on Eastern NE and all of NE!)

I say all that to report that Paul Fleming just resurfaced in my life via Janet’s Facebook page.

In an early interaction with Janet, he made this statement:

The NP Days were some of the best of my life. I seriously erred in leaving. I could have had a lifelong career there and ministered to the community via English Lit which is deistic literature.  American Lit is atheistic, which is the path education followed after the 60’s.

Western civilization literature subtly followed Jesus’ influence as it spread westward around the globe. God put His message in the Catholic Church and Feudal Kings then into the new Protestant movement. To couple western civilization to the scriptures is fascinating. Actually, quite humbling because God moves in mysterious ways!

Today, the world is at another crossroad and it’s not Trump against the establishment, it’s deism vs atheism, the rule of law against anarchy. For our grandchildren it is very sobering!

Since this first note, we have been exposed to more of his postings.  It is so refreshing to encounter someone who impacted my life as a teen who today is still vibrant with Jesus and wrestling with the world’s ego.  I was so richly blessed as a youth and church was a very large part!