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We believe...

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  • the Bible is a uniquely God-inspired book that points to Jesus. 

  • our world is both beautiful and broken. 

  • God is working to restore and heal what’s broken. 

  • Jesus is the source of healing — for ourselves and our world. 

  • God wants us to be a part of that healing process, though we are still being healed of our own brokenness. 

  • church is about relationships with God, with others, with our world. 

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This list isn’t complete, of course. We’ve avoided many terms and phrases others use to define themselves — not because we don’t believe them but because we would rather be known by our love for God and for our world. Besides, we don’t believe you can know a congregation by reading a twelve-point statement. (Or by reading all the information on a website!) We don’t believe signing off on a list of doctrines proves anyone knows God. We believe the goal of Christianity is not to check off all the right doctrines but to learn how to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We figure if we focus on that, we’ll get enough of the doctrines right. 

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That said, we do believe deeply in the Bible, and we want to take to heart its simple message and to wrestle faithfully with its complexities. We stand with all who affirm the historic creeds, like the Apostles Creed. We long to be in fellowship with all christian churches. We are a ministry of the Reformed Church in America.

Leadership

 

Bethany’s leadership consists of pastors, elders and deacons. We also have a staff who equips members to lead. We’re a part of the Reformed tradition, so our leadership board is called the consistory. The consistory, staff and congregation work together in five broad teams: Care, Discipleship, Outreach, Support and Worship.

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We work hard to make sure our leaders plan together and communicate well, so our consistory and ministry teams gather monthly, and we have two congregational meetings a year. We are also connected to a regional group of RCA churches called a classis. The Wisconsin Classis oversees, connects and provides resources for the churches in our state.  

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We believe leadership is both a gifting and a calling of God, not just a natural talent. The Spirit of God has gifted leaders so they can build up and prepare people to do the work of Jesus in our world. We believe that the best reading of the Bible leads us to include women at all levels of leadership, and so we currently have women as both elders and deacons.  

 

Here are some of our current leaders at Bethany:

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Jane Carlson                  Pastor                     
Melissa Scheidt              Office Manager                    
Adam Smith                    Worship Leader            
Terri Daye                       Administrative Assistant        

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