Kingdom Harbor

That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans. (Acts 16:6-10 Message)

The Macedonia Call

The year was AD 51. The Apostle Paul, seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance in where to go next, had a dream one night. In the dream he saw a man from Macedonia standing on the far shore inviting him to cross over the waters and bring the gospel message to them. He obeyed the Spirit’s call, boarded a ship of some kind with his companions, crossed over the waters, and fruitful ministry resulted.

The Swedish Moody

The year was 1884. A Spirit-filled Swedish immigrant preacher from Sweden, very short in stature and weighing in at an unimpressive 117 pounds, nevertheless had a very big presence and the anointing of God when he stood up to preach. Everywhere he went to preach, crowds would come by the thousands and revival would often break out.  His name was Eric August Skogsbergh, and he was widely known as “The Swedish Moody” as his ministry closely mirrored that of his famous friend and revivalist preacher Dwight L. Moody.

E.A. Skogsbergh was one of the early pioneer leaders of the Covenant Church, who had now come to Minneapolis to build the large Swedish Tabernacle Church now known as First Covenant Church. Stories abound of the electricity surrounding Skogsbergh’s ministry in Minneapolis in the late 1800s. 

Once while he was preaching, the crowds were packed so tightly into the tabernacle, that the balcony began to give way and sunk down a whole 2 inches, so that the doors underneath were jammed shut. Such was the weightiness of this bold preacher’s message that stirred so many souls to New Birth in Christ.

Ministry on Lake Minnetonka

In the 1890s, Skogsbergh heard his own Macedonian call of sorts coming from across another body of water. It was the glory days of Lake Minnetonka, when people from the city would take the train out and board steamboats and fairies to cross the waters to summer cottages, hotels and resorts in this vacation wonderland. Skogsbergh purchased a plot of land on a beautiful wooded point on West Arm Bay near Mound, where he built a summer home that still stands there today. 

Perhaps he originally intended to come out to Lake Minnetonka to get away from the demands of a busy ministry in the city. But those who knew Skogsbergh would attest that this zealous, tireless evangelist was seemingly incapable of resting from ministry and was always on mission looking for another place to plant the flag of the gospel.

So, we shouldn’t be surprised that soon Skogsbergh was hosting Bible Conferences and Sunday worship gatherings in the Mullberry Arbor of his Lake Minnetonka abode widely known for years as “Skogsbergh Point.” On such occasions farmers and city folks brought picnic baskets and ate their dinners, singing hymns together and listening to Skogsbergh open the Scriptures. Eventually a small church grew out of this Mission Friend presence on West Arm Bay known today as Fairview Covenant Church.

Boats & Barges

One powerful image we are given of Skogsbergh’s ministry on Lake Minnetonka involves the barge he had custom made to shuttle crowds of people from the railroad station in Spring Park across the bay to his point. On occasion, crowds would come in such great numbers to Skogsbergh’s Point that the steamboat could not accommodate them all in one trip. Erik Dahlhielm tells the charming story of Skogsbergh’s boats in his biography A Burning Heart (1951):

Rowboats of the most common size were too small to accommodate his big family. Skogsbergh, instead of buying a larger boat, had one built according to his own design. But he was evidently more skillful as a church architect than as a designer of rowboats. The family boat, which one of his daughters describes as “a viking ship with an ugly head, a long neck and a queer-looking tail,” had a tendency of moving in circles no matter how skillfully the oars were handled. It became famous on the bay, and the butt of many jokes. 

Then there was the barge, also the product of Skogsbergh’s brain….The barge, too, became famous. It was a picturesque sight when it was filled with people dressed in summer clothes, scarfs blowing in the wind and parasols open to protect delicate skins against he ravages of the sun. On calm days the barge was more popular than the steamboat. It was different, however, when a strong wind whipped the water into angry waves. Then all preferred the steamboat, and those who had to make the trip across the bay in the barge reached the Point in anything but a presentable condition” (122).

Such was the famous Skogsbergh barge so active on the Bay in those glorious days.

As we can see, the vessel carrying the masses across the water was not much to look at, and the ride was often uncomfortable. But the barge served it’s purpose bringing the crowds safely across, and on the opposite shore they heard about Jesus. They heard about the gift of New Birth that God offers to all willing to receive.

The Light of Christ shone brightly on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in those days. How I wish I could go back in time, take a trip on that clumsy barge and join crowds of folks sitting on blankets to hear E. A. Skogsbergh’s Spirit-filled preaching echoing across the Bay and bouncing off the shoreline of the city of Mound!

A Legacy Rekindled?

Fast forward a century and the year is 2005. A pastor who was born and raised on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Mound, MN, began to hear his own Macedonian call back to his hometown to start a new ministry to bring the light of Christ to area youth.

Drawing inspiration from the Apostle Paul’s Macedonian call, the one-time basketball phenom-turned-preacher, Jeremy Berg, obeyed the Holy Spirit and spearheaded a youth movement called Revolution that drew crowds of teenagers to hear about Jesus.

A spiritual darkness seemed to have settled over the Mound community in those days, and it grieved Pastor Berg watching local churches struggle. The crowds that once flocked to Mound in the days of Skogsbergh were now, a century later, leaving Mound in droves on Sundays to attend churches in other communities. One estimate in 2010 had about 1,000 Mound residents attending one church to the south in particular. “This made Sunday mornings the darkest hour of the week in this town, as all God’s lights get into their cars and commute to the booming church in nearby cities,” Berg lamented.

Berg wondered if the evangelistic legacy of E. A. Skogsbergh could be rekindled in Mound?  Could the light of Christ once again shine across the bay like a lighthouse drawing wayward seafarers to safe harbor at Salvation Point?

Building A Barge in Mound

In the summer of 2010, Pastor Berg and his wife began building a barge-of-sorts. Not a literal boat, but a new church to carry people to Christian faith! With the support of the Northwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, they began raising the funds and drawing up plans to build a vessel that might, by God’s grace, once again bring eager crowds back to the shores of Mound to hear the good news of Jesus.

Like Noah when he began building his ark, some called them crazy, some didn’t see the need for it, others doubted their craftsmanship and ability to complete such an undertaking. “How will they raise the funds to pay for it?  Where will they get all the materials? Aren’t there enough churches in this town already?”

Like Skogsbergh’s boats, its design no doubt has its flaws, it looks a bit awkward from a distance, rides a bit low and takes on water when the waves come. You see, like Skogsbergh, the builders were amateurs and learning as they went. The barge was constructed of a hodgepodge of gathered materials — people! — of all shapes and sizes and ages and strength, coming from various locations around the Lake Minnetonka area.

Many of the builders and materials came from across the lake at Excelsior Covenant Church. Some of the materials were strong, time-tested and sturdy. Others were more weak and fragile, requiring more time and tender care. But all the materials were capable of being put to good use on this barge.  The more materials that God made available to reinforce the structure, the stronger the vessel would become.

In the fall of 2011, Pastor Berg and their launch team pushed her out onto the waters to test her out at four monthly worship services. And by God’s grace, she floated! In fact, she shuttled a combined total of 500 some people into the presence of God to worship and hear the Bible preached on her first four voyages. Most agreed she was capable of carrying much larger crowds in the days to come if God so desired.

The MainStreet Covenant vessel has now been afloat on mission now for many years. She never grew large and she’s taken many different forms, but she’s pulled many people out of rough waters and into the safe harbor of Salvation Point. When people hop aboard the “MainStreet ferry”, they aren’t promised a luxury cruise but a sometimes choppy ride into the uncharted waters of risky obedience and authentic discipleship. The church should have a sign above the door that reads, “Warning: You will get wet!”  As the saying goes, “If you want to walk on water, you first have to get out of the boat” — and that’s neither safe nor dry!

Also the “butt of many jokes on the bay” in those days was Skogsbergh’s family boat which his daughter described as “a viking ship with an ugly head and queer looking tail.” Apparently, no matter how skillfully you rowed, it had a tendency to keep going in circles. People laughed when they saw the strange boat crossing the bay, and didn’t always know what to make of it.

Similarly, MainStreet would come to accept that they were a bit different from other churches around the lake. Like Captain Deering’s steamboat or the modern Al & Alma’s cruisers well-known on the lake, many churches seem to offer passengers a comfortable sight-seeing cruise through the Bible each week, admiring the Christian life from a safe distance, but hesitant to put a wooden paddle in their hands and let them get blisters learning to row their discipleship boat or setting their sails so catch the wind of the Holy Spirit in their day to day lives.

Another thing about Erik August Skogsbergh that shaped Pastor Berg and his ministry over the years, it was Skogsbergh’s unflinching confidence in the power of the preached Word by which the Spirit brings New Birth. “If I believed God’s transforming work at MainStreet depended on organized leadership, slick programming, sermon style and delivery, effective marketing, and so on,” Pastor Berg remarks, “I would hand in my resignation tomorrow and quit the ministry. Thankfully, God’s Spirit works in us and through us and, thank God, in spite of us!” 

MainStreet Covenant Church celebrated its official launch into weekly worship in Mound on January 15, 2012, with 180 people attending. Many years later the church continues to be a safe harbor — now in their current lakeside location at Saint Martin’s By the Lake in Minnetonka Beach. Pastor Jeremy Berg’s Kingdom Harbor media ministry provides Jesus-shaped, Biblical wisdom and resources to help believers navigate the stormy waters of culture and remain anchored in Christ.

Postscript

Year later, in an Indiana Jones style treasure hunt, Jeremy went searching Swedish library archives for any evidence that Skogsbergh’s quirky looking viking boat ever existed. In a twist of good luck, he found a reference to a photo of a “viking boat” on Lake Minnetonka to be found in an old, obscure biography of Skrefsrud, a well-known Norwegian Lutheran missionary of the late 1800s, published in Oslo in 1937.

He tracked the book down in the Augsburg College library, and while he couldn’t understand a word of the book, that photo is a daily reminder that God continues to call fishermen away from their boats to become fishers of men; and he continues to use churches of all shapes and sizes to bring people to Salvation Point!

Skogsbergh was fond of ending his sermons and pastoral visits with a little mantra that is fitting to end on:

I must go, I must go

While the sun is aglow

I must be about my fishing

How can I stand idly by

While lost souls cry

for a word from the savior of men.

“You, too, are being built together in him, along with the others, into a place for God’s Spirit to dwell” (Ephesians 2:22).