Formation of Twin Cities Creation Science Association

Soon after his meeting with Walter Lang, Bill Overn was invited to Idaho and given contacts in states adjoining Minnesota by Walter and people with whom he communicated. Bill became convinced that a local chapter of Bible Science Association was needed in Minnesota and made it known that he would be willing to work on it if there were another volunteer who would come forward.

In summer of 1972 at the Creation Convention in Milwaukee, sponsored by Walter Lang. Bill contacted interested people he had met at his lectures, and a van load drove from Minneapolis to Milwaukee. At the conference Bill was pleased to see his former pastor, Hans Theiste. They were shown a rough cut of the film, "Footprints in Stone," produced by Films for Christ.

Shortly after that conference, Fred Schmugge, who was a childhood friend of Bill, called and volunteered to help organize a creationist organization. He was a minister who also worked as a tech writer in another division of Univac. He had gotten interested in creation after hearing a talk by Henry Morris on the earth's magnetic field. They met on a Sunday afternoon and began to lay the groundwork for what eventually became the Twin Cities Creation Science Association.

A number of interested people were contacted, including Peter Larson, Dave Fruehauf, and Max Callen. They decided to sponsor a showing of the film as part of an organizational meeting for the new association. They secured space in the Minneapolis Lutheran High School and set a date for the summer of 1973. They brainstormed a list of people who might be interested and got about 100 names from Walter Lang out of his mailing list. Peter Larson agreed to allow his name to be put up for President and others were willing to be various officers. They prayed for an attendance of at least 100 as a sign that they should continue.

About 120 showed up on a very hot summer evening to a meeting room without air conditioning and the film was well received. A somewhat parliamentary meeting was held and people were asked to join. But a number of circumstances threatened to derail the process. At the end of a long hot session, Walter Lang, who had arrived from Idaho, wanted to talk to the group. He also needed airfare. There was an emotional reaction that lead several key figures to oppose becoming a local chapter of Bible Science Association (BSA). Peter Larson also felt he could not serve as President. Bill Overn was unable to serve. He felt he was too heavily committed with speaking, frequent out-of town work assignments, and duties as a Regent of Bethany Lutheran College. David Fruehauf agreed to serve as president for 6 months. Fred Schmugge served as Secretary.

After about that amount of time and consideration of all the factors, Peter Larson agreed to be President, and TCCSA also did become a local chapter of BSA, noting that there were advantages to that association and that there were strong locally controlled chapters in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Seattle as well as Southern California where Robert Kohfahl began his ministry and where Nell Seagraves and her son Kelly were working to promote creation.

Early History

Monthly Meetings were begun and topics were taken by members of the core group as well as outside speakers who had been at national conferences and agreed to come. Peter Larson, Bill Overn, Max Callen, Dave Fruehauf, all part of the core group, and several professors from Bethany Lutheran College, Bethel College and Northwestern College and teachers from Lutheran High Schools were regular speakers. There was a great hunger for information among those interested and a paucity of resources compared to the present. There were some who heard about the organization and volunteered themselves to speak. One of those early volunteers was Bob Helfinstine who heard about the group from Peter Larson. Katherine Sorenson was very involved in organizing the activities and the International Conferences held in 1976 and 1983.

Fred and Mary Seitz came to a newly-formed Evangelical Lutheran Synod Church -- Heritage Lutheran in Apple Valley -- asking "Do You believe Jesus is God?" Bill Overn, who was involved in that start, assured her that it was a fundamental Lutheran doctrine. Mary Seitz related that the new assistant pastor at the Lakeville ALC church had told the congregation that he did not believe it. This illustrated to Bill the progressive deterioration of faith that accompanies the erosion of the authority of Scripture and the importance of being "Bible believing." Mary Seitz, recognizing the importance of creation to biblical belief became a tireless worker for TCCSA, and the chief promoter for its first project.

About that time, Comet Kohoutek was anticipated to be a spectacular show in the sky and interest in comets was high. George Mulfinger was invited to come up from Bob Jones University and show that the existence of comets, since they lose significant mass with each approach, indicated a young solar system. Thanks to Mary Seitz, a large attendance showed up, but Comet Kohoutek did not. Rather Kohoutek essentially proved the deterioration theory by being barely visible.

A year later a teachers' conference was planned in the Robbinsdale School District and by the influence of David Freuhauf, the School Board agreed to give continuing education credit. Donald Chittick spoke, the Bible Science Newsletter was distributed and creation-friendly textbooks were made available. The planning committee purchased 100 sets of materials and prayed for 100 attendees. Exactly 100 people came, paid $30.00 tuition, and heard the case for creation.

Another example of the Lord's hand in that meeting was the fact that a couple of weeks before, Dr. Chittick had been injured when his car fell off a jack and fractured one of his ribs. He was improving when he got on the plane for the Twin Cities but by the time he arrived was in a great deal of pain and unsure if he could go on with the speaking. Peter Larson called the committee to pray, and the pain was relieved. After the meetings, on the way to the airport, the pain returned.

After those meetings and for the next two years, David Fruehauf presented the creation model as a guest speaker in biology classes at Cooper and Armstrong High Schools. Then, opposition by the district's science coordinator and several science teachers ended the classes.

The monthly meetings continued through the years, attended by an average of 50 people, including children and adolescents. Families were interested from the very start. Often at the meetings a vote would be taken on which topic would be addressed the next month. The attendees were those sympathetic to creation or very open minded towards it with very few exceptions. Bob Shadewald, a skeptic, attended frequently, asked questions of speakers and exchanged articles with Bill Overn both pro and con a few years ago. We sadly heard of his untimely death a few months ago. Lately Tom Lawson and Bill Volna have been frequent attenders who disagree. We have yet to encounter a disruptive guest.

There was a second national Creation Convention sponsored by Bible Science Association held in Milwaukee attended by several from the Twin Cities group. The idea to hold the next such event in the Twin Cities began to develop. There was a desire to draw the scientific community to the meetings and so the name was changed from a Convention to as conference. Peter Larson recalls that a few people complained about the monthly meetings being started in prayer, feeling that it might alienate non-Christian attenders.

In 1976 the third national Creation Science Conference was sponsored by Bible Science Association and TCCSA. The dates were August 15-18, 1976. It was held at Northwestern College in Roseville before the Totino Fine Arts building was built and before there was air conditioning in the buildings. Bill Overn was program chairman, and speakers included Dr. Don Chittick, Dr. Clifford Burdick, Dr. Tom Barnes, Dr. Clifford Wilson, Dr. Robert Kofahl, Dr. Duane Gish and a number of others. It was at that conference that Bob Helfinstine presented his paper "A Correlation of Joel, Amos and Isaiah with the Catastrophic Event of their Times." (which had been presented at a TCCSA meeting in 1975.) Dr. Chittick made a presentation on converting biomass waste into useful fuel with a catalytic converter, and had pictures of actual applications of the process.

Al Heitkamp's Story

Al Heitkamp was challenged by Walter Lang in 1968 to remember that "Adam and Eve were real people." At the time, Al was a chemist, was teaching Sunday School and about to become Sunday School superintendent at his church. His interest was captured and realized that although he was a scientist, he had received no background in this area. In 1976, he awoke in the middle of the night aware of the Lord speaking to him, saying to sell his extra business and reduce his church responsibilities in order to devote more time to the cause of creation. Al became involved with TCCSA at the time of the 1976 Conference and later joined the TCCSA Board and also the Bible Science Board. At the 1983 Conference, he gave a talk on the Cretaceous Iridium layer, showing that Noah's Flood was the explanation that best fit the evidence. This concept was carried further by others in the 1992 Conference. He continues to speak and serve on the Board.

The Gish Kirkwood Debate

At the 1976 National Creation Conference an attempt was made to hold a debate between Dr. Duane Gish and Dr. Sam Kirkwood, a well-known biochemist at the University of Minnesota. It did not materialize at that time, but a year later, in 1977, agreement was reached with the participants and Northrup Auditorium at the University of Minnesota (seating capacity 5000) reserved. Promotional leaflets were printed up and given to churches for further distribution. Luther-Northwestern Seminary and St. Thomas College refused to allow the information on their campuses.

There was no idea of how many might be coming until the committee received a phone call from the University police saying that they had received so many phone calls asking about bus parking that they would need $750.00 to cover the cost of extra manpower. It turned out that the auditorium was filled and the reaction was powerful according to questions submitted and surveys taken at that time. A video tape was made, which was a major production in those days, and generated wide interest, not the least of which was the feeling by evolutionists that creation was not easy to defeat in a confrontation.

Conferences

The next year TCCSA organized a debate that pitted two senior professors from the Hamline University science staff against Bill Overn and Dr. John Cunningham of Northwestern College. The head of the Hamline department of science showed up carrying a Bible, and attempted to steer the debate into that area. Modern evolutionary debaters usually are more sophisticated.

In 1978 Rev. Lang moved the Bible Science Association from Idaho to Minneapolis where he felt there would be more financial support for his work. Volunteers including TCCSA members came to his aid and Mel Schwanz began to work for him as an office manager. Bill Overn eventually gave up his consulting business and went to work for BSA. TCCSA was always a separate organization but with a strong relationship to BSA. For years, a TCCSA membership included a Bible Science Association Newsletter subscription. Several TCCSA members submitted original scientific papers to the Bible Science Newsletter and Bill Overn's niece, Nancy Pearcey wrote lucid analysis pieces during the heyday of that publication. A subscription was part of the TCCSA membership package.

In August 1983 a major International Creation Conference was sponsored by TCCSA. It was designed to be done in a manner equivalent to any secular scientific meeting, including both invited and submitted papers. It drew many well-known speakers and was a major boost for the Twin Cities group.

Jeannene Forshee's Story

Jeannene Forshee was browsing through a used book store and her eye caught a couple of creationist books. Later, she heard an announcement on the radio about a meeting at Northwestern College being put on by The Institute for Creation Research and at that meeting heard about TCCSA. She began attending regularly and was eventually asked to serve on the Board and also to edit the Newsletter.

Lending Library

Jeannene got the idea of a lending library since there are so many valuable resources available that can bring the message of creation even farther than the meetings, but at first the Board was not interested. She decided to pray "until the Lord changed their minds." Eventually they did agree, especially when it was clear that there would be no additional expense. A notice went out and there were two major donations. Irene Nistle gave a creation video tape library of 80 titles and there was an anonymous cash donation of $200.00.

In the Spring of 1991, Jeannene began running the library out of her home as a mail order service. People paid the postage both ways and gave donations if they desired, all of which allowed the service to not only be self supporting but to regularly add new resources. The major users turned out to be home schoolers. This continued for 4 years and was beginnning to outgrow Jeannene's small home. At that point, Dee McLellan, a home schooler who had heard about TCCSA through the library, got permission from her church, Grace Church of Roseville, to house the library at the church.