By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent

Bible study group meets at dawn in Hudson bakery

HUDSON -- The open sign at the Old World Bakery has barely flipped over, and at a bit past 5:30 a.m. Tim Chukel has arrived for a weekly appointment, Bible in hand.

Other customers filter in, buy a doughnut and step back out onto a still darkened Second Street. One of them waits for his ride to work. Vendors come by and grab pallets of fresh bread for their businesses.

At about 6 a.m., several other people from local churches join Chukel. They have to hurry, because at 6:30 a.m., Chukel has to head out to his job as a teacher at Hudson Middle School, while others continue the morning session.

Such has been the scene for years, bright and early each Wednesday, as people join at the bakery for a Bible study before work -Ð which in many cases entails a long commute into the Twin Cities.

"It gives us something good to take to work with us," said member Dennis Lee.

The group has members of various denominations, and new people occasionally join. Others after a time may drop out, because their theology does not match the main thrust of discussions, or because their work schedules change, Lee said. They even have some night owls who sacrifice their sleep time to attend, he added.

"If you get there after 6:30, (the waitress) already has taken the orders," Lee said. There have been times where he's decided to sleep a bit more rather than attending, but they have been few.

Lee said the morning schedule was tough before his children left for college, when he had to make breakfast because his wife, Debbie, has a job where she has to be in even earlier.

For many members, particularly those from the core group from Bethel Lutheran Church, an advantage of discussing with the guys is that they don't have to make allowances for a spouse who belongs to a different denomination, Lee said.

A year or two ago, they added a non-Protestant to their ranks. "I happened to stop down and shop for coffee and a doughnut," said Al Theisen, who attends St. Patrick Church in Hudson, adding that he saw some people with whom he works and they asked him to join. So Theisen, who is employed by an engineering and consulting firm in White Bear Lake, Minn., has been attending frequently for the past 18 months.

The conversations can be quite fun, or involve "good natured bantering," he said, especially when it comes to the fact that he is Catholic surrounded by Lutherans.

That has allowed Theisen to learn more about both his and other faiths, but when there is a question about Catholicism, "all eyes turn to me, like I have all the answers, which I don't," he said.

A typical example are discussions about the five books of the Bible that Catholics include, but Lutherans do not. "I'm going to get them to read them sometime," Theisen said.

At first, there were some differing views on the Scriptures, but they soon reached a common ground. "After all, it stems from the same person," Theisen said. "That's Jesus Christ."

He has friends across all denominations, and his wife attends Bethel, Theisen noted.

"This is all in the big picture of learning more about our faith," said Lee, adding that he has had questions about his religious beliefs at times, and the study group has grounded him and helped him work through that. "I now am much more appreciative of humanity," Lee said.

The group has met each Wednesday in the wee hours for about 25 years.

Van Bredeson, a pastor at Bethel, attends regularly, but made it clear right away that he wanted to be just one of the guys attending, not "the pastor," said member Curt Larson. They do ask him to chime in on the heavier theological topics, "the tough stuff," such as theological concerns involving the war in Iraq, Larson said. At a recent meeting, a topic became the return of Lee's son from the war, and members of the group, despite being from various political persuasions, discussed very civilly.

Chapters of the Bible are read and then discussed, sometimes vigorously, in a manner that is thorough enough that sometimes even Post-it notes are used.

Sometimes members disagree and may even be offended by one another, but they value the broadening experience and new outlooks on theology, Lee said. It is like an athletic contest where players really go at each other during the game, but afterwards shake hands and everyone is still friends, he said.

Despite the early hour, Lee said he can't recall a single time whenpeople got cranky during the debating because they were overtired.

The commuters get up as early as 5 a.m. to attend the study, which is a spin-off of a previous Bible study that was held in the evening at Bethel. It also has a connection today with a Promise Keepers group that is currently reading and discussing "The Purpose Driven Life."

Part of the draw is that it gets them together as guys in an informal setting to enjoy each other's friendship, as well as religious insights, the members said.

Some of them even go jogging first -- or in these later years just walking -- making the early morning session a healthy thing physically, as well as spiritually, they said.

Some members describe this as part of a disciplined lifestyle that works best when people rise early.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2005