Personal Facts

About Us (Doctrinal Statement and Goals)

Won't Make It To Mainstream Ministries is Bruce and Susan Bertram. We have been married for going on three decades, and have two excellent children. We are Gentile Christians who grew up (mostly) in San Diego, but for the last 18 years have lived in Grand Junction, Colorado.  We have one grandchild at the moment with another on the way.  We don't know what we did to deserve such blessings as these, but we thank Abba that they are part of our life.

I (Bruce) am 47 and have been studying various scholarly subjects for most of 30 years. Although I do not have a degree in any of these subjects, I have been told by others that I could probably pass an ordination exam, whatever that means. About 25 years ago I began intensely studying Systematic Theology (using the original seven volume work by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Seminary) and related subjects. The books in a library can frequently illuminate the quality of self-education, so below is a sampling of my library.

• Earle Cairns, Brad Young, Marvin Wilson, Alfred Edersheim (History)
• John McArthur, Walvoord & Zuck, Matthew Henry, Spurgeon, David Stern, Brad Scott (Commentary)
• Josh McDowell (Apologetics)
• Hatch & Redpath, Strong (Concordance)
• La Sor, Rabbi Michael Munk, Brad Scott (Hebrew)
• Machen (Greek)
• Milton Terry, Tim Hegg, Bernard Ramm, Brad Scott, Kaiser & Silva (Hermeneutics - Interpretation)
• Walter Martin, Josh McDowell (Religions)
• Logos Level 4 Software (over 40 books)
• Accordance Scholar's Level 3 & Jewish 4
• Jay Adams (Counseling)
• Chafer, Ryrie (Systematic Theology)

My childhood was rather broken, although I wasn't abused that I can remember, nor did my natural mother get involved with drugs. She was, however, married seven times and I spent time in five foster homes. I am the oldest of five siblings. I was adopted at 14 by my fifth foster family, and I asked my natural parents to relinquish custody, to which they both agreed. I didn't know my father because he wouldn't allow visits. Up to that point (ninth grade) I had attended about 20 different schools in such diverse places as Hawaii and New Hampshire, but mostly in and around the San Diego area.

My first foster home was Catholic, so of course they rushed out and had him baptized before I accidentally died and went straight to Hell (a jest, but they were very caring people).  I attended catechism and had First Holy Communion with them also.  At another foster home I went to an Assemblies church, and with my adopted family I attended a Baptist church through the high school years. After high school I went to a large Assemblies church and sometimes to Calvary Chapel.

Susan was a tad bit different than me in her childhood. She only went to three schools (elementary, middle, and high), had one set of parents (she is the middle of three kids, with two sisters), and went to the same Disciples of Christ Church from when she was five years old until she met me. She asked Jesus to be the Lord of her life at five, was baptized, and has followed Him steadily ever since.  Her life was pretty standard and not quite as eventful as mine so that's why her paragraph is shorter. But I would have given a lot to be that standard. It's only a small consolation that Susan says since she met me her life has been anything but boring.

We met through mutual friends in the CB radio craze that swept the country in the late '70's and early '80's.  We were married in 1980, after a few years bought a house, had the kids, and started to settle down. We decided to attend Calvary Chapel together, and managed to stay there for about three years. Then we developed some theological issues and started searching other churches to see if they had what we were looking for. We went to a Wesleyan church for a while and were asked to be its youth directors, which we did for about six months. In 1987 we moved to Grand Junction and have been reasonably happy here. We have our own business repairing and refinishing wood furniture.

We didn't seek out a shepherd's position although we were asked to be candidates for assistant once and I was an elder at a Bible Church a few years ago. I had always felt there was something missing in standard Protestant doctrine and practice, and we could not sell out and become mere cheerleaders, which is what it seemed most pastors were doing. I used to tell Susan that in all my studies there seemed to be something missing, because the people in the Bible knew God in a way that I couldn't fathom or duplicate.

In Grand Junction we attended a Community church, Calvary Chapel, and visited an Assemblies church, a Vineyard church, and for about five or six years we were members of a Bible Church. Bruce was an elder there for a while, but he had to resign because of doctrinal differences - he wanted to teach the Bible and they didn't. Very strange for a church that calls itself Valley Bible Church.

You see, we had found what we thought was missing in all those different churches we attended - a big chunk of the Word of God, called by some the 'Old Testament.' We wanted to share this discovery with our 'church' family at the time, and for five years we tried to help our family there understand the Torah (the word means 'instructions'), with very little success.  We really loved the people at Valley Bible Church and wanted to share the freedom and spiritual growth we found with them, which we know that they (and others) are also looking for, but they would have none of it.  After having completed our Church-traditional "freezing out" period we are gone from there.  Now we are in the process of starting a Whole Bible community, and prospects are good for getting it established.  Let us know if you want more information.

We think there is a need for a better group dynamic than what the churches have become, and this dynamic needs to be based on the whole Word of God, including Torah. Torah is not the big scary monster that some in the organized church have made it out to be. It is not a method for salvation, but a lifestyle for after salvation. Most of it is followed by many people anyway - what's missing are the elements of obedience and commitment.

Doctrinal Specifics | Goals