11 Oct. 1872–24 Feb. 1957
Bethea was an accredited instructor in training classes in his denomination and was sought after for youth assemblies and
Bethea served as conference evangelist for a number of years, traveling across the state holding ten-day revivals "wherever people would gather to listen." In his early ministry, he traveled on foot and by horseback. He said of his methods: "I didn't do anything fancy. I'd give my sermon, pray, and ask them to come to the altar, and they came." He preached over 20,000 sermons and recorded some 8,061 conversions. His first pastorate was in Ellenboro, after which he went to Bessemer City, where Bethea's Chapel was later built and named in his honor. He also served pastorates at Gibsonville, Yarborough, Granville Circuit, Halifax Circuit, Lexington, Asheville, Fletcher, Tryon, and Swannanoa. He served as the conference missionary secretary in 1915–16. In 1926 he made an extensive tour of Palestine.
Bethea attended seven general conferences of the Methodist Protestant church and was an alternate delegate at the uniting conference of the three branches of Methodism in 1939. He retired in 1949.
On 6 Dec. 1899, Bethea married Hattie C. Warlick, daughter of Samuel M. and M. Frances Wood Warlick of Pleasant Hill in Cleveland County. To this union were born five children. Bethea died in Greensboro and was buried there in the Guilford Memorial Park.