Fort Goede Hoop

Today is the 353rd birthday of Second Church of Christ, Hartford. The legal name of South Congregational Church. Yes, we were gathered in 1670 by thirty-one faithful souls who covenanted with God and one another to walk with Him and each other according to the rules of the gospel. Hartford has changed a lot since the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block first visited this area back in 1614 and set up trading post at the confluence of the Connecticut and Park Rivers, naming it “Fort Goede Hoop (Good Hope).” I like that our city was originally connected to the idea of “Good Hope.” There is sort of a divine premise to it.

Connecticut was a true wilderness at that time. No one knew if settling here would be safe or successful, yet a small Meeting House was constructed at what is now the corner of Sheldon and Main Street. It was followed by a move down the street and a new building in 1754 and another new Meeting House in 1827. Constructed for the enormous sum of $23,000.

I recently mentioned in Bible study that one of my most favorite novels is “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. This book tells the story of the building of a gothic cathedral in 12th century England. I know it sounds boring but it is one of the best books I have ever read. The thing is, to complete such a structure with the technology of the time would take over fifty years. Interestingly, the average life expectancy of a man in the 1100’s was less than 31.3 years. That means the craftsmen (architects, masons, carpenters, laborers) who were usually in their twenties when they began the work, would never live to see it complete. Still, they came every single day and worked on a structure knowing what it would be one day. 

It’s the same for the thirty-one brave souls who gathered on the corner of Sheldon and Main in 1670. They had no idea that 353 years later there would still be a Second Church of Christ in Hartford. That this would be a city of 125,000 people. That was the size of Cambridge! Nonetheless, that did not stop them from doing it. They stepped out in faith, confident that God was calling them to build.

The same could be said of us. We are building something too. All of us. We are building His church. Yes, when Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “…upon this rock I will build my church,” He was talking about believers – you and me. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16, “You [believers] are God’s building…Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” Yes, Jesus could return at any moment, but thus far, He has waited over 2,000 years to come back and there is nothing saying He won’t wait another two millennia. Like our brothers and sisters-in-Christ in 1670, we will not be here then. However, what we are building will. The rest of Matthew 16:18 says, “…upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”

That’s right. God will take the fruit of our work and make it glorious beyond anything we could dream of. We cannot focus on just what we can see now. We need to look instead to the glory to come. In twenty trillion years when we look around and see people praising Jesus, we will remember how we played a tiny part in helping other people do that because we helped build His church, His kingdom.

Happy birthday South Church. Here’s to another 353 years.

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Remember you can email praises and petitions to southchurchprayer@gmail.com. I lift them up every Wednesday at 4:00 pm on Facebook Live.