Beginning next week, this series will explore the influence and impact of the founding spiritual principles of our nation. We would love to have you join us! You do not need to regularly attend our church, nor are there any collections taken. Sundays at 4:30pm, Monday through Friday at 7:30pm. Each meeting of the series lasts approximately one hour.
Here is a brief summary of what is expected to be covered the first week – check back soon for active links to our YouTube livestream. Or visit our channel.
Thanksgiving
A comparatively small vessel with about 100 people landed on the coast of Massachusetts in 1620. It wasn’t until 220 years later that this group was called “Pilgrims.” On November 11, 1620, before landing, they composed what has been called the first Constitution framed in America, “The Mayflower Compact.” In it they cited three reasons for their arduous voyage across the Atlantic. Few Americans seem to know what those three stated reasons were. That is part of what we will consider in tonight’s meeting.
The Puritans
The Puritans were a company of highly educated men and women who set up the first colleges in the colonies and placed a high premium on education. Harvard and Yale were among the many institutions for learning which they established. Harvard’s original logo was, “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae,” (“Truth for Christ and Church.”) One historian described the Puritans settlements in the new world as “the best-educated community the world has ever known.”
John Eliot and David Brainerd
These two men refused comfort and prosperity and spent their life telling native Americans about the Gospel. Eliot took upon himself the immense task of translating the Bible into the incredibly difficult Algonquian language. His feat of translation is still a marvel to scholars. Brainerd labored so tirelessly to see the natives saved that he died at the young age of 29. Both of them had a single desire – to tell the native Americans about the Lord Jesus and the truth of the Bible.
Jonathan Edwards
One of the most brilliant minds this continent ever produced, Edwards was a powerful Gospel preacher who eventually became President of Princeton College (called at that time “The College of New Jersey). On July 8, 1741, he preached a sermon in Enfield, CT, which has been rightly called “The Most Important Sermon in American History.” Why? And does a 280-year-old message have any relevance to us today?
The Great Awakening
This was a remarkable period in American history when Gospel preaching exerted a profound influence on the colonists. From Maine to Georgia, men and women responded to the preaching of the Gospel. John Adams gave credit to the Great Awakening as part of the source of motivation behind the Revolutionary War. Some historians posit that severing ties with the Church of England eventually led to severing ties with the Government of England. What was the powerful message that evangelists preached and that had such a mighty impact on the formation of this nation?
George Whitefield
Perhaps the greatest English-speaking Gospel preacher of all time, George Whitefield was an Englishman who sided with the colonists in their struggle for independence. A close friend of Benjamin Franklin, who greatly admired his preaching, Whitefield drew crowds of thousands of listeners in the fields of New England, the farms of the southern colonies, and the cities along the coast. He began his Gospel work in the colonies when he landed at Lewes, DE, and ended it when he died in Newburyport, MA. It is impossible to fully estimate the enormous effect his preaching had on numerous of America’s Founding Fathers.