A Church Plant in the Connecticut Countryside
Bethany Lutheran Brethren Church sits on Walnut Hill Road in East Hartland, a small town in Hartford County along the northwestern edge of Connecticut. The congregation was organized on September 8, 1941, when nineteen followers of Christ came together in response to a shared desire to reach their new community with the gospel. Many of them had moved up from Manhattan and Brooklyn, leaving city life for the rural surroundings of northwestern Connecticut. At first the group worshipped in homes in North Granby, gathering to sing hymns, pray, and share testimonies, with a steady concern for the children, the young people, and the wider community of East Hartland. Two years later, in 1943, Bethany formally joined the Lutheran Brethren Synod.
From the beginning, the doctrinal position of the church focused on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the conviction that the Word of God is the final authority for faith and conduct. Today the congregation gathers in a modest building with a sanctuary and an upper room upstairs, and a nursery, kitchen, restrooms, and gym to the right of the main entrance. Members describe Bethany as a small town church that seeks to believe, obey, proclaim, and live God's Word, striving toward that mission through the grace of God rather than arriving at it.
Sunday Mornings in the Sanctuary
Sunday worship is held at 11:00 in the sanctuary throughout most of the year. During the summer, when the calendar runs from Memorial Day Sunday through Labor Day Sunday, the service moves to 10:00. Each service is livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook, so members and friends can join from home when weather or travel keeps them away.
First-time visitors are welcome to use either of two main entrances. The side entrance is closer to the street, while the rear entrance is the one most people use. Through that rear door, a short walk straight ahead reaches the stairs up to the sanctuary and the upper room; a turn to the right leads to the restrooms, nursery, kitchen, and gym. Sunday mornings are more formal than the church's weekday events, but dress is relaxed - plenty of regulars arrive in jeans and a flannel - and newcomers are invited to come in whatever is comfortable.
Children, Sunday School, and VBS
Children are a large part of Bethany's life together. Sunday School runs from the Sunday after Labor Day through the Sunday before Memorial Day weekend, meeting from 9:45 to 10:45 in the morning. Children gather first in the sanctuary and then break off into their classes. During the summer, families are folded back into the worship service together. A nursery is available on Sunday mornings for the youngest children.
For kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, a separate youth group meets on the first and third Friday of each month from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., with games, crafts, and Bible lessons. Parents fill out a medical form each year for any child taking part in children's or youth activities. Vacation Bible School is also part of the children's ministry calendar each year.
Middle School, High School, and Confirmation
Middle school students meet for youth group on Friday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30, year-round. Confirmation class is held on Wednesdays from 4:00 to 5:00, beginning in September each year and continuing through the confirmation milestone. High school students gather for special events roughly every other month, keeping them connected to the larger youth community without a fixed weekly schedule. Middle school and high school students also attend Sunday School together from 9:45 to 10:45 in the Youth Room during the school-year Sunday School season. A Youth Leader Policy Handbook guides the adults who serve alongside these young people.
PrimeTimers, Playgroup, and Bible Studies
For adults, Bethany offers several rhythms of fellowship. PrimeTimers, the church's group for adults 55 and older, meets on the fourth Thursday of each month at noon for lunch, conversation, and a message from God's Word. Young families with small children are invited to a weekly playgroup that meets Thursday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30, with coffee, toys, and time together. The church also hosts several ongoing Bible Studies, with details available by emailing the church office.
RightNow Media, the Church Center App, and Giving
Bethany makes a library of video resources available free to those connected with the church through RightNow Media. The library includes Bible study series for every age and season, with study guides and leader materials for many of the series, and a sizeable selection for children. Anyone can request access and use it on a computer, tablet, or phone.
The Church Center app keeps members in touch with events, sign-ups, and small groups. It can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play. For those who want to support the church's ministry in Hartland and the surrounding towns, as well as around the world, giving is available online through the Vanco Mobile app or a secure give-now link on the church's giving page, with both one-time and recurring options.
What We Believe
Bethany's Statement of Faith is summarized by three phrases: Word Alone, Christ Alone, Faith Alone. The church teaches that the Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the verbally inspired Word of God and the final authority for faith and conduct; that God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one divine essence; and that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, became fully human, lived a perfect life, died on the cross as a substitute for sinners, rose again in the body in which He was crucified, and now sits at the right hand of the Father as the church's interceding High Priest. The Holy Spirit is a divine person, one with the Father and the Son, who works through the Word to bring people to faith and to grow them in that faith.
Bethany practices both of the sacraments ordained by Christ. In Baptism, God offers the benefits of Christ's redemption and bestows the washing of regeneration on all who believe. Because the promise of God's grace includes little children, the church baptizes infants as members of Christ's believing church, while still calling them, as they grow, to confess their sinfulness and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. In Holy Communion, Christ gives His body and blood to communicants in, with, and under the bread and wine, declaring the forgiveness of sin and strengthening faith.
The church teaches that eternal salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Justification is God's gracious act of crediting repentant and believing sinners with Christ's righteousness; sanctification is the Spirit's ongoing work of renewal in the life of every believer. The local congregation is described as an assembly of believers in a certain place among whom the Gospel is purely taught and the sacraments rightly administered. Bethany practices congregational church government with autonomous local congregations; the office of pastor and elder is filled by men only, and the synodical administration serves in an advisory role to the local congregation and an administrative role for cooperative efforts. The congregation adheres to the historic Lutheran confessions: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, the unaltered Augsburg Confession, and Luther's Small Catechism.
The Bethany Family
At its heart Bethany Lutheran Brethren Church is a small congregation with deep connections. Members describe the church as feeling like family, and visitors are welcomed with the same warmth. Matthias Szobody serves as Interim Pastor. The church's stated mission is to make disciples who believe, obey, proclaim, and live God's Word, and its stated vision is to build up another generation of disciples, living in the Word of truth and making it known to those in the community of East Hartland and beyond.