The history of the House of the Lord

The history of The House of the Lord is rich with the blessings from the Lord. Although there has been a steady growth pattern in the early years, the times of greatest growth came when the church established the new building in Hurricane Street, called the House of the Lord.

1920 – Cottage meetings were started at Putfontein as a branch of the Boksburg Assembly. Under the leadership of Pastor Eliezer Jenkins the Benoni Assembly was constituted.

1971 – The Full Gospel Church of God in Benoni was situated in Rothsay Avenue. It only had seats for 144 people and the assembly consisted of 40 plus members. The Lord spoke to the Pastor at the time, Pastor Billy and Rentia Smook to build a large Church.

1977 – on 7th July at seven minutes past seven the cornerstone was laid on the ground after they previously had received R6,000.00 from a Brother in the Church to purchase the ground.

1977 – The first building came into being, which was the Prayer Chapel. The entire project was a faith venture and building was only continued week after week, as there was enough cash to buy materials. The Chapel was to be open day and night as a place of “rest in the Lord”. It became rather difficult to prevent vagrants from sleeping there at night. Eventually the doors were locked in the evenings but access is still available to anybody upon enquiry.

1979 – 13th January, The House of the Lord attracted a lot of attention from the public, especially when transporting the huge wooden beams. The factory had to change its structure to accommodate these wooden beams.

The Name

In a dream, André Smook was given the name, House of the Lord, for the new church. It was unanimously accepted with the intention that this building would be a place of worship to anyone in Benoni who sought the Lord.