Do you plan on building a permanent facility?

The short answer is, no. Here is some of the reasons: In the Bible, it is clear that the church is a people (a community), not a building. Therefore, in an effort not to associate our community with a building, we do not want to build. Second, a building takes a lot of time and energy to maintain. We want to spend our time on people's lives, not on brick and mortar, so we chose to rent instead. Third, a building takes a lot of money to maintain. We want to be good stewards of the resources God has given us, and spending so much money to merely use the facility a few times a week is not a wise use of funds. Fourth, we want to be outward oriented in what we do, and not become self-centered. By intentionally not having a place we can retreat to, we force ourselves to be people-oriented. Finally, we desire to start other churches in neighboring communities, and so we choose to spend our time on multiplying churches rather than building a large central meeting place. In sum, as long as we are able to meet together without building a facility, we will rent instead.



What is a typical Sunday morning at Harvest Community Church like?

Probably the first thing that will come to your mind is "informal". You will notice that people are dressed pretty casual. We wear nametags so we can learn everybody's name. We get started around 10am. We like to sing together; usually accompanied by piano, guitar, and drums. The songs are a mixture of old and new. We always sing a children's song with actions; that way the kids can be involved, too!

Pastor Tom's teaching style might be different than what you have experienced before.  He teaches from the Bible and asks questions that he expects the congregation to answer! So our time together is interactive.

 

After singing we have a snack were we fellowship together. This is a time for people to bring some food to share and sit around and get to know each other. After the fellowship time Pastor Tom will teach.   

 

At least once a month we celebrate the Lord's Supper together. We invite anyone who is trusting in Christ for their salvation to partake of the Lord's Supper; you don't have to jump through any hoops to celebrate this time with us.

We also regularly take time for prayer and sharing testimonies of what God is doing in our lives.



What else do you do together?

One of our primary values is relationships. We also value becoming more like Christ. So we have Growth Groups that gather weekly which combine these two values. We look at the Bible together, and think about how it can help us live our lives differently.

We also like to get to know people who might not know a lot about a relationship with Jesus. So we encourage the people in our church to get to know people around town. We ask them to sponsor block parties, game nights, potlucks, dessert nights, and other things that will foster community and relationships.




What do you have for the children?

As we've mentioned, one of our values as a church is Relationships. This includes relationships with our youngest people! So we try very hard to include them in what we do on Sunday Mornings. We desire that Sunday mornings be a time when families are drawn together - not separated. So, we do things like sing children's songs together and ask them questions during the teaching time.