“Why don’t you meet in the morning? Just too lazy to get out of bed?”
Maybe, but that’s not the real reason. At first, it was a purely practical decision: when we started looking for a meeting space, there simply wasn’t anything available anywhere in East Oahu on Sunday mornings. We were a little apprehensive, but once we actually started meeting on Sunday evenings, we realized how much we loved it. Having an evening service allows us to enjoy a real Sabbath-day of rest, relaxation, and recreation with our families and friends, culminating with a great celebration of worship, fellowship, and learning at the end of the day.
“Why did you choose the name Harbor?”
It all started with our love for the ocean. Not only is it the best playground on earth, but it’s also a powerful metaphor of God’s work of redemption. As Genesis 1 describes, the world started as a chaotic waste of empty ocean. God transformed this formless void into a life-filled wonderland, and now in the same way he offers to transform the chaotic mess of our lives into something beautiful.
Still, the ocean is a dangerous place with the threat of sudden swells and hidden reefs, making safe harbors so necessary. A harbor is a place of refuge, and also a place of provision where you get equipped to return to the sea. We see our church in much the same way. Harbor exists to offer God’s refuge from the storms of life and also to equip people to return to the stormy ocean with God’s power.
What do you mean that you’re “theologically conservative but also socially progressive?” Like a bunch of Bible-school graduates with tattoos?
Well, sort of. What it means is that we have an unshakeable commitment to the supremacy of God, the inerrancy of his Word, and the exclusive salvation he offers through his Son, but we don’t come with the baggage that often accompanies those beliefs: legalism, judgmentalism, and isolationism. We believe there are many secondary issues (like drinking alcohol, consuming popular media, and yeah, getting tattoos) which should be left to individual conscience and not dictated by written or unwritten church standards.
We also believe that God’s desire is to bring his “shalom” to all aspects of his creation (the Hawaiian idea of “pono,” meaning what is just, whole, and complete, is probably closer than any English word to the ancient Hebrew concept of shalom), so we support efforts to bring about social justice and environmental renewal here in the islands and throughout the world.
You have candles in your church services. Are you one of those “emerging” churches?
Probably not in the way you think of it. Finger-painting and meditative chanting aren’t part of our worship services, and we aren’t afraid to declare that God has revealed absolute truth about himself and his plan through his word. We do share a few characteristics with emerging churches, like our aversion to big programs and activities that take away from the relational nature of a biblically functioning church. But we’ve never, ever constructed a prayer maze and we have no idea what “ancient/future faith” means.
Why don’t you pass an offering plate at church?
We encourage our people to give generously and joyfully to the Lord’s work at Harbor and around the world, but we also want to avoid the greedy-church stereotype that televangelists have unfortunately cemented into the consciousness of our culture. One Sunday early in our existence we actually told people to give to other churches instead of ours. We have an offering box in the back of the church that people can drop their gifts at any time during the service as one aspect of their worship. We also have an online giving option here.
Why don’t you preach topical sermons about [marriage, finances, job stress, fill in the blank here __________ ]?
We do teach about marriage, finances and many other everyday topics, but usually those things come up in a book of the Bible that we’re working through in our Sunday service or in midweek small-groups. We tend to teach verse-by-verse through biblical books because it’s an easy way to ensure we’re teaching the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27), not just the subjects we happen to be most enthusiastic about. That’s not to say that topical sermons are inherently any less biblical, just that we’re still pretty young and we don’t quite trust ourselves yet to be completely balanced.
“What, no senior pastor? Who leads the church?”
As you can see in our Core Values, we have a strong commitment to the philosophy of team leadership. Plurality, equality, and unanimity are vital characteristics of our leadership team. We believe that if Jesus Christ is truly the “chief shepherd” (which literally means the “senior pastor”) described in 1 Peter 5:4, then he will provide unity of heart and mind to the under-shepherds guiding his flock.
Practically, this means that Harbor is led by a coequal team of elders, made up of both full-time and bi-vocational leaders. They meet regularly to prayerfully discern where they see God leading the church. If you’re really interested in how team leadership works (and you need something to put you to sleep tonight), you can read Matt’s masters thesis which details his study of seven flourishing churches planted with a team leadership structure. Download the PDF document here. (you’ll be happy to know he got an A on his thesis.)
Have another question? Email us here.
