Harbor Church | Honolulu, HI

• Matt Dirks
• Feb 19, 2010
• Series: Church Profiles
• Categories: Church Planting Articles

Planter Profile:

Briefly describe your story of your call to plant a church 

I knew God was calling me to be a church planter when I was 21, but I had to spend 10 years gaining wisdom, experience, and confidence in God's power before I was ready. It was confirmed through assessment and the encouragement of our mother church, where I was an associate pastor.

How did you build up your core? What advice would you give to guys in the core-stage?

Planting out of a supportive mother-church was the key for us, but we also built up our core by meeting Christians at Starbucks, campus ministries, and community activities (sports, Tiny Tots, etc). A few new believers also became true core members, but most of our evangelistic fruit has taken a while to ripen into maturity.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and/or currently facing)?

We planted in the least-churched zip code in Honolulu, believing that we could succeed where so many other short-lived churches before us had failed. While God granted us some surprising fruit, it was nothing close to what we pridefully expected. We believed we could build a network of missional communities in homes before we launched, but soon discovered that nobody in the neighborhood trusted us until we were a "real church" meeting in a public place. We launched with a Sunday evening service, but even unbelievers in Hawai‘i know that church must happen on Sunday mornings. God finally gave us a morning location 3.5 years after our public launch.

How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network?

We benefitted greatly from A29 from afar since launching, and finally pulled the trigger on affiliating when we realized that we need much more intentional and personal encouragement toward becoming a church-planting church.

What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant?

Be humble. You're not as theologically pure or culturally relevant as you think you are.

Be patient. There's not a single part of this process that will happen on your schedule.

Be flexible. That movie theater which you know is God's sovereignty-ordained location for your future church may be the worst location possible for your future church.

How do you pastor your family?

We strive to do daily family devotionals, but it usually ends up happening 3-4 times a week. During breakfast or dinner, we read a passage of Scripture and discuss how it affects our individual and family life. I plan regular date-nights with my daughters and guys' times with my sons to make sure each of our four kids doesn't get lost in the chaos of life and ministry.

My wife and I get away for dinner every other week, where we can spend leisurely time enjoying each other and encouraging each other.

Outside of the Bible, what is the most helpful book you have read for church planting?

Redeemer Church Planting Manual, Total Church

How can we pray for you?

Wisdom in training and selecting elders

Church Profile: Harbor Church
Launch Date: February, 2006
Location: Honolulu, HI

Mission, Vision, Values of Church

We're a group of sinners who desperately need God's grace and are passionately working to build a safe harbor for people in the same boat.

What is your philosophy of community in your church and what does that look like practically in your church? Of evangelism? 

We have intentionally structured things so that most of the life of the church happens in our community groups. We have very few church-wide ministries and programs, instead relying on our community groups to engage friends and neighbors with the gospel, serve needy people in our city, pursue true Acts 2 fellowship and accountability, and train future leaders.

Our evangelism strategy is simple. We encourage people to ask 3 questions:

- Where can I connect purposefully with the world (1 Cor. 5:9-10)?

- Which fellow believers can I bring along with me (1 Thess. 2:8)?

- How can we connect the world back to community group/church (John 17:23)?

What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church? 

- In our family: my wife and kids love me sacrificially, even though I'm often a pain to be around

- In our gospel-driven community: we never experienced the launch-team exodus that most plants do. Almost every person on our launch team who's still on the island is still in our church family.

- In our Spirit-supplied ability to bless others: our church was somehow able to give away 19% of our total budget last year to church-planters, missionaries, and compassion ministries.