By Michael White, Lead Pastor, Harbor Covenant Church
What do you do when a huge ministry opportunity comes along and the opportunity is bigger than what you think you can do? What if the opportunity isn’t anything you have ever done before? What if, in spite of feeling completely inadequate, you have the distinct impression this opportunity is the call of God?!
Harbor Covenant should not be a multi-site church. (We’ve read all the literature. It told us so!) But, we still felt like God was calling us to step waaaay outside our comfort zone and our experience. The story starts with deciding that we wanted to be serious about reaching our community for Christ. We knew that might require us to do some crazy things beyond putting up an “All are welcome” sign on our property.
Several years ago, Gig Harbor, our community, began to experience explosive growth. We got wind that forests would be cut down and thousands of homes planted in their place. When we explored the developer’s plans, we noticed that there were plans for shops, restaurants, gyms, and bars in the new neighborhoods, but no room for churches. We began to wonder and pray: “If we have thousands of new people moving to our neighborhood, who is going to attempt to reach them for the kingdom of God?” Nobody else seemed to have a good answer to that question. We began to think, “Why not us?”
At that point, we realized that we were either faith-filled or delusional. We continued to pray. We formed a team to explore possibilities. We engaged our congregation with a prayer walk through the area. We found the more we talked about the need and the opportunity we had, the more people got excited. Even though all the literature said we were too small, we kept sensing God was saying “This is what I have for you.”
There were many times we could have been discouraged. We were beginning to learn that when God gives a vision, it doesn’t necessarily mean everything will go smoothly. Sometimes the path is long and the spiritual gifts required are patience and perseverance. One of the biggest challenges was figuring out where we would meet. Rent in the area was high. There were very few store fronts or other suitable properties available. The best deal we could find was about $65,000 per year for rent for a space that wasn’t even very good. We just kept praying and believing that if this was from God he would have some plan. (Full disclosure: I believed this more fully during daylight hours. At night, I spent a lot of time tossing and turning.)
Then one day I got a phone call that was an “Only in the economy of God” moment. A few years previously, a guy in our congregation was looking for a place to serve. I was able to get him connected to the Northwest Furniture Bank where he helped assemble furniture to give away. Fast forward to the present and this same guy hears that a preschool needs some help putting some furniture together. He helps them put their furniture together. He has a conversation with the owners and tells them that his church is looking for a place to meet. (Oh, did I mention that the preschool was located in our target area?) The owners said, “You can meet here!” And that’s how we found our meeting place!
The preschool building had a few logistical challenges. In the middle of the main area there was a large “meadow” with two feet tall mushrooms and a ten-foot-tall tree anchored to the floor. It was hard to work around, but wow, did it say “family friendly”! It was also walking distance for many of the new neighborhoods.
On faith, we hired a campus pastor with gifts in evangelism and discipleship to launch the multi-site. We brought him on our staff for about six months to make sure that he understood Harbor Covenant’s DNA. We decided that we would go with a video venue with the sermons on a one week delay. We figured that while each campus would have a distinct flavor, that the sermon should be one of the unifying factors. Having a video venue also freed up the campus pastor to invest all of his time in getting into the neighborhood, meeting people and developing relationships.
We had a campus pastor and he needed a team. We asked our people to consider a one year commitment to help us launch this multi-site. Approximately 50 people answered the call. This might sound like a large number. But, most of the literature we read told about how churches sent more like 500 people to start a multi-site! We were small, but we were determined! Interestingly, after the year was up, the vast majority of the people stayed at our new campus.
As a church, our first organizing principle is: We reach people for Christ. We knew that our new campus would be on the cutting edge of reaching the new neighborhoods for Christ. We were praying for people who were far away from God to hear the good news of the gospel and respond. We weren’t asking for transfer growth (although it came and we welcomed it.). We weren’t asking for disgruntled members of other churches (although they came…). We wanted to reach people for Christ. And praise the Lord, we have. One of the things we had hoped and prayed about was that our Central Campus would also be impacted by new people coming to Christ. Honestly, it was kind of “Wow, if new people can come to Christ at North Campus, why can’t they come to Christ at Central Campus?!” The North Campus multi-site breathed new life into our whole church. It helped us to further clarify what is important. It helped us to let go of some things that were actually hindering us from reaching new people at Central Campus.
Now, (because we are undeterred by being told that we don’t have the resources to do something!) we are launching two new multi-sites that are completely different from anything we have done to date. They are dinner churches, designed to gather neighbors around a table to share a meal and have a spiritual discussion. We launched our Tacoma Tables of Grace in October. We expect to launch our Bremerton Tables of Grace in April. In Tacoma we have been joined by volunteers from Praise Covenant. And in Bremerton, we were invited by Grace Covenant. We are excited to work together with our sisters and brothers to help reach two other areas for Christ through a unique ministry.
We continue to punch way above our weight class. But, the excitement of our people, the focus of our ministry and glory for the kingdom of God keep us asking, “What’s next?”
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