I've attending Harbor Light for 2 years, but needed to move away for graduate school. The reason for the church name is that it is a safe harbor for hurting people. Indeed, coming to this church has the ability to bring profound healing in your life. It has brought healing to mine.
In my own perspective, if I could sum up the leadership and congregation in this church in three words it would be genuine, mature, and well-rounded.
Genuine describes the people and the pastoral staff at Harbor Light. It is what hit me the first time I went there. I didn't feel pretense or a religious mask on people. This church focuses on internal purification (motives, thoughts, desires) that leads to the outward change. You can see this genuineness and passion for God in the testimonies of congregation members living for God in their personal life just because they love Him. People are sharing God with their coworkers, paying for someone's bill at a restaurant, visiting shut in people, approaching someone on the street to tell them about God, surprising nurses at the hospital with little gifts... I even met a car mechanic that blesses struggling ministers with free car parts. People serve in the way they are gifted on their own volition, and are impacting the community.
Mature describes how both new and seasoned Christians can learn so much from not only the pastoral staff, but also the members of the church. First, the senior pastor of this church is incredibly knowledgeable about the bible and gives powerful insights to passages, going into the meaning of Greek words and giving insights from the culture of the time. In fact, every pastor serving here has their own unique gifting that caters to the diversity of the members. The church also allows members to start their fellowship groups on their own topic, and guidance is given to these leaders through a meeting every month lead by a pastor. Many of the members of this church have gotten very deep with God and lead incredible groups. This setup is actually brilliant because the diversity of leaders makes it so that there is a group for all sorts of inquiries and needs.
Well-rounded describes this churches views on the spiritual. This church believes the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still operating today, but stresses that the purpose of these gifts are to bring people closer to God. Physical and emotional healing, prophecy, miracles, tongues are all practiced at this church with the goal in mind. If a tongue is spoken during meetings, these will be a silence to wait for God to reveal the interpretation. There is a prayer team that stands at the altar every sunday to pray for people and many of the team members have a gift of prophecy, but they minister in a simple and unassuming way that will not frighten or humiliate people, but bring them closer to God. This church also has a variety of speakers coming from other countries and other churches. This church sponsors many missionaries both in the US and abroad, has produced many ministers, has pastoral staff that have served abroad, and has a strong ministry for the poor. In addition, this church is very multicultural. There are Indian, Chinese, Caucasian, African American, Hispanic... all sorts of people here. There are headsets for translation to spanish and there is a girl that does sign language for the deaf. This church does not keep out people. On more than one occasion I've been surprised to learn later on that someone I met at church was homeless, a prostitute, addicted to drugs, emotionally abused... you name it, when they first came to this church, but received the healing they needed to change.
This is an amazing church. If you are looking for a church home, check this one out. read more