What A Harbor Looks Like

It's dangerous and difficult to drive forward by watching the rear-view mirror. When we drive our cars, we look forward, yet so often when we consider a "new" expression of church, we look back to the past, to history, to tradition, to the expectations of people to create something new.

That's like trying to drive forward watching the rear-view mirror. At best we'll only see where we've been and at worst, we'll crash.

We've been asked many times, "What Does a Harbor Look Like?" The answer isn't easy to give, because there is no single "picture" of a Harbor.

We can say the following:

Form Must Follow Function. This means:
A Harbor does not necessarily meet on Sunday morning
A Harbor does not necessarily (and probably doesn't) meet on Sunday!
A Harbor does not mean there is no Sunday morning worship
A Harbor is not ordered as traditional church (Worship, Announcements, Offerings, Preaching, etc.)
A Harbor does not necessarily contain EACH of the above components from meeting to meeting 

What a Harbor may look like:

~ Meetings are held primarily in a home (or coffee shop, restaurant, bowling alley, park..., but a home is usual)

~ Meetings are held at a time and day convenient to participants

~ Meetings are people-oriented and need-oriented. Relationship is valued over membership.

~ Meetings are unstructured - amorphous - rather than highly structured

~ Worship is not always present in a traditional form (choruses, etc) and when present may be comprised of multiple media (music, arts such as painting, photography, poetry, etc)

Preaching (especially the didactic, dogmatic "talking down" to people that most of us have endured and some of us have engaged in for years) takes the form of communication - sharing – by whatever means is present. The Bible poses a question, "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification" 1 Cor. 14:26.

Evangelism becomes a life-style, flowing out of the presence of the Glory of God (see Glory article) rather than a program – it may or may not happen in a Harbor meeting

Since there is no "typical" Harbor meeting, worship may or may not occur each and every time you meet. A traditional "Bible Study" time may or may not occur and will seldom, if ever be the "traditional" kind of Bible Study you may be familiar with. The conventional teaching about "cell church" is that we must have equal components of the Word of God, Worship, Discipleship, Fellowship and Prayer. In contrast, the Harbor is more "need-oriented" so that an entire meeting may be given to prayer for someone in desperate need - every other component is "put on hold" while the immediate need is addressed. You might give an entire evening to nothing but fellowship - sharing - being friends. You may find the Holy Spirit directing your Harbor to focus entirely on worship during one meeting, or on a portion of Scripture. The key is to refuse to assume any certain order or components and to remain sensitive and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

There are, however, certain Protocols for the Harbor. These include:

1 Each Harbor meets weekly or bi-weekly
2 Every 2 – 4 weeks, each Harbor meets with other Harbors in a larger setting called “Celebration”
3 Each Harbor is in communication and relationship with other Harbors in your area (regional)
4 Each Harbor is in communication and relationship with other non-regional Harbors
5 Each Harbor seeks to expand the circle, to enlarge the group and multiply with the initial goal of   placing at least one Harbor in each zip code of the city/region, and with the eventual goal of placing a Harbor in every neighborhood in your city or region                                                                                                                        6 Each Harbor assumes responsibility for its immediate neighborhood: If someone in your neighborhood (not even associated with the Harbor) is in need - of any kind of help - the Harbor seeks to meet that need - material, practical, old-fashioned "neighborly" help                            

There are Leadership Protocols as well: If you are a Harbor leader (intentionally loosely defined):

1 You are expected to meet weekly (or bi-weekly) with your Harbor
2 Meet weekly with local Harbor leadership (problem-solving, encouraging, sharing of ideas, building relationships, mutual accountability, vision-sharing and leadership development)
2 Meet monthly with regional leadership (vision-sharing, leader-development)
3 Meet quarterly with apostolic/prophetic leadership
4 Constantly seek out potential leaders for training from Harbor group
5 Engage in a discipleship process as a life-style

Harbor Celebration

- Meets every 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the group
- Utilizes hotel banquet room, or other appropriate location
- Begins with a meal (true communion)
- Incorporates Worship, Sharing, Testimonies, Baptisms, Vision-sharing, Words, Prophecy, etc......
- Apostolic and Prophetic voices are shared

There are Five Pillars which are The Operational Philosophy of The Harbor:
  1) I Am Righteous
  2) I Am Valued
  3) I Am Preferred
  4) I Am the Church
  5) I Am the Glory of God

Harbors are Not about “doing” church in another way or format
Harbors are Not about “Controlling” assets or of owning properties
Harbors Are About Trusting the Anointing in others and Giving Away whatever God has placed in our hands

From a Harbor friend ---
“...I felt the Lord was saying He knew their hearts and their desire to know Him and He would answer. I saw His brightness in the room and felt Him pressing against each and every heart--that He would  answer us in a way that we can't fathom, "a don't know, never gone that way before, nothing we can conceive with our minds" way. He will answer with the Person of Himself. And I was thinking how  I/we don't know what to do when He comes like that...we don't know "how to handle Him", how we so easily just revert to an old way, an old thing....don't know HOW to "facilitate" Him--maybe build Him "a facility"?

God showed me just now--we're like Peter--on the mount of Transfiguration. Such an awesome en-counter with the GLORIFIED Jesus and Moses and Elijah....and Peter--out of the sincerest motive, but completely wrong--says, “Lord, shall we build you a tabernacle--one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.....”(Mk.9:6 "For he, Peter, did not really know what to say, for they were in a violent fright."). The same thing we/I do...Lord, shall we play you a song, shall we say a prayer--what shall we/I DO? Maybe we're to do nothing. Just BE. Be still - and KNOW Him. Maybe it's an attempt to somehow  "contain" Him/keep Him with us forever, Him who cannot be contained. But as soon as we attempt to do so, we've ruined it (at least for the moment). HE chooses voluntarily to dwell with us--nothing we did to earn HIM, nothing we can do to "keep" HIM. Just out of His goodness He longs to dwell with us. Anyway, I was thinking about that. Since He's showing me this, then He must want to show me the "right" response...I will ask Him to really, really show me/us, His people, what should be our response to Him.....

A Final Word: You can’t PLANT a church any more than you can PLANT a human – Humans are born of a father and a mother. The church must be born of the will of the Father, not planted by a “soul- farmer”