The Most Important Thing About Our Church
Harbor West exists to “do” all kinds of things. We exist to be a blessing to our community. We exist to introduce people to God. We exist to help people grow and be leaders in the church. We exist to multiply ourselves and plant other churches. We exist to glorify God in worship together. We exist to take care of hurting people. As much as we exist to do these things (and many others!), none of them would exist without the most important thing in our church.
Jesus Is Supreme at Harbor West Oahu
Paul talks a lot about Jesus in Colossians 1. Check out what he says in verse 18: “And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Many people think that the pastor is the head of the church, the main “shepherd” guiding and leading everything. Pastors are under-shepherds, because Jesus is the head Shepherd of his church. Just like your body is totally dependent on your head (take off the head, there goes the body!), our church is totally dependent on Jesus for everything.
Jesus Is Supreme in Worship
In a church where Jesus is supreme, we experience something unlike any place else we go throughout our day. Most places we go are geared toward us being supreme. Any place you could go that’s trying to sell you something is going to treat you as if you are supreme. We go to other events that honor a person and they are the center of our attention. But at our church, we are not supreme, and no individual person in the room is supreme. Jesus is supreme! We want everything we do on Sunday morning to show how Jesus is supreme in our church. It’s our goal to “get out of the way” so that everyone can see and experience Jesus.
Jesus Is Supreme in Outreach
We want to bless our community in any way that we can. Right now, many people in our church are meeting the needs of broken, hurting families by being involved in foster care and working with at-risk keiki. We’re looking for other ways to bless our community as we understand what the needs are. But we know what the greatest need in our community is. People need Jesus. We see people all over, at the beach, at Costco, at the park, driving around (especially on the freeway!), who are placing their hope in all kinds of other things than Jesus. As we reach out to meet the needs of our community, we are reaching out with the good news about Jesus, the Gospel, even as we meet tangible needs. Jesus told his followers about himself so that their joy would be full (John 15). When we reach out to our community with Jesus, we’re reaching out with the one thing that will make us all most joyful!
Jesus Is Supreme in Discipleship
Jesus tells us to “disciple” people once they become followers of Jesus. A disciple is a follower. So Jesus wants us to help people follow him well. Our goal isn’t that people conform to the image of our church. We don’t have a hidden lifestyle that people have to adopt in order to be accepted. Our goal is to help people follow Jesus well, which is exactly what we are trying to do ourselves! Our church is full of disciples, and our church is full of disciplers. None of us have graduated to not being a follower of Jesus anymore. We are all looking to him as the supreme example of how to live our lives.
There are many important things in the life of a church. Jesus is most important at Harbor West Oahu. We don’t want to be a church that follows our own passions and does our own thing. We want to follow Jesus and join him in what he’s doing in West Oahu.