Who Are We?
Why is the "HARVEST" orange and the "CHURCH" green?
The "Harvest" is orange because we are leveraging the church (which would be represented by the color yellow because we are the light of the world) and the family (which would be red because it is the primary place of passion in our lives). When you take yellow and orange and mix them you get orange. The "Church" is green representing the new life we find in Christ.
Purpose Statement
Creating an Enabling Faithful Followers of Christ
Core Values
· Creating attitudes, environments and opportunities for people to fall deeply in love with God.
· Enabling people to demonstrate their love for God in opportunities to love others.
· Following Christ in all areas of life.
Associations
We are a sister church in the Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association
We are a sister church in the Alabama Baptist State Convention
We are a sister church in the Southern Baptist Convention
Our History
The Church was organized August 15, 1993 as a mission Church with 11 members.
The name Lord of the Harvest was chosen based on the Scripture Matthew 9:38.
September, 1994: The land was purchased at this location.
October 29, 1995: The Church Building was Completed and membership had grown to 50 members
In October 2000 we moved into a new worship center that would seat 350 people. Our worship became blended with the utilization of praise songs and the traditional hymns of faith. A Children’s Church was added and contributed to our growth in a mighty way.
Year 2001: We almost quadrupled since the beginning of 2001. We had a total of 266 members. We baptized 49 people as of December 31, 2001. Our total additions in 2001 was 140.
Year 2002:
God continued to bless the work of LOHBC. We had 51 people make professions of faith and had a total of 140 additions. The days ahead are met with the vision of adding 8,000 sq. ft. of sanctuary and nursery space. We will be able to better facilitate worship and provide a wonderful environment for our children. There are many new ministry opportunities coming up in the months ahead.
Year 2003:
We moved into the new facility and we have seen 68 people make professions of faith and a total of over 150 additions. God has added over 400 people to His ministry at LOBHC in the last 3 ½ years. We had our first PraiseFest and saw 52 people make professions of faith and over 90 decisions to follow Christ more closely. God continues to expand the ministry here and we are seeing the fruits of our labors.
We are here for one purpose and that is to see Souls saved and lives changed
This was an amazing year for LOHBC. We had 138 people baptized and experienced rapid growth. God continues to add to our church family. We expanded our staff to include a full time student minister. This is the most amazing year of our church history.
This year presented growing pains. We now have 6 mobile unit for Sunday School. We began
Harvest
University. This is a discipleship program that help God's children to learn to live in obedience to Him in all aspects of life. It is active in the Fall and Spring. We began construction on parking and a
Christian
Life
Center. The CLC has 20 classrooms, a kitchen, full basketball court and volleyball court, walking track, gathering room and much more. We cannot wait to get in our new facility.
The parking lot is finished and we should be in the CLC soon. We are in one worship (10:30) and Sunday School (9:30). AWANA is the new Children's Ministry focus this Fall. Our College Ministry, Youth Ministry and Children's Ministry are all very active and making a difference. The last 12 months has been the best mission months we have ever experienced. We have had people in Kentucky, South Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, , , , and . We desire that the Sun Never Set on the Missions of LOHBC.
Year 2007:
We moved in the FLC in January and have removed all portable classrooms (praise God). It is almost like we are on a new campus. We have had mission trips to Costa Rica, Nasseau, New Orleans and Kentucky. We have started a Children's Church for our 3 and 4 year olds that is called GLOWORM (God's Little Ones Worshipping Our Risen Messiah). Our K-5th grade Children's Church will be starting a new focus with a new leader August 1. It is going to be called ELEVATE. Mr. Richard Parker, who has worked with our children for about 7 years is retiring and Ricky Watson is going to head all our ministries from 0-college.
Year 2008
This year has been a year of Order for LOHBC with the addition of a full-time Children's Pastor Ricky Watson, a full-time Worship Leader Chris Kelley and a part time Youth Minister Mark Rice. In October of 2008 the Worship Arts Ministry was created to include all avenues of worship from praise and worship, drama to creative dance in our worship service. The staff of LOHBC lead by the senior pastor Bro. Dan is committed to the task that God has laid before us to do "Whatever it takes" to see Souls Saved and Lives Changed. We as a family are thankful for the blessings of God and we are most amazed by the unity of God's people we see at LOHBC.
Year 2009
This year was one of continued transition. The leadership began praying and seeking God's vision for the future direction of this ministry. There were some staff transitions throughout the year. By years end the vision was clear and the staff were in place. The youth ministry began to be led by Chris Kelley, High School, and Ricky Watson, Middle School. The youth are known as Vertical Students. The children's ministry continues to make a huge impact in the life of children. The worship is authentic and powerful.
Year 2010
The year started with the unveiling of the vision the leadership prayed and worked toward in 2009. The church voted January 31, 2010 to make major adjustment in our systems of ministry that are discussed in the Relaunch 2010 section of this web page. The church name was changed to Harvest Church.
Also in 2010 we saw some staff changes. Luke Williams became our Worship & Creative Arts Pastor and Ricky Watson became minister over all Student Ministries at Harvest Church.
Harvest Church became more missions minded in 2010 and saw many people helped and reached through our Sunday School missions, Saturday reach-outs, and our In The Streets Ministry. We believe this is what God has called all of his Church to do.
Our student ministry began a pick-up and after-school program for local schools. Every Wednesday afternoon and night we have over 100 student that are reached through this program where they attend drama classes, music, Bible study, homework time, and more.
Year 2011
We are expecting great things in 2011. We focused on "Too Dark to Sleep" to end 2010 and it opened our eyes to many problems all over the World that we as Christians must help with. We will be going to Haiti in 2011 to minister and reach out to that part of the World. We are also helping in Canada, Thailand, locally, and nationally.
We believe in 2011 God will work through churches like we have never seen before if we will all just listen and obey. He is simply waiting for us to say, "Yes, Lord. Yes, I will!"
