We feel that God has called us to a particular area to do His mission. The fact is, there is very little church planting activity in North Carolina east of I-95. In general, denominations are not planning on spending their church-planting budgets in Eastern North Carolina (ENC). We believe that our church is called to bring the Gospel to an area that is currently being overlooked.
We don’t think ENC just needs a bunch more churches. There are plenty of churches, but unfortunately not enough Gospel. When the Gospel is left out, we end up emphasizing that we should be good people, rather than pointing to the fact that we have a good savior. ENC does not need any more moralism or dead religion, but it does desperately need communities of faith that place the Gospel of grace at the very center.
We don’t want to plant churches in our own effort that run primarily on best practices or church growth techniques. We want to plant churches that are dependent on God’s Spirit for God’s power, and that are filled with life as a result of His presence.
Our vision is that the communities of ENC would have churches that reflect the local neighborhoods they minister to. We don’t want to plant cookie-cutter churches, or try to replicate what has happened in Morehead City, Beaufort, Swansboro or New Bern. We believe that churches must contextualize the Gospel into the culture of that community.
We want to plant local churches that are on Jesus’ mission of making disciples and pushing back darkness. We want our vision to be about Jesus’ kingdom advancing through His Church, not just about One Harbor Church advancing. We believe that Jesus’ “plan A” for accomplishing His mission in the world is the local church, so we want to continue what the early church began in the book of Acts, and fill ENC with great churches.
No matter who you are, we’re glad you’re here, and we hope to see you at one of our weekend services. You can expect a casual and welcoming environment where we will worship Jesus together and hear teaching from the Bible. We have a fun and engaging Kids program for all children 5th grade and younger. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
Watch a recent sermon from the One Harbor location in your town.
