Hawaiian Church Celebrates Baptizing 2,000 People In 7 years : Over the last seven years, a Hawaiian church founded by a professional surfer and now linked with Pastor Greg Laurie‘s Harvest Christian Fellowship has baptized up to 2,000 people.
Harvest at Kumulani Chapel, located on the island of Maui, was visited by Pastor Laurie and his wife, Cathe, late last month to mark seven years since the congregation joined the Harvest network.
Laurie took over the church at the request of Ricky Ryan, a professional surfer who created the Kumulani Chapel in the early 1980s as a small Bible study group.
In an emailed statement to The Christian Post, Laurie said, “Ricky wanted to retire and asked me if we would be willing to bring Kumulani into the Harvest Church family.”
Laurie added that “it was not as easy of a decision as you may think,” as the distance between the Hawaiian chapel and Laurie’s California-based main campus is considerable.
“They were going from a hearing a live preacher to a live video feed of me and my son, Jonathan, speaking from our church in California,” Laurie said.
“We encouraged the leadership to come to California and see how it worked, which they did. After months of prayer, we decided to do it. We finally merged and renamed it ‘Harvest Kumulani.’”
While most Sundays the congregation listens to a virtual message from Laurie, the Harvest senior pastor does occasionally visit the chapel and lead worship in person.
Since the chapel became a Harvest campus, the congregation has doubled to approximately 1,000 regular attendees, with about 2,000 people having been baptized at the chapel since 2016.
The congregation’s growth is attributed to its family-like atmosphere and impact on the community. They offer a church preschool and outreach events, such as Thanksgiving, where over 1,000 people receive free meals.
Harvest Kumulani attracts a large number of visitors, with 30% of worshippers being vacationers to Maui. The church believes that many people come to Maui to escape, but many end up receiving Christ in their lives.