Harvest at Kumulani Chapel, a Hawaiian church affiliated with Pastor Greg Laurie’s Harvest Christian Fellowship, celebrated a significant milestone of baptizing around 2,000 individuals over the course of seven years. The church, located on the island of Maui, has been a part of the Harvest network for seven years. The Kumulani Chapel, which started as a small Bible study group, was initially founded by Ricky Ryan, a professional surfer, in the early 1980s. Since joining the Harvest network, the Kumulani Chapel congregation has experienced significant growth, nearly doubling in size to approximately 1,000 regular attendees. This growth has been accompanied by 2,000 baptisms since 2016.
The Christian Post reports:
A Hawaiian church founded by a professional surfer now affiliated with Pastor Greg Laurie’s Harvest Christian Fellowship recently celebrated having baptized as many as 2,000 people over the last seven years.
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 had taken over the church at the request of Ricky Ryan, a pro surfer who founded the Kumulani Chapel in the early 1980s, with it starting out 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.
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