Home - Teaching Finding an authoritative source of truth today is something that many believe is a useless pursuit. At Harvest Bible Chapel, we believe just the opposite. God has given us a source of truth called the Bible. We believe so strongly about the Word of God that we have included "Bible" as the middle name of our church.

Plenty of people talk about God, analyze the text of Scripture, even dispense Bible information, but finding anointed, passionate preaching that leads to personal life transformation can be a challenge. We believe and practice preaching where the preacher has been gripped by the Spirit and then brings a message with power and authority, so that his hearers are stilled by Almighty God as he grabs their souls with Holy Spirit conviction.

Throughout the gospel accounts of Jesus' life, the people's response to his teaching was amazement at the authority with which he taught (Matthew 7:28-29). His servants who proclaim the Word today carry authority from him to peach and be prepared always to correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction (2 Timothy 4:2). Jesus didn't couch his teaching with endless explanations of the Bible to gain the hearers' respect. He didn't bury the truth beneath both sides of the argument, multiple interpretations, and endless qualifications. He was never evasive when dealing with the hard edge of the truth. Above all, he did not try to make his hearers comfortable, and he never chased after those who walked away remarking, "This is a hard saying, who can accept it?" (John 6.60, 66).

The psalmist records that God has exalted above all things his name and his Word (Psalm 138:2). People all around us are grasping for answers and are looking for a place where equivocation is out and absolute truth is in. We are trying to be that kind of church. Though we are still learning about what it means to bring a biblical message of authority and urgency - to really speak for God - we hold that calling as one of the pillars upon which we rest.

Without this kind of preaching as a component of our worship, we simply experience God the way we want him to be. We write the songs, including the parts about him we like and we avoid the rest. We speak to him (in our singing) thinking that we experience God  more when we speak to him than when he speaks to us.

But without careful exposition of the whole counsel of God, alongside our singing to God, we are in danger of worshiping a God that we have made with our own hands (Isaiah 2.8). When attending a service at Harvest, you can expect solid teaching from the Word which consumes about half of the time we spend together. We encourage those who attend Harvest to bring their Bible with them and to be prepared to follow along in our study of the Word and even to make notes in their Bible. Generally we use the English Standard Version (ESV), but in our teaching we will often refer to verses from other translations.