FAQ
Click the Questions to Read the Answers:
What is "Advancing the Vision"?
Harbor is founded on a unique multi-congregational model in which the church is comprised of multiple congregations located throughout the San Diego area. Currently, there are are nine different Harbor sites, with more preparing to launch. Ten percent of the offerings received by each Harbor site is used to fund Harbor's Church Planting Center, which is responsible for recruiting and training pastors to plant new Harbor sites in the San Diego/Tijuana region. Advancing the Vision is a capital campaign primarily intended to fund the Church Planting Center until there are a sufficient number of Harbor sites to make it self-sustaining.
When did Advancing the Vision begin? And how long will it last?
Advancing the Vision began in the Fall of 2007, and it will be concluded at the end of 2010.
What is the fundraising goal? And how much has been raised so far?
The goal of the campaign was to raise a total of $2.25 million. Currently, Harbor has received pledges to donate a total of $2,091,072 (92.9% of the original goal). Actual contributions totals will be kept up to date in the right-hand column of this website.
What is the goal of the vision campaign? Why are we doing this now?
The goal is to advance the original and ongoing vision of Harbor to ignite a church-planting movement in the San Diego and Tijuana region. By 2007, God had enabled us to get off to a tremendous start in our first seven years (with six sites established and more scheduled to launch); but He has also surprised us with even more opportunities to move forward than we anticipated. The vision campaign will enable us to respond to these unique windows of opportunity, which in turn will have an exponential effect on our ability to fulfill God’s vision for Harbor in the decades ahead.
There are three factors which have led us to launch Advancing the Vision at this time. First, our current financial resources are committed to our new sites and will not allow us to support additional church plants in the near future. Second, there are gifted church planters who would love to join with us to plant more churches in San Diego and Tijuana. They are drawn to a movement like ours that provides support, mentoring and coaching for church planters and their families in a gospel-saturated environment. We need additional resources in order to bring them here. And third, it is important that we add staff and programs to the Church Planting Center so that we will be able to provide the training and support that will be needed as we move forward.
How have the contributions been used so far?
Since the beginning of the campaign: Four new Harbor sites have been started (South Carlsbad, City Heights, Spanish speaking Chula Vista and Ocean Beach). Eight church planting internships have either been completed or are currently in progress. Pastors from Boston, Japan, Chile and India have been able to come to Harbor for extended training visits. Harbor has held two multi-day conferences (in 2007 and 2009) to train pastors and other potential church planters from all over the U.S. as well as other countries. In addition, 35% of the contributions from each existing Harbor Site are used to fund site-specific programs. At Downtown and Uptown, these funds have been used to support Church Life events, Mercy Ministries, and the Faith and Work Ministry.
I won't be able to fulfill my pledge by the end of the campaign. Can I have more time?
Yes. The campaign will be formally concluded at the end of this year, but if you need more time to fulfill your pledge, please take as much time as you need. Given the recent economic downturn, we cannot expect everyone to complete his or her intended giving by the end of the campaign. We encourage you to continue giving to the campaign after this year as you feel led.
Has the purpose of the campaign been affected by changes in Harbor's organizational leadership?
No. Last year, Doug Swagerty, who was Harbor's senior pastor, became the senior pastor of North Coast Presbyterian Church, and Dick Kaufmann transitioned from his role as pastor of Harbor's Downtown and Uptown sites to assume Doug's role as senior pastor of Harbor and leader of the Church Planting Center. These changes in Harbor's leadership have not changed or otherwise affected the original goals of Advancing the Vision, which were to fund Harbor's Church Planting Center and to fund the particular programs and ministries designated by each Harbor site.
What happens if Harbor doesn't meet it's fundraising goal?
Our ultimate goal is for you to be further informed, involved and invested in Harbor's church-planting vision. The success of this capital campaign will not be determined by the amount of money that is raised, but rather by your level of engagement in Harbor's vision and values.
I am relatively new to Harbor. Is it too late to participate in Advancing the Vision?
No. If you are excited by Harbor's vision and you would like to contribute to Advancing the Vision, all you need to do is complete a Commitment Card and drop it in the offering box. Download a commitment card here. There is no deadline for completing your pledge and you are welcome to continue giving to the campaign after its conclusion.
Will the individual sites be using money from the Vision Campaign for their general budget needs?
Please read the Site Specific Initiatives that are part of Advancing the Vision. Remember, one-third of the money raised in Advancing the Vision by each site will stay with the site for these needs. As you can see, most of the initiatives relate to increasing support for existing part-time staff and expanding current programs. So in most of these areas, the money raised in Advancing the Vision will pick up where the general budget giving and needs have left off. We believe this will be a great way to advance the specific visions of each site.
We are very aware that each of our sites has ongoing operational expenses that need to be met. We will continue to pray and keep you informed about those needs. But at the same time, we have decided to provide this challenge and opportunity to give in a different way. It is important for you to understand that we are not asking you to redirect your current giving to the general fund of your site in order to give to the vision campaign. We are asking you to do something rather startling: pray and continue to give toward the general fund as well as consider what you might give above and beyond that to the vision campaign. Studies and experience have shown that in almost every church stewardship campaign that has raised significant funds, the general offerings have also increased. This may or may not be the case for Harbor! Only time will tell. But we will trust each of you to respond to these needs and opportunities in the way that God directs your heart. You may decide that God is directing you to respond by giving more to the general fund of your site rather than to the vision campaign. Or you may discern that God is challenging you to do both. Whatever you decide, we will give God thanks for helping you come to those decisions and contributing in the way you choose.
What is the Harbor Church Planting Center?
The Church Planting Center is the arm of Harbor that determines our church planting strategy, recruits new church planters, helps them transition to San Diego, provides training and mentoring during the internship and pre-launch phases, and then continues to give support and counsel once a new site is launched. The Church Planting Center also provides short-term internships to seminary students who are interested in getting further exposure to church planting in general and Harbor in particular. The goal is to have a majority of our interns eventually become church planters. The leadership of Harbor believes that freeing up Dick Kaufmann to spend more of his time in Church Planting Center ministry would be the best and most strategic use of his gifts and experience. We are also providing alternative theological training for pastors (and anyone else interested) through a program offered by our denomination’s Mission to North America called LAMP Seminary.
The Church Planting Center is operated out of our central office downtown. We will not be purchasing a facility for the Church Planting Center with money from Advancing the Vision, and we do not have any plans for a facility in the future. At this point, the work of the Church Planting Center is to develop Harbor’s church planting strategy, recruit new church planters, oversee internships, and then train and mentor the church planters as they launch their new sites. We are also offering theological training through a program that has been developed by our denomination called LAMP Seminary. At some point in the future we may have to reassess our facility needs, but our commitment is to use the types of rented facilities that we currently use as long as possible. So as with every other initiative in Advancing the Vision, the Church Planting Center is an investment in people.
Are there certain areas Harbor is targeting for future congregations and sites?
We now have nine sites in Downtown, Uptown, La Jolla/UTC, Mira Mesa, Carmel Valley, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Mid-City and Ocean Beach. We have been working toward a Spanish-speaking congregation in the Chula Vista area and we hope to launch a new congregation in Golden Hill in 2010. Our strategy up to this point has been to recruit the church planter couple, and then work with them to find the community that best fits their background, calling and gifts. Our ministry area has been big enough for this strategy to work up until now. But soon we will need to begin targeting certain areas of the city and praying specifically for church planters who would be a good match for those communities. We have some general ideas of where those particular areas might be, but we haven’t yet researched the communities well enough to come up with a list.
What is involved in starting a new congregation of Harbor?
The key ingredient in every church plant is the church planting couple, so the process begins with recruiting. We spend time each week on the phone or emailing with potential church planters. In addition, we travel to seminaries, take part in assessment centers and attend church planting workshops to cultivate relationships with potential new church planters. After making contact and finding couples we believe would be a good fit for Harbor, the next step is usually an internship. Some church planters come to Harbor from other churches where they have served and are ready to begin church planting as soon as they have raised their support. But most of our church planters need additional time to help them develop their gifts and gain the experience they will need to launch a new site. During this internship period, we provide guidance, feedback, and assessment of the gifts of the church planters in order to determine their best ministry fit. If they are not already an ordained minister, they work toward that goal as well. By the time the internship is over, we have determined the location, model, staffing needs, and budget requirements for the new site. We then work with the church planters to help them raise support. Usually the largest commitment comes from the Harbor church planting fund. Our goal is to support each new site for at least three years, and sometimes longer if necessary.
Actually, our church planting strategy is to do both of these! Our original vision was to be both a “multi-congregational” church and a “multi-site” church, and this is exactly how God has grown us in the first ten years. Each church planter has begun a congregation of Harbor with the goal of that congregation becoming multi-site. The Kaufmanns first planted Downtown, then took a group of people from that site to plant Uptown. The Kleins first planted La Jolla/UTC, then took a group of people from that site to plant in Mira Mesa. The Kims first planted Carmel Valley and are now taking a group of people from that site to plant South Carlsbad. The Kapusinskis have planted first in Chula Vista, and are praying for God’s wisdom in discerning the location and timing of the second site. As the Phelans and Husters planted their first sites in Mid-City and Ocean Beach, and they are also praying and thinking through their next sites. So we will continue to plant new sites this way and support them through our church planting fund. At the same time we have the opportunity to bring other church planters into the San Diego/Tijuana region for them to begin new congregations in areas where we currently do not have sites.
How does this plan align with our vision and values?
Harbor’s vision from the very beginning has been to ignite a church planting movement that so fills the region of San Diego and Tijuana with the gospel of Jesus Christ that the people of the region are changed in every dimension—spiritually, socially and culturally. So Advancing the Vision does not represent any change in our original vision or values. We have seen God bless this original vision through the birth and growth of nine (in October 2010 we hope it will be ten!) sites of Harbor in ten years. Advancing the Vision will enable us to continue to recruit, train and send out additional church planters that are desperately needed in the San Diego and Tijuana region.
What is our church planting goal? Will our sites ever become separate churches?
Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” We desire for all of our goals to be seen from that perspective. And as we have looked at God’s heart for the lost and the needs here in our region, we have decided to pray for God to use Harbor to plant at least 60 church sites in our region over the next 15 years. Please note that our goal is not for Harbor to “have 60 sites.” From the beginning we have said that there will be many good reasons why a Harbor congregation might eventually want (or need) to become a separate church. The church planters know that this is always an option for their congregations if and when a congregation feels that time has come. So Harbor’s vision is not to build any sort of empire, but rather to ignite and facilitate a church-planting movement for God’s glory. This goal has also led us to be involved in significant ways with a number of other churches outside of Harbor in our city, state, country and even across the boarder and overseas.
How does helping other pastors and churches fit into our vision?
When Jesus commissioned the first group of believers in Acts 1:8, he said that they were to be his witnesses in “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus intended for every church to be focused on its immediate context, but also to be committed to the outward expansion of the gospel. So we plant new sites of Harbor here in San Diego, but we also help train other church planters throughout Southern California at our monthly Church Planters meetings. In addition, we offered a seminar in March of 2007 that brought together over 100 leaders from churches all over the United States as well as one missionary from Japan. We continually have additional opportunities to speak at conferences and consult with other churches, church leaders and missionaries who are interested in learning more about our gospel-centered, multi-site model of ministry. These are all ways that we can fulfill Christ’s challenge in Acts 1:8 and participate in the world-wide movement of the gospel.
Why doesn’t Harbor save for buildings?
In this initial chapter of Harbor, our priority is to reach into as many communities as possible by planting new sites. With limited resources, we have found that the best way to do this is to rent from schools, theaters, parks and churches. Not only is it more affordable, but it also gives us the opportunity to serve our communities through service projects and ministry at these very facilities, which are often strategic centers. We recognize that there may be the need for permanent facilities at some of our sites in future chapters of Harbor, but at this time we are convinced that attempting to purchase even one facility for one site would pull us away from our original vision.
This is a great question that addresses the need every church has to be involved in “in-reach” as well as “out-reach.” It’s tough to always maintain a healthy balance. And it’s also true that there are many different ways to measure and judge that balance. At Harbor, we place a high value on caring for the needs of our members through our Community Groups. These groups are not just another program of Harbor; they are where the majority of our care and nurture takes place. Most often the study time in these groups centers on sermon discussion, but groups are also free to engage in other studies as well. In addition to Community Groups, we also offer studies on the “Gospel and Heart” materials, men’s bible studies, women’s bible studies, and groups that focus on specialized needs, such as stewardship (through Crown Ministry) or marketplace ministry. Not all of these studies are offered at all times at all sites, so if you have a specific interest in a certain type of study, please speak to your pastor and he will either direct you toward a study, or discuss the possibility of starting one. One of the advantages of our multi-congregational/multi-site model is that each pastor actually has far more time to invest in ministry than most pastors in other settings because of the role of Central Services. Unless a pastor is involved in starting an additional site of his own congregation, he will have only a small portion of his time taken up in the church planting activities of the movement. And the greatest amount of training and discipleship at Harbor often takes place in the context of the launch teams for new sites. The vast majority of those who have been involved on launch teams will tell you it was the greatest time of growth in their Christian experience. So we see planting new sites not only as an opportunity for outreach, but also as a tremendous opportunity for discipleship, training and nurture.
Does Harbor support foreign missions? If so, how?
During this chapter in the life of Harbor, the greatest portion of our giving is being directed toward new congregations and sites in our region (most of which are Harbor sites, but we do also support other church-planting efforts as well). As we say in our vision statement, “The vision of Harbor Presbyterian Church is to ignite a church-planting movement that so fills the region of San Diego and Tijuana with the gospel of Jesus Christ that the people of the region are changed in every dimension—spiritually, socially and culturally.” One thing to note is that our “region” includes a foreign country! We send monthly support to a missionary family in Tijuana, and are involved directly in several missions trips to Tijuana each year. We are also involved in foreign missions as we consult with missionaries on church planting models and strategies. In 2007 alone we have had this kind of interaction with missionaries from Japan, Chile, Mexico, Australia and England. We hope in the future to offer short-term missions opportunities to some of these locations. And when we get to the point where we no longer need the majority of our giving to go to church planting in our region, we will be able to direct more money to other locations in the world.
How will the contributions for Advancing the Vision be given?
You have the option to either give your gifts at your local site or you can mail them directly to our church office at 964 Fifth Avenue, Suite 535, San Diego, CA 92101. You can also use the online form in the right hand column of this website.
How will you determine whether a contribution is for the general fund or Advancing the Vision?
We will provide you with special envelopes for your gifts to Advancing the Vision, and we will also encourage you to write “Advancing the Vision” in the memo portion of your check. Any other giving that we receive in our regular Sunday offerings will be considered donations to your site’s general fund. In addition, we will be sending you reports on a regular basis so you can make sure that your gifts are being credited properly. If you discover that a gift was incorrectly credited to either the general fund or Advancing the Vision, simply let us know and we’ll make the changes.
Some of us may have enough current income to be able to shift things around in our budgets and give more than we currently give for Advancing the Vision. Others won’t have that kind of flexibility. If you’re in that latter category, there are still ways you can contribute. Perhaps you can sell something of value that you no longer use and give the proceeds. Or perhaps you can invest your time and talents into some creative venture to raise money for Advancing the Vision. Keep in mind that we are asking you to consider what you might give above and beyond your normal giving over a three-year period. The “above and beyond” part of that is the sacrifice…but the “three-year period” is the key. If you were to calculate what you could realistically give on a weekly basis, it might not seem to be a significant amount to you. But if you multiply that out over three years, it adds up. For example, if you were somehow able to set aside $10/week by giving up something you currently enjoy—like one meal out or a couple of trips to Starbucks—that would add up to $1500 over three years! Another way to consider giving to Advancing the Vision would be to delay the purchase of something you’ve been saving for. Drive the six-year old car a seventh year, or wait another year before remodeling. The bottom line is that there are a lot of ways, small and large, that each person can financially contribute to Advancing the Vision. Use your creativity and when you figure something out, share your idea with others! God will encourage all of us through the ways that we each respond to Him.
What if I move away before my three-year commitment is up? Am I expected to follow through?
Obviously, if you move away the first thing we want you to do is find a new church and begin to participate in the life and ministry of that church. And this includes giving to the needs of your new church. But since Advancing the Vision is appealing to you to give “above and beyond” your regular giving, some of you may want to continue giving to Harbor what you originally committed. We realize that situations and priorities do change, and your giving to Advancing the Vision is entirely voluntary. So we won’t pressure you, but we will attempt to keep in contact with you so that if you desire to complete your original commitment, you will know how you can do that.
What are the ways I can be involved in our vision? How can I pray for the vision campaign?
Take time to read and pray through Harbor's Vision & Values. Ask God how you can use your time, treasure and talent to be a part of that vision. If you would like to get more involved with the vision campaign itself, please speak to your pastor or your site leadership team. Getting involved in the campaign will be a great way to gain ownership of the vision and find out other ways you can continue to serve God through Harbor long after the campaign is over. Pray also that God would use this campaign to give Harbor a greater unity of vision and purpose, not only within our individual sites, but across our whole church.
What does the Bible say about our motivation for giving?
In 2 Corinthians 8-9, Paul challenges the Corinthians to give, but he wants them to give in a certain way. First, he wants them to give in response to the Gospel. Jesus was rich, but for our sakes he became poor so that we, through his poverty might become rich. That’s the ultimate motivation for giving. God has given us so much and we are responding in gratitude. But Paul also tells us to give thoughtfully—so that’s why we are asking each of you to take a journey and spend time thinking through these things. We don’t want you simply to respond spontaneously. He also tells us to give freely, not under compulsion. In fact, he says that we should give cheerfully or literally, “hilariously.” There is a freedom and joy we have in giving when our motives are correct. He also challenges us to give sacrificially, just as Jesus gave sacrificially. And finally, he encourages us to give confidently. God tells us that when we give, we can expect God to meet our needs as well. One person has said that giving is not God’s way of raising money, it’s his way of raising children—children who love their father, have learned to trust in his goodness, and who want to pass on the message of the gospel to others.
Where can I find more information about Advancing the Vision?
This website has a lot of useful information, or feel free to contact Rick Egan at (619) 699-5950.