ABOUT US

Our Beginnings
Harvest Christian Church had its humble beginning as a Bible study by its founders, Rick and Joanne Widener from their home in Westlake, Ohio. Harvest was originally known as “Christians in Growth” when a group of six Christian men incorporated it as an Ohio non-profit organization in July of 1980.

Shortly after that, as a church, we relocated to Elyria, ordained elders and developed a communal expression of the body of Christ. For six years, we lived, met and worshipped in several homes that were clustered in a downtown Elyria neighborhood off of Middle Avenue. As the church grew, so did our vision and our desire to reach out not only to our neighborhood, but also to the world. In 1986, Christians In Growth changed its name to reflect that vision and became Harvest Christian Church. That year also began an intense effort to learn about missions, develop our vision and begin to train our first missionaries for service (see “Missions”).

Following 1986 many of the homes that were communal were sold as we moved to more traditional family homes. Because of our growth both in size and vision, we began to transition from “house church,” to a central meeting place on Sunday mornings. We went from homes to several different temporary facilities before purchasing the current facility where we have put down roots for the last 15 years. Where we met, was always secondary to our expression of the church as the people of God. Relationships have always been a key part of our life together as a body.

Life Together
Since our beginning, we have endeavored to live our lives in community, which at times has been geographical, but has always been people committed to people. Learning from the past, both our failures and successes, we continue to move in a direction that has never let go of our communal roots and a desire to live a covenant from the heart. We look with anticipation at where the Lord will take us and how He will use us as an expression of His body in the years ahead, awed at how He has used us already. Paramount in all we try to express is the care we have for each other and for the body of Christ. Small groups help us walk out this commitment.

Our life together has not always been easy -what family is? But as a body, we try to stay real; authenticity is something that we strive for both in our relationships, our teaching and preaching as well as our life together as a church. As a body committed to each other, we have, and continue to persevere through good times and bad, maintaining our focus on the call we have as Christians to build the body, for works of service, that all may hear the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord. As a charter member of the Alliance for Renewal Churches (www.arcchurch.org), we remain committed to community life, pastoral care, plurality of leadership and other common concerns that the church universal holds in common (see our statement of faith, the Common Concerns).

Thank you!
We invite you to take a tour of our website, contact us and if you’re looking for a church; we welcome you to worship with us. If you are not a Christian or would like to learn more about Christ, we invite you to click on the tab “Knowing Christ,” where you’ll be guided to an opportunity to learn more about what it means to be a Christian, or an opportunity to send us any questions you may have.

Thank you for visiting us on our website and may God bless you!