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<\/source><\/picture>A Hawaiian church founded by a professional surfer now affiliated with Pastor Greg Laurie\u2019s Harvest Christian Fellowship recently celebrated having baptized as many as 2,000 people over the last seven years.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement to The Christian Post, Laurie said, \u201cRicky wanted to retire and asked me if we would be willing to bring Kumulani into the Harvest Church family.\u201d<\/p>\n Laurie added that \u201cit was not as easy of a decision as you may think,\u201d as the distance between the Hawaiian chapel and Laurie\u2019s California-based main campus is considerable.<\/p>\n \u201cThey 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,\u201d Laurie said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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 \u2018Harvest Kumulani.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Laurie told CP that he attributed this growth to the \u201cbeautiful, family-like feel\u201d of the congregation, as they \u201ceach meet with each other constantly and generally do life together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey live out their faith and impact those around them,\u201d he added. \u201cThey do so much for the community, including a church preschool and outreach events through the year, including Thanksgiving where over 1,000 people are provided a free meal with all the fixings.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Laurie, one of the unique aspects of Harvest Kumulani is the large number of visitors they get every week, with the Harvest leader estimating that about 30% of those present for worship are vacationers to Maui.<\/p>\n \u201cJesus told us to \u2018Go into all the world and preach the Gospel,\u2019 but in a very real sense, all the world comes to Maui to vacation,\u201d Laurie said. \u201cMany come to this beautiful island looking to escape, but many end up at our church receiving Christ into their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/14\/99\/149935_w_760_444.webp\")
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