Harvest Free Will Baptist Church

THE PURPOSE OF HARVEST

Membership

To join together as a local church; to promote love, friendship, fellowship, and harmony within the family of God.

Maturity

To grow as Christians, to be fruitful disciples and strong leaders for Jesus.

Ministry

To serve the people of our city by endeavoring to meet their spiritual needs.

Missions

To preach Christ Jesus the Lord; boldly preaching and teaching to all people the Gospel and the doctrine of Christ. To use every available means to impact Bakersfield and the regions beyond with the Gospel of Christ.

Magnification

To worship the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind; in spirit and in truth.

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HARVEST CHURCH COVENANT

Having given ourselves to God, by faith in Jesus Christ, and adopted the Word of God as our rule of faith and practice, we now give ourselves to one another by the will of God in this solemn covenant.

We promise by His grace to love and obey Him in all things, to avoid all appearance of evil, to abstain from all sinful amusements and unholy conformity to the world, from all sanction of the use and sale of intoxicating beverages, and to provide things honest in the sight of all men.

We agree faithfully to discharge our obligations in reference to study of the Scriptures, secret prayer, family devotions, and social worship, and by self-denial, faith and good works endeavor to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together for church conferences, public worship, and the observance of the ordinances of the gospel, nor fail to pay according to our ability of the support of the church, of its poor, and all its benevolent work.

We agree to accept Christian admonition and reproof with meekness, and to watch over one another in love, endeavoring to “keep the unity of the Spirit” in the bonds of peace, to be careful of one another’s happiness and reputation, and seek to strengthen the weak, encourage the afflicted, admonish the erring, and as far as we are able, promote the success of the church and of the Gospel.

We will everywhere hold Christian principle sacred and Christian obligations and enterprises supreme; counting it our chief business in life to extend the influence of Christ in society; constantly praying and toiling that the Kingdom of God may come, and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

To this end we agree to labor for the promotion of educational and denominational enterprises, the support of missions, the success of Sunday Schools, and evangelistic efforts for the salvation of the world.

And may the God of peace sanctify us wholly, and preserve us blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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HARVEST STATEMENT OF FAITH

The Holy Scriptures

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the verbally and plenary inspired Word of God. The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible and God-breathed, and therefore are the final authority for faith and life. The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament are the complete and divine revelation of God to Man. The Scriptures shall be interpreted according to their normal grammatical-historical meaning. The King James Version of the Bible shall be the official and only translation used by the church (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21).

The Godhead

We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections (Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; John 14:10, 26).

Salvation

We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal trusting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins (John 1:12; Eph. 1:7; 2:8-10; Heb. 11:6; I Pet. 1:18-19).

The Church

We believe that the local church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is solely made up of born-again persons (1 Cor. 12:12-14; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 1:22-23; 5:25-27)

We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 20:17, 28-32; 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)

We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control (Acts 13:1-4; 15:19-31; 20:28; Rom. 16:1, 4; 1 Cor. 3:9, 16; 5:4-7, 13; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).

We recognize water baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the washing of the saints’ feet as the Scriptural ordinances of obedience for the church in this age (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 18:18; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; John 13:1-17; 1 Tim. 5:10).

Missions

We believe that God has given the church a great commission to proclaim the Gospel to all nations so that there might be a great multitude from every nation, tribe, ethnic group, and language group who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. As ambassadors of Christ we must use all available means to go to the foreign nations and not wait for them to come to us (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:20).

Our complete statement of faith is available by downloading our constitution.

Click here to download our Constitution (PDF)

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