World Harvest Church in North Georgia Goes Online

North Georgia's own World Harvest Church North is welcoming a new element to their worship. Members and individuals can now view the sermons of Ellijay resident Senior Pastor Asa Dockery online. The church is hoping to broaden their membership by placing weekly services online for more viewers to watch.

Dockery, who is taking the church into the new reaches of technology, hopes that this will reach a wider audience, and connect with the Internet driven youth of today. The church is contemporary, styled more like a television studio rather than a traditional church, in the hopes of contacting the younger hearts and voices of North Georgia. It will also helps those who are unable to attend church due to physical ailments to still receive the sermons of Dockery.

"It will get our name out where people can find us," states Dockery.

Joining the likes of Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer, the World Harvest Church North is now a ministry that is supported by LightSource, a Web site that gets the word of God out across the World Wide Web. This will better assist Dockery in his ministry work in Ghana and other third world countries.

The membership currently boasts around 250 to 300 members, and is continuing to grow. Dockery is hoping that the video pods casts on LightSource will help the church continue forth in its growth.

With over 1.5 billions potential viewers and over 40 percent of those potential viewers turning to the Internet for information, chances are great for Dockery and his congregation to get their name out.

And it has already begun. Dockery was featured in a program on TBN, based in Chattanooga, Tenn., that focused on the growing drug problem among teens and how the church is finding solutions to those problems. It turned out to be one of the most watched programs on TBN, and resulted in Dockery returning to the studio for a 90 minute program that include an hour long sermon and a sit down interview with a local teen whose return to Jesus helped her end her self-mutilation.

The church is also regional collection center for Operation Christmas Child, the organization that sends Christmas gifts to boys and girls in third world countries. They have also made many mission trips to Ghana to help restore the word of God in a country that is progressively becoming Muslim.

The church also sponsors a rehabilitation center for women called the Ester Academy that helps women with drugs problems find their way back to the light. The center services all surrounding counties. Dockery and his staff also service the local community by reaching out to the drug courts and helping wayward prisoners find their way back. There are several ministry outreach programs that World Harvest Church North performs within Union, Fannin and Polk Counties, though Dockery is still trying to bridge the gap to Gilmer County.

World Harvest Church North has a bit for everyone. Their service times are Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and Wednesday at 7 p.m. The church also offers prayer services and other events. For information, contact the ministry at 706-374-6175 or on their Web site at www.whcnorth.org. From there, you can be linked to their video pod casts on LightSource.