Home » Who We Are » History of Harvest

The History of Harvest Bible Chapel North Indianapolis

Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago:
In 1988, the first Harvest Bible Chapel was formed in the northwest suburbs of Chicago by James and Kathy MacDonald and eighteen other people who joined with them to launch this new work. Harvest Bible Chapel met at Rolling Meadows High School until 1995 when they purchased the 800 Rohlwing Road campus in Rolling Meadows, IL.  The church continued to grow steadily through the late 1990's and in 2000, James and the church leadership felt that God was calling Harvest to become involved in planting 10 churches over the next 10 years. In 2001, the first Harvest Bible Chapel church plant was established in Glen Ellyn, IL with additional plants in Crystal Lake, IL, Lake Zurich, IL and Barrie, Ontario.

Harvest Bible Fellowship:
As the church planting ministry of Harvest continued to grow, it became apparent that God was raising up multiple opportunities to plant Harvest Bible Chapels across the United States and Canada. In 2003, Harvest Bible Fellowship was formed as a separate 501c3 organization to help organize and further the church planting work that started in Chicago. Under the leadership of Harvest Bible Fellowship, there are now more than 50 Harvest Bible Chapels in various parts of the world. For more about Harvest Bible Fellowship, visit their website.

Harvest Bible Chapel in North Indianapolis:
Harvest Bible Chapel of North Indianapolis was officially incorporated in August of 2006 to begin the process of planting in the north suburbs of Indianapolis. Pastor Brian White and his family joined with some 22 other individuals to begin the process of planting Harvest North Indy. After nine months of training in Chicago at the Harvest Training Center for Church Planting, Brian and Laura returned to Indianapolis to reconnect with the Harvest North Indy Launch Team to begin the push toward the September 2007 launch. This team met weekly for a full year, and it grew to over 90 people who were dedicated to the ministry of Harvest.

Harvest North Indy held its first public service on September 9, 2007 at Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana and worshiped at that location until August 2008. After spending almost a year in Carmel, Harvest relocated to its new location at Fishers Junior High School, in the neighboring city of Fishers, to continue its progress toward reaching more people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.