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Our Story

The Beginning of the Harvest Bible Chapel movement:

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. Over the past 25 years, this founding church has continued to grow steadily and is today a thriving church family of almost 14,000 people meeting on 7 different campuses in the Chicagoland area. In 2000, the church leadership of Harvest Bible Chapel felt challenged to begin planting other Harvest Bible Chapels around the world as God would allow. The vision for local Harvest Bible Chapels that were independent of the founding church, but connected in ministry opportunity was born and, in 2001, the first Harvest Bible Chapel church plant was established in Glen Ellyn, IL (now Harvest Naperville). The church planting ministry of Harvest continued to grow in the early 2000's with churches starting initially in Illinois and then crossing the border to begin planting in Canada.

Harvest Bible Fellowship:

After just a few short years, 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 close to 80 Harvest Bible Chapels in various parts of the world. Learn more about Harvest Bible Fellowship.

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. Now, almost five and a half years since its founding, over 550 people attend Harvest North Indy and work together to "glorify God by making disciples of all nations!"

In 2013, Harvest North Indy purchased land at the intersection of 146th Street and River Road in Carmel, Indiana to begin building it's permanent home. Learn more about what God has next for Harvest as they enter a season to be called to "Rise Up!"