Harvest Church has experienced growing difficulties in recent years.
That problem will be solved by building a new worship center at Carmel Church at 14550 River Road. The expansion will add 3,200 square feet of space. Marty Baker, the church’s chief operating officer, said construction is on schedule to be completed in March 2025 if winter weather doesn’t cause too many problems.
Brian White, who has been the church’s senior pastor since its founding in 2007, said the groundbreaking ceremony took place earlier this year and there is a fundraising campaign to raise money in 2023.
“We moved in here in April 2015,” said White, a Noblesville resident. “We built an auditorium building with some kindergarten classrooms in the back. The smaller building has more classrooms and our offices. We thought that would be enough for the church until we got to about 1,400 or 1,500 people, and then we had to build more.”
White said there is a master plan that includes plans for a larger place of worship.
“So there will be a new place of worship, some offices will be expanded, and some other things will be remodeled to create more classroom space,” White said.
Harvest Church will hold Sunday services at 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. White said the larger worship space will allow the church to return to offering just two services on Sundays.
The new church will have about 1,200 seats, while the current center has space for about 600 people.
“For our second service, people usually sit in our overflow area in the lobby because we don’t have any more room,” Baker said.
“During worship services, children from birth through sixth grade are in the classrooms,” White said of the Harvest Kids program. “Then on Sunday nights, the youth group meets and pretty much takes over most of the campus.”
The Harvest Kids program serves approximately 450 children. The expansion also includes 300 additional parking spaces on the south side of campus. There are currently 350 parking spaces.
Harvest Church services began in 2007 with services held at Carmel High School for one year. Services then moved to Fishers Junior High School for five years and then to Riverside Junior High School for less than two years.
“That was our approach. We set everything up and took it down every week before we moved into this property,” White said.
When the congregation moved to this location in 2015, it had about 650 members.
“We went from about 650 to 975 in about two weekends,” White said. “I’d say we’re averaging 1,700 to 1,800 here.”
White said when it started, there were about 150 Harvest Churches in the U.S.
“There are still some Harvest Churches, but they are no longer formalized,” White said. “As a church, we have a non-denominational background. We work with the Southern Baptist Convention on missions and church planning.”
Harvest Church plans to open a second location in Westfield in January 2025, which will likely be located at Monon Trail Elementary School. White said the congregation is primarily from Carmel, Westfield, Fishers, Noblesville and the north side of Indianapolis.
For more information, visit harvestchurch.org.
