Harvest Church has experienced growing pains the last several years.
That is being addressed through the addition of a new worship center at the Carmel church at 14550 River Rd. The expansion will add 34,000 square feet of space. Marty Baker, the church’s senior director of operations, said construction is on schedule to be completed in March 2025 if winter weather doesn’t create too many issues.
Brian White, who has been the lead pastor since the church was founded in 2007, said the groundbreaking ceremony was held earlier this year. There was a capital campaign to raise funds in 2023.
“We moved into this site in April 2015,” said White, a Noblesville resident. “We built an auditorium building that has some nursery classrooms in the back of it. In the smaller building, there are more classrooms and our offices. We figured this would serve the church until we got to about 1,400 or 1,500, and then we had to build some more.”
White said there was a master plan that included plans for a larger worship center.
“So, there will be a new worship center, expansion of some offices and then some changes of things to get more classrooms,” White said.
Harvest Church has Sunday services at 8, 9:30 and 11:15 a.m. White said the larger worship center will allow the church to return to offering only two services on Sundays.
The new worship center will seat approximately 1,200 while the present one holds about 600 people.
“In our second service, we typically have people in our overflow area in the lobby because we’re out of space,” Baker said.
“During the services, children all the way from birth to 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.”
There are approximately 450 children in the Harvest Kids program. The expansion also will include an additional 300 parking spots on the south side of the campus. There are 350 parking spots now.
Harvest Church services started 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 Riverside Junior High School for less than two years.
“That was our process. We’d set up and tear down every week before we moved to this property,” White said.
The congregation was approximately 650 people when it moved to the site in 2015.
“We went from about 650 to 975 in about two weekends,” White said. “I’d say we’re averaging 1,700 to 1,800 at the site.”
White said when it started, there were about 150 Harvest Churches across the U.S.
“There are still a few Harvest Churches, but they are not formalized anymore,” White said. “It’s a nondenominational background as a church. We cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention for missions and church planning.”
Harvest Church is planning to launch a second location in Westfield in January 2025, which is expected to meet at Monon Trail Elementary School. White said the congregation primarily comes from Carmel, Westfield, Fishers, Noblesville and the northside of Indianapolis.
For more, visit harvestchurch.org.
