In early 2000, Hope Community Church in Barrie had no pastor and no building of their own and was facing the prospect of shutting down the ministry after seven years. Instead, God birthed in them a new vision to partner with a church planting church to give them a fresh start.

In the months that followed, a God-ordained connection was made with leaders from Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, and in January 2001 the church became the core group of a new church plant, Harvest Bible Chapel Barrie. We are grateful for the “original eight” families who prayed, had the vision, and did the work to see it come to be: Terry and Ruth Ann Evans, Les and Judi Galicinski, Stewart and Faye Mathie, Gunther and Helga Podewils, Scott and Tracy Robinson, Janet Smith, Garth and Peta Taylor, Richard and Sue Thomas, and with honourable mention to Steve Gallant, who was a teen in the youth group at the time, and who continues to be a part of our Harvest family to this day.

After being recruited by Harvest Chicago in early 2001, Todd and Cheryl Dugard joined the core group with Todd becoming the founding and lead pastor and preaching his first sermon on March 25, 2001. After five months of training in Chicago, he assumed his full-time responsibilities at the church’s official launch on September 16, 2001, and he remains our lead pastor to this day.

Over the years, Harvest has gathered for worship at the Sunnidale Community Centre (now the Dorian Parker Centre), Emma King Elementary School (2001-2005), Timothy Christian School (2005-2017), and since August 2017, at our own 7 George Street facility (the former Army, Navy, Air Force Club Hall).

By God’s grace, the church grew beyond expectations, and the Lord kindly gave us a front-row seat to what he was doing. In 2002, we had the privilege of being a founding church of the newly formed Harvest Bible Fellowship, through which many planters were trained and sent out, more than a hundred churches were planted, and many people were led to faith in Christ and baptized. Sadly, after a lingering and devastating leadership crisis, our fellowship of churches disbanded in 2017 leaving us without an affiliation. We are grateful that despite human failure, the fruit of those years remains and continues to multiply.

In March 2021, after a lengthy season of internal evaluation and investigation of options for association, Harvest joined Acts 29, a diverse, global family of church-planting churches.

In the fall of 2024, we planted our first campus in the town of Alliston, what is hoped to be the first of several campuses throughout Simcoe County. This has been our heart over the twenty plus years of our history. We have had the joy and privilege of being involved in planting, coaching and supporting new churches and pastors/planters in Canada, the U.S., Scotland, Cameroon and other countries, and we have engaged in gospel-centred compassion and justice ministries locally and globally. Together with our partners, we hope to continue to make an impact for the kingdom of God here on earth until Jesus appears.

Soli Deo Gloria