Our History

As the church planting ministry of Harvest Bible Fellowship grew it became apparent that reorganization in the way we multiply churches was needed and a movement toward decentralization and regionalization began.

In 2017, a new church planting movement, The Great Commission Collective (GCC), was formed. In November of 2017 our church joined the GCC. As a result, our church is no longer associated with Harvest Bible Chapel Chicago (Formerly Pastored by James MacDonald).

We are grateful for our rich heritage, and now move forward with a renewed passion to be a worshipping and sending church in the GCC.

After years of praying, a small group of people joined Harvest Bible Chapel York Region with a desire to see a Harvest planted in the Newmarket area. In the summer of 2014 the leadership of HBC York Region hired Pastor Mike Armstrong with a vision to plant a second campus in Newmarket. That fall the core group began meeting to seek God and ask that He would move powerfully in Newmarket. In March 1st 2015, the Newmarket Campus launched its first service.

As Christ continued building His church in Newmarket, Pastor Mike transitioned to the Senior Pastor role in January 2017, and the church became an autonomous Harvest Bible Chapel in January 2018.


We are humbled and thankful by how the Lord has chosen to move in this town through our church and we continue to pray and worship Him expecting Him to continue to advance His kingdom in Newmarket.

In 2000, the Lord gave the elders of Harvest Bible Chapel (HBC) a vision of planting 10 churches in 10 years. Burdened by the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), they launched their first two Harvest plants in the Chicago suburbs of Glen Ellyn (2000) and Crystal Lake (2001).

In 2002, God began to expand HBC’s planting efforts by causing groups of people to approach HBC about bringing the Harvest model of ministry to their communities. The unprecedented demand necessitated the development of Harvest Bible Fellowship (HBF), a separate not-for-profit organization that would oversee the Harvest planting efforts. God blessed the vision for church planting so much that HBF has now planted 66 churches in 10 years instead of 10 in 10 years!

After the first three or four church plants, Harvest no longer had to target communities in which to start new churches. Instead, the communities began coming to Harvest asking for help to start new Harvest plants.

In the summer of 1988, Dr. James MacDonald and 18 Christ-followers from 5 different churches came together in Rolling Meadows, IL with a vision for planting a life-changing church that would blend the unapologetic preaching of God’s Word, passionate contemporary worship, powerful prayer and the bold sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first Harvest Bible Chapel launched in Rolling Meadows on September 18, 1988. Since then, it has grown to nearly 13,000 worshipers on six campuses. (For more information, please visit the website of the first Harvest Bible Chapel.)