History of Harvest Bible Chapel Kuala Lumpur

In 2004 a group of believers gathered together in a borrowed space at a local school in Kuala Lumpur. They formed a church called The Bridge International Church and had a vision to create a truly international church where both local Malaysians and expatriates could worship together and hear the preaching of the Word of God.

For 10 years The Bridge carried out this vision. The uniqueness of being an international church in KL brought many families of businessmen and diplomats from all over the world through our doors. Many people currently scattered to every corner of the world today once called this church their home during their time in KL.

Crisis from both outside and inside the church caused 2013 to be the church’s most difficult year. Various church planting networks were asked for help to revitalize the church. Most could only offer resources, but one responded with an offer to help restart the church. In September 2013, the members of The Bridge International Church voted to dissolve and restart as a new church under the direction of Harvest Bible Fellowship. HBF was a church planting network started by a church in Chicago, USA that had planted over 120 churches, many of which were in international cities, providing the experience to restart our church.

On 19 January 2014 we relaunched under a new name, Harvest Bible Chapel Kuala Lumpur! At the launch of Harvest KL, there were over 200 people with more than 30 countries represented. All of these nations worshipping together served as a testimony to Jesus’ promise to build His church (Matthew 16:18) even in the midst of great hardship, a continuation of the vision of the original church being relaunched, and that Jesus is our peace – as it says in Ephesians 2:14, “(He) has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

In May 2014 Harvest KL called a new pastor to lead the ministry and he arrived in January 2015 to begin the major renovation our church needed. God demonstrated rich mercy on us and began to RENEW us. The next months were marked by significant changes in the form of doctrinal realignment, reembracing the Word of God as our authority, the Gospel of Jesus Christ as our power and priority, and a recommitment to biblical leadership.

In 2016 and we began to FOLLOW HARD after Jesus Christ. Stability and healing began to become evident through this year. However, due to economic changes, many expats returned to their countries without replacements to their positions. This was a time of pruning and reevaluating our priorities.

In 2017 we began to ADVANCE THE GOSPEL and we saw a time of gospel renewal in our church and a new vision for how God wanted to use us was formed. Our partnership with Harvest Bible Fellowship ended in June, when that organization unexpectedly dissolved. However, many churches that were a part of it re-formed into a new network, separate from Chicago, called the Great Commission Collective. This network is how we now fulfill our global partnerships. In addition, our church supported the startup of a Kuala Lumpur city network, called the Gospel City Network, designed to start new churches in our city. God used this year in the life of our church to establish new networks who align with the commitment to advance the gospel locally and across the globe.

In 2018 we asked God to BUILD A STRONG FAITH, knowing that what God is leading us towards will require greater trust in Him. We started the year in a temporary, smaller location while our rented Hall was renovated, finally returning to this location in September. This was a year of growing pains as we saw an increase in members. Thankfully God has grown our understanding of making disciples so that we can steward all God is giving us for His glory.

Through the past 5 years, it is clear that God’s hand has been on this church. He has renovated a church that was broken, confused about its purpose to glorify Him, and ineffective in its mission to make disciples. While there is much yet to grow in to be like Christ, we can also see that He has faithfully built His church at Harvest KL. Jesus Christ is our head, the Holy Spirit is transforming and guiding us, the Word of God is our authority, the Gospel of Christ is our power, and God’s ways is our pursuit.

We now embark in 2019 on a new direction — to “stand mature and FULLY ASSURED in all the will of God.” (Colossians 4:12).