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Congratulations are in order for Senior Pastor Todd Dugard and his church, Harvest Barrie, Ontario. This year they are celebrating their 10th anniversary as Harvest’s first Canadian church plant.



Todd and his wife of 22 years, Cheryl, began their journey to Harvest before they were married. Both attended college with founder of Harvest Bible Chapel, James MacDonald, as well as the Assistant Senior Pastor, Rick Donald. After marriage, Todd and Cheryl began attending a conference in Canada where Pastor James spoke. In 2000, God began to divinely orchestrate the first Canadian Harvest plant. Todd says, “God was already stirring in my heart about whether to remain an associate pastor or do what I had always dreamed, which was planting churches. So at this conference I began to discuss it with Pastor Rick. At the very same time, at the same conference, a group of 30 people from Barrie were meeting with Pastor James about planting their own Harvest. It was very providential.”

On December 13, 2000, Todd accepted the offer to be our first Canadian Senior Pastor. “We knew we were to leave our church, but we had been there 16 years. It’s where I met Cheryl; our three children were born in that town; we were highly invested. And yet it was so God-ordained,” says Todd. “I was leaving a church with 800 people getting ready to build a building to join 30 people who were meeting at a community center. The Lord was in it for sure!”

After an internship at Harvest Rolling Meadows, Todd and Cheryl moved to Barrie and began their church. Everything was smooth for a period of time. But a few years ago the Lord walked them through a difficult season. Todd jokes, “It was the year we grew from 750 to 500…” then adds on a serious note, “…so many people left, and we entered a time of being in the wilderness and under God’s discipline.”

“We lost all of our non-vocational elders over a short time-period creating a huge problem. We appealed to the Fellowship for help, and they immediately provided two elders to give direction,” Todd says. “We were eight years in—six years into having our own elders, but we needed help, and the Fellowship came along side us. A lot of our crisis was an issue of core values—some people wanted the church to look different than a Harvest looks. We did a core ministry assessment with the Fellowship and wanted to remain a Harvest, but it meant people would choose whether they wanted to be a part of that or not.”

While emerging from this process and rebuilding again, Todd shares profound insight, “The biggest lesson for the church was found in the Greek word, hupomené, (remain under). Would we remain under the trial and grow, or seek to get out from it? We decided to remain under, and we have sought to take responsibility and grow in the things God was showing us about ourselves. God’s been really gracious, and we have begun to see a good turn around. "

Another lesson provides perspective for future church planters. Todd explains, “One of the great temptations for church planters is to believe that every person who comes through your door should be a part of your church. But not everybody should. When you’re a young church planter it’s easy to compromise and think, they’re tithing, they’re serving, they fill the seats, but in the end, you have people that aren’t really about what you’re about. When everything’s great, you don’t notice, but when you go through a crisis, you will know. The lesson is, not everyone who visits should stay. Don’t be afraid to let them go. "

Todd continues, “I learned this lesson in my backyard garden. If you plant a tomato plant and do a few things right, you’ll get tomatoes. If you work hard at tilling the soil and staking the plant, you’ll get a full plant that looks beautiful, and you’ll get more tomatoes. But if you do all that and go through the sometimes painful process of pruning off every branch that doesn’t actually bear fruit, you’ll get four times the fruit. We are watching the harvest of that right now, and by God’s grace alone, it will continue.”