Our Story
above: Glenn House
Pastors Matt and Julie Beemer, founders of World Harvest Bible Church, held their first Sunday service the 13th of April 1997 with just 17 people (counting adults, children and anything that moved!) meeting in the Copthorne Hotel. After nearly 5 years of meeting at the hotel, we were able to purchase our first building, Glenn House, which we then extended and renovated a couple of years later with the assistance of some grant funding.
above: The Sanctuary
Conducting three services on a Sunday and with our children’s ministry bursting at the seems, we leased a warehouse a couple hundred meters down the road for our new Sanctuary doubling our seating capacity to nearly 500. In just one year we had to again introduce multiple services and look for another larger facility.
above: Pastors Alan, Claire, Julie and Matt
In 2007 after celebrating 10 years in ministry Kingdom Faith Manchester merged with WHBC. This was another significant milestone in the church and acted as a catalyst to continued growth and influence.
Our church is an independent, non-denominational, full-gospel church! That means we are not affiliated with any one denomination. Even though Pastors Matt and Julie Beemer are gradates of Rhema Bible Training Centre and consider themselves strong ‘Word of Faith’ ministers, the fact is, our church is full of people who were raised in a variety of spiritual backgrounds including: Charismatic, Pentecostal, Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, and numerous others as well as many who have come from no religious background at all.
WHBC Leadership
Pastors Matt and Julie Beemer
Founding Pastors/Ministry Overseers
Pastor Alan and Claire Morton
Senior Pastors
Pastors Matt and Julie Beemer
Pastor Matt and Julie Beemer met and were married while attending RHEMA Bible Training Centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. After graduating they returned to Matt's home church in Michigan to serve in supportive ministries.
In October 1994 the Beemers moved to Liverpool, England to work with Reaching The World, a missions organisation. It was during this time that Pastor Matt received the vision to pioneer World Harvest Bible Church in Manchester.
After fulfilling their two year commitment with Reaching The World, the Beemers moved to Manchester and immediately began preparations for the start of the church.
On the 13th of April 1997 WHBC held its first Sunday morning service at the Copthorne Hotel, Salford Quays with just 17 people. Now, more than a decade later, the church has grown to be one of the largest and fastest growing churches in Greater Manchester.
Pastor Matt and Julie have two children, Jonathan and Elisabeth.
Our Vision, Mission and Purpose. 
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