World Harvest Church

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World Harvest Church is an international pentecostal megachurch founded in Columbus, Ohio that is pastored by Rod Parsley.

First started in 1977 in Rod Parsley's parent's backyard, the church consisted of 17 people. Two years later Parsley bought property for the church to be built on. 180 people were attending at this point. In 1982 the seating was doubled. The number of people was so large that a second Sunday morning service was added. This influenced Parsley to upgrade the church, and in 1984 1200 more seats were added. Now sitting on Gender Road in Columbus, Ohio, the church seats over 5,200 people and contains an auditorium, a television studio, a children's ministry that includes Sunday school for kids newborn to 6th grade, Harvest Preparatory School, and administrative offices. The church sits on 57 acres and is 122,000 square feet [[1]]. It was built by Roe Messner. Parsley's Breakthrough television program is taped at the church. Breakthrough is a program put on by the church.

The church also incorporates World Harvest Bible College, a young, co-educational institution located outside Columbus, three miles from its parent church.

[edit] IRS Investigation

A group of churches and synagogues from Columbus requested that the IRS perform an inquiry about the churches political activities.^[1] The group accused the church of illegally campaigning on the behalf of former Ohio Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. The IRS does not comment publicly on potential or ongoing investigations, therefore it is not known if anything came of the request.