“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” 2 Timothy 4:1-2
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| Ron & Tracy Harding |
“Ron” Harding was appointed Evangelist at the Sunday morning service of our Winter Workshop on January 3, 2010! After receiving the ancient charge of 2 Timothy 4, in tears, Ron expressed his heartfelt gratitude to God, to Tracy his wife, to his father and mother, to his uncle, and to so many disciples. As the entire congregation arose in thunderous applause, there were very few dry eyes. Later, his Uncle Walter – a former deacon in the Baptist Church – wrote to Ron, “What a good time I had at your ceremony this past weekend, and I’m looking forward to the next event and praying for the opening of a church here in the Seattle area soon!”
Ron was born in Seattle at the University of Washington Hospital on July 25, 1970. (Sadly, he is still a Husky and Seahawk fan!) During his younger years, Ron accompanied his dear mother Judy – now a disciple – to the Baptist Church. At 13 years old, through the guiding influence of his father Ron Sr., Ron entered his first car race. By 1985 at 15 years old, he began racing professionally! His car was considered to be the “world’s fastest ’57 Chevy!” He still holds the US Record for the longest burnout for a doorslammer! In 1992, Ron won the IASCA World Finals for the world’s loudest car at 154.2 decibels! During these years, he raced for Super Chevy where he would make $10,000 per weekend in “match racing.” Then in 1993, Ron’s heart was pulled away from professional racing and drawn to God. He was baptized through God’s Spirit working in the lives of the Orange County Region disciples of the Los Angeles International Church of Christ on March 19 of that year!
Immediately after he was baptized, Ron wanted to be a part of the Campus Ministry and so enrolled at Fullerton College. However, his early “claim to fame” was that he and four other brothers – the “Fab Five” – were asked to initiate the Cypress College Campus Ministry. Amazingly, God grew this “mustard seed” of five to 26 disciples in just one semester! As a young Christian, Ron’s heroes in the faith were Willie Flores and Bruce Williams.
Then in 1994, tragedy struck. While instructing another man on how to drive a truck – as Ron was putting himself through college as a truck driver – he was rear-ended by a tow-truck towing another truck that hit him without braking at 40 mph! This intense impact ruptured a disc in his neck, which had to be removed and replaced with a cadaver bone and then fused. Ron was bedridden for a month and was in rehabilitation for almost two years. It was during this time that Ron “learned obedience from what he suffered” by drawing close to our Father as he “offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears.” (Hebrews 5:7-8)
During these days of prayer, Ron met Tracy Williams – baptized in 1993 through the outreach of the AMS Ministry – at a Singles Event in June 1995. Though at that time they both were dating other people, these relationships ended within three months of each other. The moment Tracy called to tell Ron she had broken up with her boyfriend, Ron shares, “I told my roommates that Tracy was going to be my wife!” They were married on July 26, 1997. The Lord blessed them with Devon in 1998 and Dylan in 2000! At his appointment, Ron expressed, “After 12 years of marriage, I am still married to the woman that I always prayed to be married to! Tracy is the most fruitful woman I know. She is powerful in speech, charismatic, and through discipling – particularly during our Portland days – she has developed a quiet, gentle and utterly submissive spirit. She is an awesome mom and she has become one of those women that I always admired as a young disciple.” After sharing this, Ron communicated his gratefulness to Elena McKean, Michele Williamson and the leader sisters in Portland for helping Tracy.
Though Ron’s accident had derailed his college studies and since he held no degree or certification, his natural “people skills” – refined as a disciple – allowed him to be hired as a sales assistant in 1998 for an internet company. Motivated to please his God, Ron’s incredible work ethic propelled him to senior manager in three years. In three more years, he became the Director of Technical Services at VitalStream – traded on NASDAQ – making almost $120,000 a year! He was a technical consultant for MySpace, Facebook, Disney, MTV, ABC News and Miramax Films. However, when the International Churches of Christ returned to a more mainline theology in 2002, and as many disciples’ faith was rocked by the “Kriete Letter” in early 2003, the ensuing lukewarmness also engulfed Ron.
My first interaction with Ron was playing in the LA Church’s Basketball League as we both played on the Orange County Masters Team in 1993. Ron half-jokingly remembers me as “a ball hog!” I reminded Ron that though he made an incredible 74% of his three pointers his senior year in high school, and carried over that skill into the church basketball league, I did lead the team in scoring! The Lord humbled us both, as we lost in a very close championship final!
My next interaction with Ron came many years later in 2002 as Ron came to my home to recover Eric’s term paper from his crashed computer. He later helped us to get a new laptop for Eric and mentored Eric in his computer skills in preparation for college.
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| During his racing days, Ron and his cars were featured in several magazines. This 1988 Popular Hot Rodding cover displays his 1957 Chevy. (Notice Ron’s name on the side of his car!) |
Ron would come to the house from time to time to work on Elena’s and my computers as well. One day during my darkest hours, Ron came down the stairs and found me in the living room in tears. We had our first talk as friends. I shared quite candidly – yet with self-pity – that my “friends” had deserted me and my phone did not ring anymore. I will never forget what Ron said, “Kip, I don’t want to sound insensitive, but you need to get back on the horse. The kingdom worldwide is falling apart and we need you to get back up and lead us again.” In 2004, about six months after Elena and I had moved to Portland, I appreciated that Ron called to follow up and see how I was doing. He also opened up that he was going through his own dark times. At the end of the conversation, he promised to visit Portland. I did put him on the Portland newsletter mailing list, but only Tracy would read them since Ron became more and more distraught about the condition of the churches and his own spiritual life.
In the summer of 2006, Ron scheduled a business trip to Seattle. Tracy challenged Ron to keep his promise and visit me in Portland. On August 13, 2006 Ron visited the Portland Church for the first time. Enthusiastically, he pulled me aside after the worship service and Bible Talk Leaders Meeting and said, “This is the church I was baptized in! I am moving my family here to be spiritually revived by September!” A week later, he brought Tracy to the Follow The Fire World Missions Jubilee. True to his word, they arrived in Portland with their two sons on September 1, 2006!
After two business trips back to LA, several disciples in LA begged for help and asked that Portland provide assistance to get the church moving again. Ron led the Bible Talk at Raul Sanchez’s house that became the LA Remnant Church in November.
Since the new movement had officially begun in early October 2006, unknown to Ron at the time, Elena and I sensed the Spirit’s call to move to a larger city to better perpetuate the new movement’s vision – the evangelization of the nations in a generation. We fasted and laid a fleece before the Lord: wherever a remnant group first came out – New York or Los Angeles, that would be God’s signal to us to move there. God used Ron to answer our prayer – LA!
Ron & Tracy, Sal & Patricia Velasco and Raul & Alicia Sanchez were the key couples in the LA Remnant Group. These noble Christians and the disciples with them joined the City of Angels Church planting, which we celebrated at our Inaugural Service on May 6, 2007! Ron & Tracy became the Orange County House Church Leaders. They were very effective, not only in reaching out to other remnant disciples like Carlos & Lucy Mejia, Chris & Maria Freckmann and Rob & Burgundie Onekea, but also in helping to baptize awesome converts such as Lorenzo Pruitt and Shay Vloet. Even though he worked a demanding secular job, Ron served tirelessly as the Administrator for the City of Angels Church, as well as overseeing our internet ministry. Today Ron is the Lead CyberEvangelist for the entire SoldOut Movement!
After the 2008 Jubilee, the evangelist and elders of the Portland International Church of Christ – all of whom are from the Mainline Church of Christ – decided to return to their Mainline roots of autonomy and abandon the new movement’s vision to evangelize the nations in a generation. Since Ron & Tracy were so effective – and “like-minded” with the other key movement leaders – when the daring disciples of Portland formed a remnant group, the first couple that God put on my heart for church leadership was the Hardings! In October, on Ron’s first visit to Portland, he remembers, “There were only 13 disciples and $313 in a coffee can.” With his dream of full-time ministry becoming a reality, Ron led a team of eight disciples to Portland, which was added to the then 26 in the remnant group on November 1, 2008.
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| The Harding family – Tracy, Ron, Dylan (9) and Devon (11)! |
In their first year, God has added 37 baptisms, 18 restorations and 44 placed memberships! As of 2010, the Portland International Christian Church has almost 100 disciples with an attendance nearing 200 on Sunday mornings and a contribution of $2,400 per week!
As is my custom when I appoint a new Evangelist, I gave Ron a new Bible with a personal charge. I wrote, “To my true son in the faith, Ron: Today the Spirit appoints you an Evangelist in the kingdom of God. To fulfill this destiny while wholeheartedly embracing Jesus’ dream – the evangelization of the nations in this generation – you must emulate the audacious “faith and deeds” of your favorite Bible heroes. Like Hezekiah, the intensity of your prayer life must humbly remind our God of His Word to send an angel that in one night can destroy 185,000 of the enemies of His people. Then, in prayer move our Father to change His mind and extend the grace of health by increasing the allotted years to your undeserving physical body. Like James, who addressed himself as only “a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ” – never mentioning his half-brother relationship or his leadership in Jerusalem – you must allow humility to guide each of your steps and each of your decisions. Like Timothy, you must seek to imitate the faith of those more like Jesus, giving you the perspectives and convictions that will overcome all trials and tribulations – even death itself. Today, “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word.” Ron, it is with tears that I thank you for your unwavering “partnership in the gospel” from Portland, through the early days of LA, through the Internet Ministry, and – similar to James – leading the congregation where God’s new movement was initiated. Through our Savior’s cross, you have become a dear brother, fellow prayer warrior, trusted confidante, and a very precious son in the faith. To the end, Kip."
Though most become evangelists in their 20’s, Ron will be 40 years old this year! And so our congregational theme for 2010 of Visions and Dreams is already being realized! Ron’s appointment is indeed a modern-day fulfillment of the kingdom about which Joel prophesied and Peter preached, “Your old men will dream dreams!” (Acts 2:17) And to God be the glory!
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