While surveying the damage caused by a fire in Lincoln City, Oregon, Mike Harden observed what he describes as a miracle.
With supplies at nearby stores depleted and local roads gridlocked, and parked in a campground full of people desperate to escape, Harden stayed.
After returning to his campsite, he noticed a cool air near the door of his camper that contrasted with the thick ash. Inspired, he walked around the coach, praying.
“By the time I got done praying, that coach was enveloped in that cold, fresh air,” Harden said.
But there was something more, a roughly 4-foot-long staff perched on the vehicle that no one could identify the source of. An evangelical pastor, Harden knew the Biblical significance.
“OK, that goes everywhere with me,” Harden said, gesturing to the staff that's tucked into a corner of his office. “And from that point on, we haven’t looked back. We’ve just kept going, and going, and going.”
Over the past six years, Harden and his wife, Mickey, have zig-zagged the country, from Montana to Texas to California, to share the good word. That journey has led Harden to serve as pastor at Chehalis Christian Church, a post he’s held since September.
“We’ve enjoyed what we’ve been doing for the past five years, six years,” Harden said. “The Lord’s been really good to us.”
For the church, Harden fills a role that has been vacant for a few years. After a series of interim pastors, Harden was selected to serve in the role after “multiple” presentations in front of the congregation.
“It just fell together,” Harden said. “It was like, this piece fits perfectly here, this piece fits perfectly here.”
His wife, Mickey, serves as the ministry coordinator for the church. The daughter of a longtime missionary and a former surgical nurse, Mike said the work is “kind of in her bloodline.”
Mickey said the “congregation is really ready to get things going.”
“The pandemic really had an effect on churches in general,” Mickey said. “People are starting to come back, and they want to get back into the so-called groove.”
For Harden, the staff was the latest in a string of miracles that further confirmed his belief in a higher power. He claims a doctor gave him four months to live in 1991 after a cancer diagnosis, though surgery a day later showed the cancer was gone.
“As far as I’m concerned, I was healed,” Harden said.
In the role for two months, Harden is starting to settle in. He plans to stream Sunday services, which he describes as “traditional” and “contemporary.” Part of the reason, he said, is the necessity to reach a wider audience, even when they’re sick.
“One of the things we’re prepping here for is the advent of people not being able to get in here for health reasons,” Harden said. “The pandemic woke a lot of churches up to the fact that the people sitting at home are still part of the congregation, they’re still part of the family.”
Harden said he’s also “strong into” music, and plans to start a contemporary music ministry on Sunday evenings. He is also considering starting a Saturday evening service.
“We’re here, that’s the whole thing, we’re here,” Harden said. “Whatever the community brings, we’re going to be part of it.”
In his service, Harden said he “really takes to” the scripture in Isaiah and Daniel.
“Anything that deals with end times, that overlays on top of revelation, I have a draw for,” Harden said. “It’s not like I can tell you when the end's coming because no one knows, but there’s plenty of scripture that’s ringing true today that I would tell people, ‘wake up, just wake up, look up.’”
Harden said his messages are “encouraging” and “hopeful.”
“There’s some instruction, but most of it, I find that the best way to preach and teach about God is to keep it simple,” Harden said. “Don’t get out into the woods with your own opinion. There’s absolutely nothing I can say that God hasn’t already said, and said it better, and his way of saying it has proved the test of time.”
Chehalis Christian Church is located at 111 NW Prindle St. Sunday school begins at 10 a.m., and Sunday service begins at 11 a.m.
For more information, go to chehalischristian.org.
