Pastor Ron Mehl | |
|---|---|
 Ron Mehl | |
| Born | Ronald Duane Mehl April 22, 1944 |
| Died | May 30, 2003 (aged 59) |
| Education | LIFE Bible College (now Life Pacific College) |
| Occupation(s) | Former senior pastor, Beaverton Foursquare Church; founder Compassion Ministries |
| Known for | Largest congregation in Oregon, award-winning author, radio broadcast Heart of the Word |
Ronald Duane Mehl (April 22, 1944 – May 30, 2003) was the senior pastor of the Beaverton Foursquare Church in Beaverton, Oregon, United States, from 1973 until his death in 2003.
Commonly known as Pastor Ron, Ron Mehl graduated from LIFE Bible College (now Life Pacific College) in 1966. That same year he married Joyce Hamrick, also a LIFE Bible college graduate. Pastor Ron and Joyce had two sons, Ron Jr. and Mark.
Mehl began his ministry service in June 1966 as a representative of LIFE Bible College, and became the Youth Pastor at the Portland Foursquare Church in September 1966. By 1969, he was serving as the youth director for the Great Lakes District in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mehl left Kenosha in 1973 to become the senior pastor of the Beaverton Foursquare Church in Beaverton, Oregon.[1] That first Sunday, only a dozen people attended service. Over the next 30 years, however, attendance on Sundays grew to over 6,000 people, resulting in the largest church congregation in Oregon in 1999.[2]
Mehl held a variety of leadership positions within the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, including serving for 25 years on the executive council, and for more than 20 years as superintendent of the Columbia West Division. While still senior pastor at Beaverton, the board of regents of LIFE Bible College called upon Mehl to serve as interim president, a position which he held from July 1992 until August 1994.[3] He was also recognized as one of a handful of pastors helping the Foursquare church experience large growth in the 1970s.[4]
- ^ Herzog, Boaz. Pastor leaves mark well beyond growth, love of his church, The Oregonian, June 1, 2003
- ^ O'Keefe, Mark. Pastor offers lesson in living with leukemia, The Oregonian, March 15, 1999.
- ^ About Life Pacific College
- ^ Foursquare History: 1944 – present Archived July 31, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, History of the Foursquare Church, excerpted in part from The Vine and the Branches: A History of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, by Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, 1992.