Pastor Traci Hardell

Hello! My name is Traci Hardell and I am the Pastor at Mountain of Faith Lutheran Church. I am a long-time believer and a short-time pastor. In fact, I am still in seminary, but God brought my husband and I to Mountain of Faith. Let me tell you a bit about it.

In the summer of 2022, I came to visit Mountain of Faith to hear Pastor Rick preach. My home church, where we had been for 30 years, was part of Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ (LCMC) as was Mountain of Faith. As I had recently started seminary, my plan was to visit churches in that organization to hear different preaching styles. I really enjoyed the service and felt strangely at home there and very relaxed among the congregation. I was thinking, at some point in my seminary journey it might be nice to do my internship there.

After a bit, I wanted to learn more about the congregation. My husband and I were going to have dinner with Pastor Rick and his wife Bonnie. Unfortunately, we had to postpone as Rick’s mom became quite ill and they needed to travel to California to be at her side. During their car ride out west, I had a heartfelt conversation with them and Rick encouraged me to consider doing some preaching at the church. After talking to Rick and the Congregation President, Steve, and praying, I knew I had to try and help out the congregation any way that I could. I prayed many more times and finally was able to put some sermons together for a few services. Again I was overcome with how at home I felt with the congregation and the peace I felt within the church walls.

Rick then reached the point where retirement was calling and he had agreed to preach at the church until his replacement was found. I was asked to continue to fill in preaching along with Rick and another congregation member, Mark. As time went on, the Lord made it clear that he wanted me to play some role with this congregation moving forward.

As the Church Council and I were trying to see how we may wanted to work together in proclaiming God’s Word, the Lord brushed away every obstacle. You could just see Him clearing the path! In the end we decided that I would serve as the Part-Time Pastor while moving to a part-time nursing position and also completing my year-long Internship for Seminary. Life is busy but so many wonderful things are happening already!

As far as background, my husband Clark and I have been married for 31 years. I am originally from Pennsylvania and he is from Wisconsin. We met while living in Utah for what we thought were short stays and now have made our permanent home here. I am also a nurse having worked in many areas  at the bedside, in administration, and in teaching. Clark sells insurance for AFLAC. We have one son Jason who is a Video Director and who also lives in Utah. We feel very blessed to be together in one state.

I hope that tells you a bit about me. We have a wonderful congregation that faithfully serves the Lord. I hope that you are able to visit us soon.