Matthew has been married to Jennifer Leigh (formerly Pickard) for 30 years. The Harding’s have two grown children (Sarai, married to Michael Smith) and (Jon, married to Danielle). Both the Harding kids and their spouses are serving in full time ministry in Texas and have made Matthew and Jennifer proud grandparents (Sutton and Lydia). The Harding’s served in College/University ministry for 20 years before moving to Texas in 2010. Matthew and Jennifer love to travel, enjoy movies and golf, and all things mountains. Matthew is from the mountains of East Tennessee and is always blessed to get to leave the beautiful people of Texas to have his soul restored in the mountains.
In 2014, when Matthew was serving on church staff in Flower Mound, he and Jennifer were asked to pray about starting a new church in the DFW area. The Lord led the Harding’s to plant the WELL Community Church, Argyle in Summer 2015 with 10 families. In these last 10 years, God has mightily blessed and grown this local church with a missional heart to reach the lost, equip the church, and send out the saints to the nations! Matthew is passionate about helping men and women know and study deeper God’s Word as they grow in discipleship to faithfully follow Jesus.
Throughout Matthew’s ministry, he has also been very involved in academics, teaching in several seminaries. Matthew holds an earned research doctorate (PhD) in Historical Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary-Fort Worth, TX; a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) from New Orleans Seminary; a Masters of Divinity degree (M.Div) from Southeastern Seminary; a Masters of Education degree (M.Ed). from the University of Arkansas; along with PhD studies in Systematic Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. Matthew holds a B.A. in Linguistics from his Alma Mater, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Passionate about Biblical Counseling and serving this community, Matthew also holds a Certificate of Biblical Counseling from Southwestern and is currently the Police Chaplain for Northlake and Argyle Police.
If you would like to register for the WELL INSTITUTE (for anyone) where Dr. Harding teaches a free academic course each semester at the WELL and accredited by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
