Meet Our New Student, Ron Malone

Hi, I am Ron Malone. I was born in San Francisco, but most of my life has been spent in Oakland, CA. I have been married for 50 years, having just celebrated my 50th anniversary this past June. I have three children who are adults with children of their own. I had 11 grandchildren but lost one in 2022. I now have 10. I moved the family to Phoenix, AZ where we spent five years. We were members of North Phoenix Baptist Church, an extremely beautiful church with a congregation of over 6,000 members. There, my wife and I were asked and delighted to teach the young married adults Bible Study.

We came back to Oakland at the request of my mother who wanted her mother, and my grandmother, to be able to spend time with the great-grandchildren before her demise. Now I am the patriarch of my family for both my mother and my father.

My background includes teaching in the Oakland Unified School District as well as the Hayward Unified School District along with short stints of substituting in other school districts. I am currently the Pastor of First Christian Church of Alameda where several of my family group are members. My mentor, Lynn Hildeman, my former English teacher and only father figure, first brought me there when I was approximately 11 or 12 years old.

A few years after my return from Phoenix, Lynn invited me to attend services there, and I never left. All the while, I was being encouraged by Rev. Dr. Fred Williams, who was then Pastor and his Associate Pastor, Rev. Dr. Gloria Wilson. Dr. Wilson was at one time my spiritual mentor. It would seem that everywhere I went, be it a church of 6,000 or six members, all seemed to recognize what I would not acknowledge. Dr. Williams had been speaking to me for years about my formal training while training me in subtle ways. I taught adult Bible Study. When the children’s Bible Study teacher left, I was asked to take over. Some of those students are now college graduates. Additionally, for several years, in months that had five Sundays, I would deliver the message.

Both Dr. Williams and Dr. Wilson and my current mentor, Rev. Dr. LaTaunya Bynum, highly recommend PSR, and I have come to grips with what I have known in my heart: that God had this purpose for me. All of this has benefited me in my passion, which is teaching. I am the beneficiary of a one-of-a-kind experiment that taught children (I was 13 or 14 years old) how to teach. I was called a Peer Teacher and received payment for the services. The programs were sponsored by the government, and the scope is too lengthy to go into detail here, but the idea was picked up by the local news stations.

But as much as I love teaching, I love reading and learning God’s Word above all else. An M.Div. is only the beginning of what I hope to accomplish academically. As for where I go and what I do in the ministry, we’ll let God decide. He knows my heart and I trust Him.