Pastor Ché Ahn Spends Time in Redding, Garnering Support for his California Gubernatorial Campaign
- Elisa Ballard
- Nov 16, 2025
- 5 min read
Shasta County Republican Assembly Hosted a "Meet and Greet" for Pastor Ché Ahn on Saturday November 15th
With a crowded field of Republican candidates running for Governor of California, citizens of Redding were invited to meet one of them, Pastor Ché Ahn (pronounced Shay Awn), on Saturday at the Donaldson Fine Art Center in downtown Redding. Deidre Holliday, of the Shasta County Republican Assembly, organized the event which was well attended with some of Shasta County’s elected representatives in the audience, including Board of Supervisors’ Chair Kevin Crye, Supervisor Matt Plummer, Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, and Redding City Council Member Tenessa Audette.
Pastor Ché Ahn took a little time first to explain how over the years, his pastors had passed away, and at one point, having known Pastor Bill Johnson of Bethel in Redding through various leadership events that they had attended and became friends through, he asked Johnson in 2016 to become his pastor. So he and Pastor Bill Johnson have been very close friends for many years. Then Pastor Ché explained that his father escaped Korea and came to America in 1958 and was the first Korean Southern Baptist Minister. Due to problems with obtaining Visas, he and the rest of his family arrived in 1960, shortly before he turned 5 years old. He spoke about remembering when he first entered school, the children were taught to pray before lunch, but by 1961, prayer was taken out of the schools due to the Supreme Court’s decision in Engel v.Vitale in 1962.
Pastor Ché grew up as a rebellious teenager, describing himself as a “Korean hippy” and his family didn’t know what to do with him, but they prayed for him as it is written in the Bible in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your family [also translated as household].”
Pastor Ché has served as a Pastor for 46 years, founding Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, CA, in 1994. He launched Harvest International Ministry (HIM) in 1996 to train and raise up others to spread the Word of God, linking now approximately 25,000 churches worldwide. He sees revival and reformation in California’s future as prophesied to him by others. Pastor Ché quoted Matthew 28:19 that contains the verse that has come to be known as the “Great Commission”. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Pastor Ché spoke of the success of HIM in Indonesia which is the largest Muslim nation. He said that now, 35% of the people there are born again Christians. HIM is now in 73 nations all by the grace of God. Pastor Ché sees his organization as fulfilling Jesus’ directive in “The Great Commission”. He believes in the power of prayer and has seen amazing transformation taking place through prayer groups, for example, seeing the crime rate being reduced in Pasadena after prayer teams began praying to God to reduce the high crime rate there.
On the night of April 28, 2025, Pastor Ché describes how he woke up at 2 a.m., which he said happens to him every four or five months, and couldn’t go back to sleep so he sat in his prayer chair, as he usually does when this occurs, and began to pray. He said he felt the presence of God come upon him and he knew that God wanted him to run for governor. He didn’t want to do such a daunting thing, so he asked God for a sign. He had met President Trump twice at Mir-a-Lago and had prayed there for him with others. So, as a sign, he asked the Lord to send him the sign of an invitation to the White House. He went to a prayer meeting that morning at 5:30 a.m. When he came home and opened up his laptop, there was an email from the White House inviting him to a prayer meeting in the Rose Garden. Pastor Ché then said “Ok, Lord, I’m in.”
After consulting with others, he began assembling a campaign team and decided on his campaign slogan which is Proverbs 14:34, Righteousness exalts a nation. Pastor Ché said that the problem we have in Sacramento is a spiritual problem, not a political problem. There are very smart people in Sacramento, but they have a spiritual problem. On his first day in office as Governor, Pastor Ché would call for a statewide day of prayer and fasting for the believers. Pastor Ché stated that in California, we have 12 million Evangelical Christians but only 6 million of them are registered to vote.
Pastor Che’s ideas for California include:
Improve the affordability of homes in California by reducing the influence of CEQA (The California Environmental Quality Act) which severely limits new developments and leads to costly requirements and delays. His goal is to facilitate the building of 500,000 homes annually to meet the demand by quickly creating the infrastructure that is needed.
Fund and empower faith-based nonprofit organizations who have a proven record of success, to provide treatment and rehabilitation programs for people suffering from addictions.
Ban the transgender agenda in schools. Allow parents to be notified if their child is having issues with their gender or wanting to transition.
Go back to using various sources of energy, including nuclear energy.
Reduce the cost of gasoline, by allowing drilling again for oil. He said California has enough gas for the entire state in just one county, Kern County.
Incarcerate homeless individuals who refuse treatment for their drug addictions or mental health issues.
He will perform DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) type audits in every California government department.
He believes in voter ID, proof of citizenship to register to vote, one-day voting at the polls, (except in the case of those who are elderly or infirm and can’t make it to the polls.) and making voting day a holiday
He wants to overhaul the education system and get rid of the teachers’ union. He believes in school choice.
During the COVID-19 lock-downs, Pastor Ché kept his church in Pasadena open and was threatened by the prosecutor there with prison time and fines; however, Pastor Ché courageously decided to sue the State. The case was finally settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in December of 2020, who decided that the state’s orders prohibiting indoor services appeared to violate the Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion. (Los Angeles Times; FoxLA.com)
If you would like to learn more about Pastor Ché Ahn, go to www.Che4ca.com.
