Rev. Robert Harting was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Pastor Harting attended college at Concordia Lutheran Colege in Ann Arbor. After graduating from college he married Dawn Ivey.  They moved to Indiana where he attended Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Pastor Harting vicared at Warsaw, which is about forty miles from Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

After graduating from seminary Pastor Harting received his first Divine Call  to teach religion and coach at Mayer Lutheran High School in Minnesota. He has since served also at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Britton, Michigan and Zion Lutheran Church in Tawas City, Michigan. 

Over these years the Harting family was blessed with five children. One son is now with the Lord Jesus in glory.

Concerns over the lack of orthodoxy in the Lutheran Church-Missiouri Synod prompted Pastor Harting to colloquize into the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) in the year 2000. 

In February of 2000, Pastor Harting received a Divine Call to Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church at Indianola, Iowa, and was installed on May 7, 2000. Pastor Harting was officially received into the ELS clergy and Good Shepherd became an official mission church of the ELS at the 2000 convention.