Larry has served as a licensed minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) for nearly 30 years, having begun pastoral ministry as a senior pastor in 1989 in a small country church in Pink, Oklahoma. In 1990, Larry and his wife, Melissa, moved to Centerville, Louisiana, to serve a C&MA-affiliated congregation called Calvary Bible Church (CBC). Larry was ordained by the C&MA while pastoring the Centerville church, where he served for ten years. As pastor of CBC, Larry became active in the St. Mary Parish Ministerial Association, serving a good number of those years as its President. During the Louisiana years, the Longs were blessed with two daughters who continue to bring the couple much joy. In December of 2000, the Longs moved to assume the pastoral leadership of Fellowship Community Church (C&MA) in Midland, Texas. While serving as pastor, Larry was used of God to bring many to faith in Christ, build the body of Christ in number, facilities, and spiritual maturity, and disciple many in what it means to think and live like a Christian. With a heart for the city, Larry served as both the Vice President and President of the Midland Ministerial Alliance on several different occasions, giving leadership to many worthwhile cooperative ministry endeavors. These included: (1) Serving on a committee to help sponsor the nation's 2001 International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) event; (2) Recruiting 35 Midland churches to each give $1,000 to raise $35,000 to purchase and open a rescue center for abused and exploited women and children in Chiang Mai, Thailand; (3) Organizing area pastors to speak against the abortion industry of the Permian Basin; (4) Writing "The Midland Declaration" to define how Christians would treat our Muslim neighbors, and how we expected them to behave as fellow citizens; (5) Developing a "Unity March" of more than 1,000 area Christians to march against religious persecution around the world; and (6) Creating an interchurch, yearly Marriage Enrichment Seminar called "Love Rekindled" in the Permian Basin. For the past six years, Larry has also enjoyed ministering to the Mission Center Adult Day Services center, where he brings a weekly message and serves communion. For four-and-a-half years, Larry produced a live radio show on a local talk radio station (KWEL Radio, AM 1070, FM 107.1) called "The Intersection." The show aired for one hour each Sunday afternoon. It gave Larry a community-wide platform to present a half-hour monolog followed by a second half-hour of live, call-in conversations that focused on how the Christian faith intersected "with life and culture and politics and whatever else might interest you." Expanding the reach of his voice in this manner was a busy but worthwhile task, even as Larry conducted his regular church ministries. Larry is looking forward to expanding his reach even further through the publication of this book, with several more possibly to follow. After working for several years to lead FCC through a smooth pastoral transition, Larry's ministry with the church ended in September of 2019, at which time he began looking for God's next assignment. Larry was born and raised in the western town of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Being called to ministry between his ninth and tenth grade years while attending a 1976 C&MA LIFE Youth Conference in Saint Louis, Missouri. Toward this end, Larry earned a BA degree from Crown College (1983) in Minnesota and a M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky (1987). Larry and Melissa met while in college in Minnesota. They lived for a few years in Oklahoma, where Larry began his ministry. They then moved to the humid land of Cajun Country, followed by the arid lands of the West Texas desert. So what's next for the Longs? They don't know. But God has never failed them. So they look with excitement toward what God has in store for them next. Reminiscing the past, enjoying the present, let us always live with anticipation for "the next."
