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Rev. Larry Beckler
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Contact Information 1605 E. Elizabeth Street |
BACKGROUND AND CALL
Larry was raised in small-town Nebraska and is from Mennonite background. His mission’s interest was stirred at his boyhood church by missionary speakers and their numerous Kodak slides, and sealed at Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana where he was constantly challenged to full-time Kingdom work. After graduating, he served two years in Brazil with the Mennonite Church teaching missionary children in a Presbyterian School.
SERVICE
After a stint with the family business (farm machinery), Larry enrolled at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Over an eight-year period, he received an M.A. in Counseling and his Master of Divinity degree while active in a local Presbyterian church, working with the inner-city poor and in community evangelism. His time in seminary also included a year in Australia helping to plant Presbyterian congregations. In the 1980’s, Larry became a diaconate worker and then full-time elder of the International Presbyterian Church in Ealing, a suburb of London, England, serving the congregation for eleven years. The church was located in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic neighborhood, the mission field just off the church door step. In 1996, Larry and his wife, Teri, moved to California and joined the Presbyterian Center for Mission Studies which is on the campus of the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena. In 2005, the Beckler's joined Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and now seek to mobilize California Presbyterians to be involved in frontier mission.
MINISTRY FOCUS
Larry is interested in seeing lay people (particularly second career and retired people) follow their missionary calling, challenging them to become involved in short and long-term mission. He also takes great pleasure in working with the smaller churches, helping them to find their role in the mission enterprise. He is part of the Kurdish Partnership and he is PFF liaison for the Kurds and the Persian World.
HOW LARRY CAN HELP YOUR CHURCH
- The Book of Acts and Your Congregation
- Prayer: The Key to Frontier Mission
- The Bible as a Missionary Book
- Retired and Refired for Missions
- Perspectives Course Speaker (History Section)
“Now That I’m on the Missions Committee"