LARRY FOWLER

About Larry
Larry Fowler serves as executive director of global training for Awana, an international organization committed to helping churches and parents raise children and youth to know, love and serve Jesus Christ. For nearly 30 years, Larry has pursued this mission in a range of capacities, including local-church Awana volunteer, missionary, speaker, author, teacher and executive director of international ministries, program development and training.

Larry’s story
Since age 13, when he first sensed God’s calling on his life, Larry has exhibited passion and commitment to children’s and youth ministry. After graduating with a master’s degree in Christian education from Talbot Theological Seminary, Larry served as youth pastor at a church in Southern California.

Larry was introduced to Awana as part of a student project he completed at seminary. He was instantly drawn to the ministry’s commitment to evangelism and discipleship through Bible memory, a discipline his parents had instilled in him as a child. Shortly after his appointment as youth pastor, Larry started Awana in that church.

As he witnessed Awana bringing kids to Christ and growing his church, Larry’s involvement with Awana grew. Awana sees our own country as a mission field. Larry became a full-time Awana missionary in 1979, serving churches and starting Awana programs in the Los Angeles area until 1996.

During that time, he also played a pivotal role in launching Awana in Russia after the collapse of communism. Today, Awana programs operate in nearly 100 churches and orphanages throughout the former Soviet Union.

This experience ignited Larry’s desire for international ministry. It also fueled his passion for training and equipping leaders to work with children. Leaving California to join Awana headquarters in 1996, Larry used his extensive experience in the field to begin training other missionaries, both in the U.S. and internationally. Having trained children’s workers in 45 countries, Larry is a key influencer of children’s ministries around the world.

Larry is an author of two books – Raising a Modern-Day Joseph and Rock-Solid Kids – and a speaker to audiences worldwide both inside and outside of Awana. He is also a recognized expert in issues facing families and churches in the 21st century.

A voice on the crisis facing today’s families
Larry is a leading voice sounding the alarm about a rising epidemic among our youth. Research shows that, despite being raised in Christian homes, attending church regularly and participating in youth group, the majority of U.S. teens leave the church after high school.

“The spiritual goals we have for our youth are failing,” Larry says. "Parents need to stop delegating the spiritual training of their children and take a more active role. Churches and families need a clear target, a plan of action and a collaborative strategy to grow spiritually strong kids."

Larry’s new book, Raising a Modern-Day Joseph (David C. Cook, 2008), addresses these very issues. Based on Joseph of the Old Testament, it offers a biblical plan for developing children and youth into faithful, Christ-following adults.

“The life of Joseph provides a target and example,” Larry says. “He embodies what we strive to produce. He maintained his faith in spite of challenging circumstances. His model helps parents better understand what they can do on a daily basis to produce a foundation of faith in their children.”

Raising a Modern-Day Joseph follows Larry’s first book, Rock-Solid Kids (Gospel Light), which focuses on the need for churches and parents to build a healthy children’s ministry modeled on biblical teaching.

An advocate for the family
Larry knows first hand the defining impact parents can make on their children’s spiritual lives. Living on a cattle ranch in the rural West, Larry’s parents embraced the responsibility of leading their kids’ spiritual development. They consistently taught Scripture to their children and helped them memorize, learn and apply it to life. They also modeled Christ for their kids. In fact, Larry’s mother still teaches two Bible studies at age 91.

“My parents were by far the greatest influence on my walk with Christ,” Larry says.

The legacy of Larry’s parents continues today. “Everyone in my extended family is a Christian,” Larry says. “It all started with my parents and their commitment to raising their children to know, love and serve Christ.”

An authority on youth and children’s ministry
Churches are struggling to address the crisis of teens abandoning their faith after high school. In Raising a Modern-Day Joseph and in presentations to audiences across the country, Larry shares biblical principles that enable churches to stem this epidemic:

• getting the church’s youth and children’s ministries to work together
• building an integrated plan of spiritual development across the entire span of childhood
• selecting a spiritual target for the church’s youth and children’s ministries to commonly pursue
• encouraging and supporting parents as children’s spiritual leaders instead of the church filling that role.

A speaker for parents and churches
Larry has served as a keynote speaker and workshop teacher at churches and conferences around the world. Larry addresses a variety of topics, primarily:

• how churches and parents can—and need—to work together to raise spiritual champions
• the important role youth and children’s ministry play in the life of a church
• how parents can build a lasting foundation of faith in their children.

He has also been featured on radio, including Moody’s “Prime Time America.”

Larry and his wife, Diane, have two grown children and three grandchildren. The Fowlers reside in suburban Chicago.

How to contact Larry
To schedule an interview, contact David Bunker at 630.540.4695 or e-mail mediarelations@awana.org.