The Rev. Larry Young “Have Bible, Will Preach”
Pastor in the Peaks By Sherrie Norris
T
he Rev. Larry Young, longtime pastor of Brookside behave so much better than anyone else.” Presbyterian Church in Boone, is a soft-spoken, digThe principal, Mr. Lacey, smiled down at him and said, nified gentleman of the cloth, and he leaves no one “Anytime you want to begin!” doubting his stance in life. He’s known as the “Pastor in the “I went out the bathroom window and went home,” Peaks” and his business card conveys a simple, yet profound, Young said. “He, (Mr. Lacey), was kind. He never told my message: “Have Bible will Preach.” parents. Those were the days when, if you were punished at His mission, taken from the scripture found in Acts 20:24 school, you were punished more severely at home if your is “to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God.” His objective, parents found out.” from Colossians 1:28 — “… When he finished high so that we may present evschool in Connecticut, eryone perfect in Christ.” Young went off to Buffalo Both passages have sigBible Institute in Buffalo, nificance to Young, who has New York. “Since I still spent his adult life sharing wasn’t far enough away, the word of God with conmy folks and three brothers gregations across the east moved out toward the end of coast and beyond. Cape Cod, Mass., where my Young came to Boone father pastored a church,” in 1993, and despite beYoung recalled. “Any farther ing recruited to lead other away and they would have congregations elsewhere, been in the ocean!” he became firmly planted in When he transferred the High Country of North from Buffalo to Columbia Carolina, a place he had Bible College in Columbia, loved for many years prior. SC, his family moved to VirBorn in Pennsylvania, ginia Beach, Va., where his Young grew up in New Engfather pastored a church — land and received his public “Because I told them how education in Rhode Island great the South was.” His and Connecticut. three brothers stayed in VirWhile describing himself ginia; his parents are now as a “PK – Preacher’s Kid,” deceased. he is very clear that, just because his father was a minPreparing for ister, he was not given an God’s Service inside track to God. “I had The Rev. Larry Young during a recent service at to come to trust Jesus Christ As a junior at Columbia Brookside Presbyterian Church personally as my Lord and College, now CIU, Young Savior, just like anyone else,” he said. experienced a period of doubt regarding his salvation. “Here His mother was a piano teacher, possibly laying the foun- I was, preparing to serve God – and having doubts. One dation for his eventual love for music. night, I knelt by my bunk and prayed, telling God that if He recalls, while in the seventh or eighth grade, telling I had never trusted Christ the way I’m supposed to, or had the school principal (when he had to stay after school one enough faith, or whatever, that night I wanted to make it time,) “I don’t get it. Just because my father happens to be certain.” the minister in this town, everyone thinks I’m supposed to Shortly afterward, Young came across II Timothy 2:19 in 58
FAITH MAGAZINE - Spring 2020
