Larry Lea
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Larry Lea (1951-) was a former pastor and televangelist.
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[edit] Background
As a teenager, Lea was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was hospitalized at the age of 17 following a suicide attempt. It was there where he was converted to Christianity.
Shortly after his release, he attended Dallas Baptist University, where he would meet his first wife, Melva. They married in 1972, and Lea became the father of three children. He became the youth pastor of Beverly Hills Baptist Church in Dallas, where the youth department shot up from 40 to 1,000.
[edit] Sudden Rise, Sudden Fall
Following a stint as an itinerant preacher in the late 1970's, Lea started Church on the Rock in 1980 with 12 people in Rockwall, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Within 5 years, the church had shot up to over 5,000.
In 1986, Lea began to travel again, holding what he called "Prayer Clinics" and later, "Prayer Rallies" or "Prayer Breakthroughs". Also, that year marked the beginning of Lea's television program, called "Change Your Life". Also, that year, Lea released his first book, the best-seller "Could You Not Tarry One Hour?", which was his teaching on The Lord's Prayer. He also began a partnership group where his partners were referred to as "Prayer Warriors". By 1991, 370,000 people had joined as partners.
In June 1990, Lea stepped aside as pastor to oversee Church on the Rock International, which was a group of churches that was called a "virtual denomination" according to Christianity Today. (The remnants of this organization are under a separate group led by former Lea protege Dr. Lawrence Kennedy). This would, presumably, give Lea more time to travel.
[edit] Controversies
A controversy developed later that year, when Lea and several ministers met at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Lea's ministry was heavily criticized by an assortment of gay-rights activists, pro-choice activists, and Wiccans led by Eric Pryor. On Halloween (the first night of the crusade), there was a massive protest leading to many who came to the Civic Auditorium having to come through a very hostile crowd outside. According to Lea's sources, Pryor later converted.
A year later, ABC's PrimeTime Live aired an expose involving Lea and fellow Dallas-area televangelists W.V. Grant and Robert Tilton. The incident involving Lea came as a result of his somewhat aggressive fund-raising appeals, questions as to how much money was going to mentioned projects, and accusations that Lea implied a fire at one of his homes left his family almost destitute--while they still had the home in the Dallas area. Lea's youngest daughter narrowly escaped the subsequent gas explosion.
[edit] Aftermath
Lea's organization had grown so quickly, he made the decision to allow the National Assoication of Evangelicals financial integrity arm, EFICOM, to audit his ministry to look into the charges. Their findings revealed that Lea had actually exceeded his original claims of what had been stated and presumed to be false by the ABC expose. Lea's 'second home' was in fact under contract to be sold by a local Dallas real estate brokerage at the time of the ABC interview. Nevertheless, his credibility and prominence in the charismatic community evaporated (though not as quickly as Tilton's), as he traveled with Morris Cerullo at the latter's crusades in the mid-1990's. Lea also said that he suffered a relapse of bipolar disorder.
In 1994, he took a position as a pastor in San Diego. This lasted until 1997.
After 27 years of marriage, Larry & Melva Lea divorced in 1999. Lea has since remarried and now lives in Southern California.
[edit] References
1. [1] Charisma magazine article looking back on that scandal (from 2002).
