He has never thought about turning off the lights, locking the doors and hanging up his career hat at retirement, because for Larry D. Wright, the ministry is not just a career. It’s a calling.
Though Wright announced his retirement Feb. 1 from a combined 34 years of pastoral service, he has grand plans for his future and the people he might affect along the way.
Wright will pull from his experience at two Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association churches — 16 years at Valley Grove Baptist Church, Tuscumbia, and the last 18 years at First Baptist Church, Florence — to transition smoothly into position as president of T.I.M.E. (Training In Mission Evangelism) Ministries.
Founded in 1996 by Dick Thomassian, former minister of missions at Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville, in Madison Baptist Association, T.I.M.E. trains and equips teams to go out and do missions.
“I’m a nobody who can introduce Somebody who can change anybody,” Wright said. “We will go to all parts of the world where we are allowed. The whole world deserves to hear the message of Christ.”
Gathering pastors by the hundreds, Wright will host mentoring meetings using the biblical Pauline missionary strategy — that Jesus must be made known to all nations.
In fact, a team of pastors in Guatemala waits for Wright even now. In a few weeks, he’s scheduled to train pastors there to go into the missions field. Later this year in Botswana, he will train pastors and church workers who are leading the churches planted as a result of a trip two years ago.
“T.I.M.E. is a continual evangelical presence,” Wright said. “We go back to the same countries and work with the same churches planted some time before, and because of this, several thousand come to know the Lord.”
In addition to missions work, he has another ongoing ministry passion. Inspired to encourage, Wright helps out with Designated U-40, a group that focuses on pastors younger than 40 and provides them with online resources. This is how Wright’s Leaders Building Leaders Web site (leadersbuildingleaders.com) came into existence, to share his feelings and theology of missions.
“I’d like to help reduce the casualty rate in ministry,” he said.
Back at First, Florence, people say they will miss Wright’s innate and God-given leadership.
“He’s a gifted preacher,” said Minister of Music David Henderson. “The congregation will miss his dedication to watching the church grow. Due to his leadership, the church transformed from mainly senior adults to what is now a congregation of all ages.”
Though sad to leave his job at the church, Wright does find unique leverage in his new position. “As a pastor, I was a general practitioner. Being with T.I.M.E., I will be more like a specialist who can focus on missions training and evangelism.”
But it’s not the position or title that drives Wright to keep working past retirement — it’s what he knows in his heart.
“In all the changing that is constantly going on around us, we are still followers of Jesus Christ and are to fulfill the Great Commission,” he said. “The command is always the same.”
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