Thank You, Larry

Every church wants to claim their pastor or teacher as “the best” Bible teacher or “the only one really teaching the Bible around here.” 

I have thoughts on how such claims are problematic. I think such claims are unfair to make without fairly, seriously considering the teachings of the people we are comparing. Also, the way “best” is defined often varies by person and is largely dependent on their experiences with church traditions, denominations, and doctrines. In other cases, such determinations are, at their core, about stylistic preference or receptivity to certain communication styles more than others.

In short, I have a problem with such claims because there is more than one way to teach and learn the Bible and still do so faithfully! Some may be better than others (I may offer my own thoughts in a future post), but best, is subjective…at best (see what I did there?).

That said, what I don’t have a problem with, at all, is the aspiration to be the best possible Bible teacher one can be.

That aspiration is one I have long seen in Pastor Larry Sarver.

Pastor Larry is currently the Senior Teaching Pastor of Calvary Chapel Palm City, serving with Lead Pastor Josh Luecht. Before this arrangement, Pastor Larry served as Lead Pastor for 28 years and as an associate pastor for 6 years, starting in 1992.

I joke about the year 1992 being way back because that’s the year I was born. Even though I am still “young,” I am increasingly aware of my age these days, and my early childhood intersects with Pastor Larry more than most might realize. In Larry’s early days at Calvary Chapel Palm City (then called New Life in Christ), the church had a preschool for young families that was open on certain days of the week. For a brief period, my mom worked there, and I am pretty sure I spent some time there as a little one.

Though my mom eventually moved on from that job and our family attended church elsewhere, our connection to the church (and, indirectly, the Sarvers) remained. For many years, we attended Christmas Eve candlelight services at Calvary Palm City because the church was right down the street from my aunt’s house, where we held our family holiday gatherings.

I have some fun memories from those years, including how Pastor Larry’s wife, Amy, and their daughters changed the transparency slides with the song lyrics for the overhead projectors (Google it, kids!). I also distinctly remember something small, but meaningful: Pastor Larry was always at the front door before and after service, shaking hands, saying hello and “Merry Christmas” to everyone from regular congregants to Christmas-only visitors (like the Garrigan’s!) to newcomers. He also always took pictures with his family before they left. Over the years, many of those pictures have made it into frames that now litter his desk and line the walls of his office.

Years later, my parents would attend Calvary Chapel Palm City while my brother and I were on the staff of Grace Family. While it’s not my story to tell, my parents would willingly volunteer that those years were particularly hard for their marriage, but Pastor Larry regularly helped them through both his teaching and his pastoral care. To this day, they both credit Larry and his ministry with helping them survive those years.

A few years ago, my parents retired and moved to the Mountains of Georgia, leaving Calvary Palm City behind. But shortly thereafter, my wife and I took their place! This was an unplanned turn of events. I had left my staff position at Grace Family about a year prior, and Chantelle and I were attending her small church in Port St. Lucie. After that church unexpectedly and abruptly closed, Chantelle and I found ourselves at different churches each week, looking for a new place to settle.

One thing you may or may not know about Chantelle and me is that we have high expectations for church leadership. We both consider things like style, music, church size, budget management, and children’s discipleship important, but we also recognize they can be subjective and held more loosely. But what we will not settle for is leadership without accountability, integrity, and humility.  

We visited Calvary Palm City, and we decided to stay shortly thereafter, largely because of what we saw in Larry. To be sure, the church had grown and changed from what I remembered as a child, and so had Larry. But, all those years later, Larry the same in all the right ways. He was still teaching faithfully, sure, but he was also still standing at the door shaking hands. He made it a point to seek out newcomers who were in the auditorium before services started – newcomers like Chantelle and I – and make sure we knew we were seen and welcomed.  

As we spent more time at Calvary, we connected with Larry personally on occasion. One time, he came to visit us in our apartment to talk with us about joining the church and answer our questions. During that visit, we shared that we planned to church plant locally in the future and asked if that would be a problem (sadly, such aspirations are often seen as unnecessary at best, or a threat at worst, to established leaders and ministries). He communicated that we would have both his personal blessing and the general support of the church organization when that time came.

All of that happened before I joined the church staff in May 2023. It was mutually beneficial for me to join the team, and I had the privilege of serving as an associate pastor for missions and discipleship through December 2025. Sadly, the latter half of my time there was spent navigating the medical crisis of our son, Benji, and much of what I personally hoped to contribute to the church didn’t happen as I desired. Yet, during that time, the church supported us in ways we will never be able to fully articulate. We were blessed by the financial contributions of many folks, and by the board's decision to continue paying my ministry stipend despite my increased absences and fluctuating engagement. Ultimately, that was a season when Chantelle and I both had to learn to receive without giving of ourselves to ministry as we were so accustomed to.

Through all of that, Pastor Larry made a point to remind me regularly that the church could wait. Whenever I did make it to the office, his first ask was always how things were going, how Benji’s health was, what he or the church could be doing to support us. To him, having those personal conversations was primary, and whatever ministry items needed to be addressed were secondary. That was a significant blessing and encouragement to me then and remains so today.

To circle back to my opening comments, make no mistake, Larry loves the Word and loves teaching. He happens to be proficient in both, in ways that are not subjective, but in line with the standards of Scripture. Those things are important in a pastor. But Larry has never said he is “the best,” or ever even hinted that he thinks of himself as such (even if some have made that claim for him). If anything, during my time on staff, Larry regularly emphasized that he wanted to “get it right,” and not settle for simply reusing old material (even though he’s studied and taught every book of the Bible, save one or two, in his 30 years, often more than once). In my experience, he always approached the Word as a student before a teacher.

If I were to summarize all of the above in one description, I would say what I appreciate most about Larry is his humility. He loves Jesus, loves his family, and pursues people. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, sell himself, or overstate what he’s doing or what is happening in his ministry. Simply, he is dedicated to being both the best Bible teacher and the best person he can be. He is both capable and full of character. That is what makes him a good pastor.

So, Pastor Larry, if you’re reading – thank you. Thank you for your faithfulness and humility in caring for people over the last 34-plus years. You are a blessing to many, and I am grateful for you.