Christian father paved way for Larry McEwen’s 47-years in the ministry
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Northshore Church Pastor Larry McEwen has spent 47 years in the ministry and has many stories that confirm the faithfulness of God through his life.
But none of that would have happened if McEwen hadn’t taken his first step of faith at the age of 15, something that happened because his mother and father made the seemingly simple effort to always attend church on Sunday.
McEwen spent most of his life growing up in several Mississippi cities and was always told to join his parents and sister for church on Sunday. But at the age of 15 he admitted that his teenager nature got the best of him when he tried to stand up against his dad.
“Dad told me to get ready for church and I told him, ‘Dad, I’ve decided this God thing is not for me.’
My father got a sad look on his face and said, ‘well son, one thing I can’t make you do is love the Lord.’ And they left for church without me,” McEwen recalled.
Even though he was rebelling against his parents at that time in his life, McEwen clearly had a level of respect for his dad, “I felt bad about things, so I walked to church, which was a little more than a mile away.” McEwen said there was a revival going on and a passionate preacher was teaching on “the Brutality of the Cross.”
“It was a powerful message and after he painted a vivid picture of Jesus dying for us on the cross to forgive our sins, I remember thinking I’d be a fool to walk away from that,” McEwen added. “I had done a lot of bad things in my life, but when he recited the Scripture of Jesus saying, ‘forgive them Father, for they know not what they do,” I knew it was for me, and that Jesus would forgive me,” he said.
McEwen’s life was never the same.
He began to seek God, reading his Bible and within a year started working in bus ministry at the church, and then was licensed to preach before he finished high school.
“It was funny because the kids at school knew I was different. I went from smoking behind one of the buildings to being elected president of the Youth for Christ club at my high school,” he said with a laugh. Along with preaching, McEwen discovered a talent for songwriting, singing and playing several instruments, beginning to perform with a Christian rock band.
He finished high school in 1977, then earned a degree from Mississippi College in Bible and English, before going on to earn a Master’s Degree in Divinity from New Orleans Seminary in 1986, and then a Doctor of Ministry Degree in 2003.
He cut his first album in 1985, and had an interesting trivia note in that Little Ricky from the Lucy Ball show was his drummer on the album. Since then, he has put out two more albums and offers his music for free online at larrymcewen.com.
When doing music full time, McEwen was performing regularly even though married with two kids.
“I was barely surviving through my music,” he said. But then he got a call from a small church in Nashville, asking him to pastor it.
“I was focusing on my music as a way to preach and minister to others,” he said. “When I got the call about pastoring a church I told the guy, ‘I think you are mixing me up with someone. I do Christian rock music and I have a ponytail.’”
But he got selected from four candidates to pastor Riverside Baptist Church, where he stayed for seven years, before accepting the third invitation to be an associate pastor of counseling at a large church, First Baptist Pleasant Grove, in Birmingham, AL, which had over 3,000 in the congregation.
The next big call came in 2001 when he was asked by the Northshore Baptist Association to plant a church in Slidell, LA.
“We started the church in my living room by inviting people in the Pinehurst subdivision to come to our house for Bible study,” he said. Still without the name, it would prove to be the start to Northshore Church, which showed fast growth that led to meeting first at the Old Town Soda Shop upstairs, then the Oak Harbor Golf Club, Northshore Community Center, and the old gymnastics building on Carey Street. After only two years, with the help of the Louisiana Baptist Convention and other churches, they did a lease/purchase deal and built out 16,000 square feet in the former Slidell Outlet Factory Stores.
“We had grown to about 400 members by then,” he said. “And then came Hurricane Katrina.”
Just like his home not far from the church, the building had nearly 6 feet of water and ruined all the work they had put into it. But worse yet, the owners of the mall voided the contract due to a technicality that was there, “and we lost the money we had spent on the renovations, which they did not reimburse at all.”
McEwen said he felt defeated and remembers asking God, “I don’t understand,” as he stood in front of his destroyed church building. “But with all the turmoil going on, I suddenly felt like God was impressing upon me to go to the hospital and offer to pray for people being flown in from New Orleans by helicopter. After something like Katrina, I knew a lot of people needed prayer.”
He walked around NorthShore Regional Medical Center that day and said, “only two people didn’t want prayer. I thought about the Scripture when God said, ‘for such a time as this….’ and I knew why I was still here.”
Ready to completely start the church again, he trusted God to provide all they needed, and the congregation began meeting in the parking lot of the Factory Outlets, drawing 80 people the first week.
“The Lord blessed us again and more people kept coming. We got offers from other churches to use their building at night, and Bobby Thirstrup, who owned Slidell Athletic Club, let us have church there every Sunday morning. We had to completely set up chairs and the sound system early in the morning, and then tear it all down immediately after the service,” he remarked.
With more and more people coming, McEwen started looking for a permanent location for Northshore Church. Initially they purchased 13 acres from the Fogg family on Allen Road, only to find out it would be too expensive to build there due to elevated costs. He had already talked to the owners of the former Schwegmann grocery store on Gause Boulevard, but the cost was too high, and he had been told they were going to turn the building into a climate-controlled storage facility.
“God put it on my heart to ride back by the old building, and to my surprise, it had not been converted to storage. I called Bill Kingsmill and the Rouses and began talks with them again. They were gracious to come down on the price and God worked other miracles which allowed us to purchase 45,000 square feet—our church had a home again,” he added.
McEwen, now 64, can look back on his life and see many instances of God proving faithful through challenging times, all because he trusted Him through ups and downs in life. It’s one of the messages he teaches, part of the reason he believes the church has grown, now to a Sunday attendance at two services totaling between 600 to 700.
“I believe a big reason God has blessed our work—twice—is because we are true to the Word of God in the Bible, but we teach it in a loving way, not legalistically,” he said. “When pastors water down the truth of Scriptures to be culturally acceptable they might as well have a social club. We have so many loving, sweet-hearted members in our church, and we teach our people to be loving and authentic. Genuineness really matters today—people appreciate that.”
McEwen said he read a book eight years ago called, “Next.” It was written to pastors and taught the right way to pass a ministry from one leader to another. He had all his church leaders read the book and told them year-after-year that a time would come when he was ready to step down.
“Our past success and our continued success do not depend on one person but comes from the team God has built and will continue to build. Besides myself, three of our main staff members have been here for most of our 22 year history,” he said. “And I certainly could not have done what I’ve done without my ministry partner and soulmate of 43 years, my wife Debbie. I couldn’t have asked for a better Pastor’s wife.”
“About two years ago I felt led to go ahead and set a time for my retirement,” he said, adding that he and Debbie plan to move to Knoxville, TN, where their two daughters and husbands live with three of their grandchildren. Their son, his wife and another grandchild (with a second on the way) live in Japan.
McEwen has lots of plans, like working on his music to do another album, and writing several books. (See related story on page 1A).
During his time in Slidell, he has served as the chaplain for Fire District #1 and was a former volunteer fireman in McComb, MS. When asked what he hopes his legacy will be leaving Slidell, he said, “that I loved Jesus, and I loved the people. I may be retiring from full-time work, but I’ll never retire from telling people about Jesus. I’ll do that until the day He calls me home.”
McEwen’s photography and music can be found on his website at: Larrymcewen.com. His official retirement is scheduled for May 2024.