arry Lea (July 1951) is a former pastor and televangelist in Rockwall, Texas.
Early years
He attended and graduated from Dallas Baptist University where he met his first wife, Melva. He completed his graduate work at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.[1] Larry and Melva married in 1972, and together they have 3 children.[2] He became the youth pastor of Beverly Hills Baptist Church in Dallas, where the youth department shot up from 40 to 1,000. While pastoring Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas, He also served as Dean of Theological and Spiritual Affairs at Oral Roberts University
Church on the Rock
Following a stint as an itinerant preacher in the late 1970s, Lea was invited to pastor Church on the Rock in 1980 with 12 people in Rockwall, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Within 5 years, the congregation had increased 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[3] 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".
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.[4] (The successor of this organization, still named COTRI, is led by former Church on the Rock assistant pastor Dr. Lawrence Kennedy. Under Lea COTRI had 45 churches nationwide; now the number includes over 350 in the U.S.[citation needed] and thousands worldwide
