By Carolyn Cole
Published on July 19, 2008

Larry Holder unpacks a handful of Mickey Mouse toys, a small sample of his several hundred piece collection, to brighten his desk at Mustang United Methodist Church.

The congregation has seen three pastors in as many years pass through its doors, but Holder said the UMC cabinet believes the Mustang church is healthy, with more than 700 active members.

The placement of an interim pastor, Bennie Warren, in the position while they searched for a candidate was a testament to the UMC leadership’s high opinion of the church.

“This church has good lay leadership,” Holder said. “They are very involved in the community. They open their doors up to a lot of different stuff, and they are happy to do it. It’s really a neat place.”

Holder’s first Sunday preaching in Mustang was June 8, and he comes to the community after 25 years in the ministry. Holder left a congregation in Clinton after five years. He also ministered at Mount Zion UMC north of El Reno for five and a half years, Wewoka for three and a half years and Madill for 11 years.

Holder said within the United Methodist tradition, it is common for ministers to change churches every three to five years. Sometimes tenures last longer, he said, especially if a congregation is facing speedy growth, large building projects or other changes. In some cases, he said the visions of a new pastor and the congregation aren’t compatible, and parting ways is best for both.

“We rotate because we have different gifts and graces,” he said. “We move for specific reasons.”

With each church, Holder and his wife Molly are met with a sea of new faces to meet, which he said is always a challenge, but after a few months they become part of an extended family. While the Mickey Mouse memorabilia “makes Dad easy to buy for at Christmas,” he said, many of his collectibles were given to him by friends he’s made through the ministry.

He said he never set out to collect the Disney icon, but he also didn’t expect to become a collector of American Indian art. The most special piece in his collection is a bow bought for him by members of the Wewoka congregation.

“I enjoy the people,” he said. “I enjoy being paid to talk about Jesus. It’s nice to be paid to talk about your first love.”

Holder didn’t start out his life feeling a call to ministry. His father’s service in the Air Force took his family across the American west to Arkansas, Lousiana, Texas and Montana. He also served on bases in Puerto Rico when Holder was an infant, and Japan and Germany, during his son’s teenage years.

Holder said living in Japan after reconstruction following World War II opened his eyes as a junior high student. He rode bicycles in his neighborhood and learned to break down and rebuild every component from a local shopkeeper, who quickly became a friend and mentor.

Holder traveled large sections of Japan by train by himself, even though anti-American sentiment was common, stemming from the ongoing Vietnam War and the atomic bombings in 1945.

His family’s maid lived in an area where Hiroshima residents resettled after the bombing, and he said she couldn’t tell her neighbors she worked for Americans because their anger remained so fierce.

“She treated us like we were her kids,” he said. She was one who realized the number of people on both sides who would have died if we had invaded. She could remember as a young married woman being trained to meet the Americans on the beach with pitch forks and logs they sharpened. It was going to be a blood bath both ways.”

Since then Japan has grown into an industrialized nation similar to the United States. Holder said those experiences made him love his country more, where war on American soil and famine are faded memories.

“I wish people appreciated this country more,” he said. “We are very kept. We are very comfortable when the biggest thing you have to worry about and gripe about is the rising gas prices, you live in a pretty nice place.”

When Holder returned to the United States to attend college, he majored in pre-medical studies, he said, because his father encouraged him to enter medicine.

He hadn’t thought of ministry as an option. Military service took his family across the world, and his parents didn’t regularly attend church because they rarely lived in one place for long.

“My parents were both very faithful growing up,” Holder said.

At college, he said he made friends who changed his life.

“I was called into ministry about the same time I gave my life to Christ ... I found some people for whom Christ had really made a difference in their lives,” he said.

Holder got his bachelor’s degree and started school at Iliff School of Theology in Colorado where he received a master’s degree in divinity and met his wife Molly.

After a childhood of moving, Holder said he felt rootless. Although he was born at Tinker Air Force Base, he didn’t feel any strong ties to any state. Molly, who was raised in Hobart, brought him back to Oklahoma. He said they have never regretted that decision and raised two daughters.

“I meet some of the best people in each community,” he said.

Mustang is no different, Holder said. The couple is settling into their home and meeting their neighbors, while finding their place in their church.

“Good group of folks — everyone I’ve met here in town is real friendly,” he said.
While the congregation becomes acquainted with Holder, the church’s leadership is also deciding the fate of its preschool program. It’s longtime director Jean Schmidt retired in May, and Holder said the congregation learned the program had never been accredited.

Until they receive accreditation, Holder said the preschool board decided to cut back.

“If we can go beyond the (state) criteria our children will be safer, and when they do head to school, they will not just be ready for it, they will be ready to excel at it,” he said. “That’s my dream for anything we do that we can’t accept mediocrity.”

Holder said he plans to mainly listen to the church’s leaders, to see where they want to take their congregation.

“Together, we will start to dream dreams and see where we can go from here,” he said.