GREENFIELD — “Pastor Larry” Fannin was too sick to make it to church on Sunday. So the congregation hauled a sound system and folding chairs to the Fannins’ yard to bring the service to him.
It would be his last.
Though they knew the 79-year-old pastor had experienced heart problems for years, many people of Evangel Church in Greenfield carpooled to his yard Sunday not knowing his kidneys were failing, his health had rapidly deteriorated, and he might not live past that day. After all, said son Jody Ballenger, it’s not news one shares in a text message or email.
Yet even before Ballenger began his message, many seemed to grasp the weight of the moment. When one singer sounded emotional, the singer next to her put an arm around her. Some people wiped their eyes. Later, after he had spoken plainly of the urgency of the hour, they passed around a box of tissues.
“That’s when I knew that was probably the last time we were going to be in his proximity on this earth,” said church member Mark Williams.
The proximity was an open second-floor window of Fannin’s bedroom facing the yard. Below it, a keyboard, guitar and box drum were the band. People of the church sang, arms outstretched and worship flags waving:
Let the King of my heart
Be the wind inside my sails
The anchor in the waves
Oh He is my song
People who know “Pastor Larry,” who co-founded Evangel with his wife nearly 40 years ago, tell of a humble leader who truly cared about them.
Matt Belcher remembers years he worked with Fannin on different projects at the church, such as the building or a sign. Fannin never wanted his name on the sign, never wanted his own name to pull people’s focus from God. “That just stood out to me as honorable,” Belcher said.
Williams remembers when he first met Fannin at a social gathering in someone’s home about 10 years ago. When Williams started to leave, “He turned to me and said, ‘Be blessed’ like I was the only person who mattered,” he recalls.
“He was like that with everybody in the church … He cared about everybody there very deeply.”
Fannin also cared deeply about seeing revival.
“My father always talked about revival … ‘I don’t want to leave this earth until I see revival,’” Ballenger said.
As Fannin’s health declined, though, people at church saw seeds of renewal sprouting. During a recent sermon series, Ballenger — who received the pastoral baton from his parents and became lead pastor in 2018 — gave a sermon about having a repentant heart. That day, he saw almost every person walk forward to the altar area, praying and crying.
In recent weeks, there seems to daily be a group of people gathering at the church to pray.
“It has begun at our church,” Williams said. “You feel a presence … It’s hard to explain, but you know. You know what it is.”
Fannin had been to a service early in the series but had recently been watching online from home.
Thinking of all that was coming to be at church, and all his father had prayed for, Ballenger said it felt unfair to have Sunday’s service — on Father’s Day — without him.
“I believe that this is the revival God had told him he would see,” he told those gathered in the yard Sunday. “… We’ve been experiencing God’s power in our church in a new way, a new anointing.”
The service ended around noon, he said later, and Fannin died a little after 1 p.m.
“We do feel it was God that kept him alive just long enough,” Ballenger said. “I think it was not just a gift to him; it was a gift to the church.
“It was a gift to them to say goodbye.”
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Dr. Larry Fannin and his wife, Dr. Sun Fannin, founded Evangel Church (formerly Body of Christ Fellowship) in their home in 1981. It met in a couple of second-floor sites above downtown Greenfield storefronts before landing at 1221 E. Main St. It grew and added a 6,300-square-foot auditorium in 2003.
Fannin died June 20. Survivors include his wife, the couple’s three sons and their families. His funeral is set for 6 p.m. July 2 at the church.
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