Member Spotlight: Larry Beck, Samaritan Board of Directors

Larry Beck often senses the Lord is leading him places he didn’t think he’d be going.

It’s been happening all his life.

The latest turn has taken him onto the Samaritan Ministries Board of Directors, to which he was elected last fall.

Unexpected guidance

The Texan’s first unexpected experience was during his time at Baylor University. Larry led the development of a software program for the school’s Baptist Student Ministry. The management platform for Welcome Week managed the efforts of thousands of students and volunteers who helped in an evangelical weekend for incoming students. It was used for more than 10 years.

Larry had never done anything like that, but the experience helped him years later when he spent nearly 25 years leading the development of software and financial payment systems.

“God seems to put me in these places where I’m not fully comfortable, but then he does something through me that I could never expect,” Larry said.

In 2016, God provided Larry an opportunity to leverage home- building experience from early in his career. That project would culminate in 2020 with the launch of a homebuilding company.

“I wasn’t sure how that would turn out,” he said. “I had experience in that field, but to start your own business is kind of another thing.

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized God calls me to take risks and try new things for His glory and Kingdom.”

Running for the Board of a health care sharing ministry, while it wasn’t a high-risk venture, was a new experience, but he felt his business background could help, and so put his name forward.

“I felt like I could add value to Samaritan,” he said. “I feel like whenever God has led me down a path I didn’t really understand, He’s always blessed me.”

Being open to the Lord

Larry’s obedience to the Lord started when he was young and attended a church where his parents helped with the music ministry.

“I kind of grew up around ministry,” he said. “When I was 7 or 8—I remember this like it just happened—it was during invitation time and my best friend at the time kind of nudged me and he’s like, ‘Hey, when are you going to get saved?’ And you know, it seemed like kind of a silly question that was not silly, but he didn’t realize it made a huge impact on me. It was really the first moment where I realized, ‘Hey, I do need to be saved,’ even though I’d grown up in the church.”

Years later, when he was attending Baylor, however, he felt like he needed to revisit his commitment.

“I went through another kind of renewal there and was baptized,” he said. “I believed that God saved me when I was young, but I also know that something special happened while I was at Baylor that really changed my life.”

From that point forward, Larry’s walk with God made ministry and his faithfulness to the Lord “front and center” in his life.

‘Stabilizer of the family’

Larry met his wife-to-be, Sheryl, at Baylor, and they got married after graduating in 1990.

Sheryl has been “the stabilizer of the family,” Larry said.

She’s a “lifelong teacher,” serving for many years at the Christian school where their three children attended, Legacy Christian Academy in Frisco, Texas.

“Sheryl is very quiet about her faith, but the thing that’s always challenged me is her consistency,” Larry said. “She gets up every morning at 5 a.m. for her time with the Lord and is truly the most faithful person in her spiritual discipline I know.

“She’s also just been a great mom, a great wife. I tell her all the time that the success that our kids are having is in great part because of her and how she has influenced them very quietly. She’s kind of amazing.”

Larry is proud of the three adults his children—Adam, Evan, and Megan—have become.

“Megan lives near us here in the Dallas area and works for a church as a minister to girls,” Larry said. “Evan is also near us and works for a technology company in sales. And then my oldest son, Adam, is in Katy, down by Houston, and he’s in medical technology sales.”

Lending insights

As a new member of the Samaritan Ministries Board of Directors, Larry wants to apply his business and tech experience, offering insight on areas like Share processing and drawing on his years as a director and then vice president for Fullsteam, which develops payments technology.

“I feel that we might be able to leverage the payments technology out there and continue to develop the member platform experience,” he said. “I’m hoping maybe I can lend some insights there.”

He also hopes to, along with the Board, help the ministry deal with the impact of proration.

“What I hope happens on the Board is that despite my lack of experience in health care, my out-of-the-box thinking might provide ideas that are not as obvious to someone who’s neck-deep in it,” he said. “I think it’s important to have different perspectives.”

Prayer requests

• "That God leads the Board to shepherd the ministry well."
• "For the entire Samaritan team as they serve all the members."
• "For those who are sick and receiving care, that God will comfort them, and heal and provide for their needs by His great grace (1 Peter 5:10)."