Larry
Larry Norman went home to be with Jesus on 2/24/2008. He was 60 years old.
MESSAGE FROM SOLID ROCK – PLEASE READ
Hello everybody.Our friend and my wonderful brother Larry passed away at 2:45 Sunday morning. Kristin and I were with him, holding his hands and sitting in bed with him when his heart finally slowed to a stop. We spent this past week laughing, singing, and praying with him, and all the while he had us taking notes on new song ideas and instructions on how to continue his ministry and art.
Several of you friends here got to come and visit with him in the last couple of weeks and were a great source of help and friendship to Larry. Ray Sievers, Derek Robertson, Mike Makinster, Matt Simmons, and a few more. Thank you guys. Larry appreciated your visits very much. And he greatly appreciated the thoughts, wishes, support and prayers that came from all of you Army members on a daily basis. Thank you for being part of his small circle of friends over the years. Yesterday afternoon he knew he was going to go home to God very soon and he dictated the following message to you while his friend Allen Fleming typed these words into Larry’s computer:
________________________________I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God’s hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.
My brother Charles is right, I wont be here much longer. I cant do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.
My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.
I’d like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.
Goodbye, farewell, we’ll meet again
Somewhere beyond the sky.
I pray that you will stay with God
Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.Larry
________________________________________Thank you to all of you who were so nice to my brother over the years. Kristin and I will post funeral information in the next day or two. Right now we’re not able to function very well, but the whole family is here… our mother Margaret, our sisters Nancy and Kristy, Mike Norman and his new wife Tiffany, and Silver.
We miss him beyond words. Thank you for everything.
Peace to you all in Christ,
Charles Norman
When I was young (10 or 11 years old) I discovered Christian music for young people. Except I didn’t think any young people I knew would like it. I’ll just say that the stuff that was supposed to be for youth seemed to me to be for very old youth.
One day I heard a song being pounded out on a piano. The song was short, barely a song really. It was only about seven lines long, but it rocked. What was that? I asked my piano playing friend. He smiled and played another. That day I heard a half dozen Larry Norman songs and I was hooked for a lifetime.
No friend of mine ever got saved listening to Norman songs, but in a dozen or more concerts I saw many hundreds respond to the gospel. I have used Norman songs as a way to start christian dialogue with unbelievers in prisons, in street ministry, in every imaginable outreach. He wrote well and conveyed important truths in a way that touched a large part of my and following generations.
Larry was odd, he seemed to have a difficult time with many of his relationships, I guess he was a sinner saved by God’s amazing grace. I doubt that Larry’s songs will be in hymnals one hundred years from now, but Larry was a gift from God to our generation.
“Father of Christian rock” is often how he is described. Titles like that are for earth-bound minds. Larry was a servant that was only visiting this planet hoping and praying we would all get ready.