Pastor Larry Owens and Family

Larry Owens grew up in a broken home and was saved at the age of twelve. During his teen years, while he was attending East Park Baptist Church in Decatur, Illinois, God called him into the ministry. He attended Hyles-Anderson College and graduated in 1982. 

Brother Owens married Ruth Rios from Mexico one year before going to the mission field of Argentina. He arrived in Buenos Aires in 1987 and later moved to start a work in Tucuman. The city had 750,000 people and not one independent Baptist church. Since 1987, Brother Owens has started four churches and one Bible college in Tucuman. 

The average Sunday attendance at Brother Owens’ church, Bethel Baptist, is over 500. He is training nationals to start churches in Argentina, and his goal is to start 100 independent Baptist churches in that country.