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Consultant and public school educator trains leaders at Multnomah

Dr. Ayers leaned back in a chair blocking his doorway as he chatted with Wayne Strickland. He had called Campus Services about the possibility of getting a smaller desk in his office. "I've already got an air craft carrier at home," Dr. Ayers said.

Five minutes later, a campus serviceman stood at his door, and Dr. Strickland appeared, offering his services. Smiling, Dr. Ayers told Dr. Strickland, "It's really kind of neat you come to help, but you ought to be working on higher priority projects."

Minutes later, Larry Ayers rubbed his white beard as he explained why he is at Multnomah. "I am teaching how to communicate with each other by upholding each other, building each other up, and confronting each other. How to participate in hard-nosed truth and soft-hearted grace," he said.

He came to Multnomah to teach how to apply and contribute some of those concepts into Christian ministry, applying leadership and management characteristics. Dr Ayers said, "If students took my classes, I would hope they would come out better leaders, better managers, better Christians and better human beings as a result of me having worked with them." He smiled. "I'm not perfect by any means, but it's at least some movement in the right direction," he said.

Dr. Ayers starts his days around 5:30 a.m. "My wife, Judith, and I will have breakfast in the morning at Heidi's Restaurant," he said. Coffee and toast get him started. With their busy schedules, morning is the best time for Dr. Ayers and his wife to converse.

Professor Ayers said, "We talk about the day and what the week looks like. I don't schedule breakfast meetings anymore because that is our time. Then she goes off to her thing, and I go off to mine."

Larry Ayers was born 1934 in Mount Vernon, Ind. During World War II, his family moved to Renton, Wash. He played football and baseball growing up and received a football scholarship from the University of Washington. He liked the school and the team.

He later decided to join the Army. The Army shipped him to Prince Wales Island to a village of 100. While there, Soldier Ayers spent his time learning to hunt and fish. In return, he began teaching English to the nationals.

Later he transferred to Ketchikan, Alaska, where he met a waitress named Judith. One of Judith's high school friends introduced them. Each evening after completing his shift at the Army communications station, he'd slip over to the local café, The Toot and Tell, owned by Judith's father. During each visit, he talked Judith out of a piece of pie and bought a cup of coffee. He talked to her until the restaurant closed and then walked her home.

Judith's Aunt Penny tried to convert Soldier Ayers to Christianity. He was not going for it until he met her pastor. Dr. Ayers said, "The man struck up a relation with me." He was a high-speed radio operator and established a rapport with radio communications. Dr. Ayers said, "Once there, he moved into a simple plan of salvation. I was really ripe for it."

He and Judith, as a couple, later ran off to Bob Jones University, leaving their engagement announcement in the Ketchikan paper. They married when they were juniors.

To celebrate his bachelor's degree in physical and biological sciences at Bob Jones University, Dr. Ayers and his wife had their first daughter, Annette. Four years later, after a master's degree in psychology at Peabody College, they celebrated again with their second daughter, Alison.

A little later, to celebrate his doctorate in school administration and cultural anthropology at Oregon State, they brought their daughter Amy into the world.

Dr. Ayers started his journey working in education as a high school counselor. He quickly moved up the ranks to becoming a principal at Adams and later Jefferson high school. He also served as director of instruction over Portland's elementary, middle and high schools for 10 years. Later, he served as assistant superintendent and liaison for Portland public schools to private Christian schools and to homeschoolers. He later sat as the president of Western Seminary.

Dr. Ayers said, "I don't run boards anymore. I got off them long ago. Let the younger guys do that."

In 1992, he started his consulting business, EDIFY. He helps churches, Christian organizations and businesses on the West Coast settle communication crises. He helps clients work out confrontations and simplifies problems. He also gives them tools to deal with future problems.

That is one of the emphases he brings to Multnomah: leadership and communications management.

Now that he is teaching full time at Multnomah, Dr. Ayers said, "My consulting has really dropped down." He is not ready to give up consulting now. Dr. Ayers said, "I don't know whether to remain teaching or continue consulting. As long as I feel I am effective and I get feedback from the school that I am effective, then I will probably teach awhile," he said. "I often tell my wife that the only way I may be able to stop teaching is to move away. It will be very tough for me to disconnect."

Mrs. Ayers takes advantage of his total focus at times. "He is fun to surprise," she said. "We threw a surprise birthday party for him at our house. The plans were pretty elaborate and there were too many signs to hide. He never noticed, though. He came home to almost 50 people waiting."

Last semester, Jeff Arthurs, speech communications department head, and Professor Ayers put together a proposal for a new undergraduate major in communication management.

Dr. Ayers said, "Knowing the difference between a strong secular based and a Christian approach to leadership is absolutely critical. A lot of guys today are running churches with a secular perspective of leadership. This program could really make people effective and efficient in the way they lead churches and Christian organizations. I have a real burden for that. We are training leaders."

In Professor Ayers' church ministries class, he spoke on the generation gaps and how they affect church ministry. He stated that he was in a generation without a title. One student blurted out, "Generation obsolete." He smiled big and started teaching on "Generation obsolete." Craig Roylance from the same class said, "I like the interaction in the class, but sometimes it gets carried away."

Dr. Ayers said, "There is a lot to learn about various generations. I am drawing on experiences and trying to make them relevant to where the students are coming from. "I have over 100 students," Dr. Ayers said. "I would do well to remember half their names." He is hanging out at the Solid Rock Café twice a week and calling students by their first names. "Of course," he said, "I get to know the loud ones first." To get in touch with his students, he talks to students and faculty about what they perceive in the student body.

Dr. Ayers comes home to relax after busy days. He said, "Judith and I will either eat out or at home. We like it at home because we have a big deck in the back and eat on the deck and relax." Mr. and Mrs.Ayers live in a country home in rural Clackamas on a mile loop. Often they'll take a walk, one or two trips around the loop, and get to talk again to close off their day.

One key verse inspired Dr. Ayers. It named his consulting company, EDIFY, and gives his ministry purpose. It is Ephesians 4:29: "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear."

The Ayers return to Ketchikan, Alaska, for the first time in 40 years.

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Scott Coombe does not like anything to lie on his Bible.