Bruce McLarty was born in Nashville, Tennessee in May of 1957. Though Tennessee was his first home, he also grew up in the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas. His family consists of his parents, Durley and Sue McLarty, of Cookeville, Tennessee. Bruce also has one brother, Karl, and two sisters, Kim and Karen. In May 1980, Bruce married Ann Hutson. They now have two daughters, Charity and Jessica.
In 1975, Bruce graduated from Harding Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. From there he moved to Harding College, where he graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in Bible. He continued his education at the Harding Graduate School of Religion. Four years later, in 1982, Bruce graduated, earning a Masters of Theology. More recently, in 2010, he has graduated from Ashland Theological Seminary earning a Doctor of Ministry degree.
Bruce began his ministry experience at the church in Williford, Arkansas where he preached for two years during his college years. In 1980, he began preaching for the church in Marks, Mississippi. He preached there for two years. He became the Outreach Minister for the Holmes Road church of Christ in 1982. He kept that role for two years until he decided to do some missionary work in 1984. He spent a year in Meru, Kenya. After returning home, he moved to the Collegeside congregation in Cookeville, Tennessee, where he spent five years preaching. In 1991, Bruce began preaching for the College church in Searcy. He preached here until 2005, when he took on the role of Vice President for Spiritual Life at Harding University. He currently still holds this position.
Bruce has spoken in many lectureships held at different Christian universities such as Freed-Hardeman, Harding, David Lipscomb, Pepperdine, and more. He has written articles for many Christian publications over the years as well. He wrote chapters for the 1998 Harding lectureship book and chapters for the 1999 Freed-Hardeman lectureship book. In 1997, Bruce published a full length book titled “Journey of Faith: Walking with Jesus through the Gospel of John. He also wrote a commentary on Paul’s letter to Philemon in the Truth for Today Commentary Series.
