Larry McCoy will graduate from Emory University's Candler School of Theology in June, but he already has an unusual title and an unusual parish.

During his three years at Candler, he has been a "minister to alternative life styles" for the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. He hopes soon to have a similar appointment from the Methodist National Board of Missions.

The young, bearded McCoy is director of "Truck Stop," a lodge for runaways and transients at 127 11^th Street in the hippie district of Atlanta. He helped get it started in March and serves as director of the staff of four.

Financed by North Avenue Presbyterian Church and the First Baptist Church of Decatur, "Truck Stop" also has a grant from MACAD (Metropolitan Atlanta Council on Alcohol and Drugs).

Truck Stop got its name, McCoy says, because truck stops are places where travelers stop for a rest but not for a permanent stop.

"Truck Stop is sort of a band aid project," he says. "I don't think any final decisions are arrived at, but it is a beginning."

Truck Stop provides crisis counseling and temporary lodging, usually three days. It encourages the individual to make decisions about what he will do for himself and helps people get jobs.

"We also do referrals to the Georgia Mental Health Center or to other agencies, depending on needs," McCoy said.

The agency cares for an average of sixteen persons each night, some fifty different persons a week (not counting repeats). Hardly any are from Atlanta, McCoy says. Most are from South Georgia although some come from places like Sweden and Germany.

"We don't make decisions for the runaway. He decides whether to contact his parents. If we think best, we try to encourage him to contact his parents. Probably 80 percent return home of their own choice after counseling.

"Legally, a person in Georgia cannot leave home at 16 or younger. Parents are responsible for him until he is 17. Police can pick him up and arrest him at any time just for being away from home. It makes no difference whether parents threw him out or beat him."

McCoy grew a beard and long hair because he wanted to see how oddballs are treated by society. As part of a course at Candler, he went into the Cabbagetown Community as a "down-and-outer" to see how he would be treated.

"It really put me in contact with the feelings of deprived people."

He wants to continue his present type of ministry for several years. "One day I imagine I'll go back to the local parish. That will be the day when I'm too set in my ways to accept changes or when the 'in' thing is shaved heads and I refuse to cut my hair."

McCoy's wife, Elizabeth, lives in two different worlds. She works for the National Bank of Georgia and lives with him at Truck Stop. She is from his hometown in southern Illinois.

McCoy is the son of a Methodist minister who was killed in an accident when McCoy was six. He has always had the idea of service and helping others. While a student at Murray State College in Kentucky, he served as pastor of two small, rural churches.