Henrietta Mears is important today, because she used eternal, biblical principles to help train up a generation. Today, we are largely off those moorings. Those same principles remain eternal and applicable. The creativity we need from God these days comes in applying them in our context.
Love was the center of all she did, because love is the center of God’s heart for all people.
I was able to personally interview many people who worked closely with her when I did my research. So, I can confidently add here, that Miss Mears was a LOT of fun in her love.
The following is an excerpt from the forward of my book. I believe we can learn from Miss Mears’ love and expertise, then find ways to implement these eternal principles in our current contexts.
———————
She stood five feet four inches tall, thick-set, with hazel eyes dimly visible through the “coke bottle” lenses of her spectacles. Her daily attire might include a chartreuse dress, a fox fur draped over her shoulders, and a hat with a long plume that swept down under her chin. Her gravelly voice, considered deep for a woman, resounded throughout the room when she spoke.
Henrietta Mears was once described by Billy Graham as, “a Christian in Technicolor.” Billy Graham also said she was one of the greatest Christians he had ever known. He, along with Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, now CRU, often said that the three most influential people in their lives were their mothers, their wives, and Henrietta Mears. Others who credit Mears with great influence in their lives and ministries are:
• Former U.S. Senate Chaplin for fourteen years, Richard Halverson.
• Author and bible translator, J. B. Phillips.
• Well-known actors in their day: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Colleen Townsend Evans.
• Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life.
• Dawson Trotman, the founder of Navigators.
• Radio Host and Seminary founder, Charles E. Fuller.
Her other accomplishments include, but are not limited to:
• Within three years of taking the lead of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, in 1928, the enrollment expanded from four-hundred to six-thousand.
• She founded Gospel Light Publishers to print the new Sunday school materials she wrote because they were in demand well beyond Hollywood.
• She founded Gospel Literature International, or GLINT, to meet the international need for Sunday school and other Christian materials.
• Regal Publishers also finds their origins in Henrietta Mears.
• She founded Forest Home Christian Camp. It continues to flourish as a camp and conference center to touch and nurture people’s lives for the Kingdom of God.
In all her endeavors, she trained others to do the work of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom. In the perennially five-hundred-strong college class she lectured, prayed, and raised up leaders who in turn raised up others through evangelism and discipleship. Over four-hundred men and women went into vocational ministry in the U.S. and foreign missions as a direct result of Mears in her lifetime.
She did all of this with such bad eyesight that she was legally blind.
How did she do this? Mears depended on God and his word for the love, power, and wisdom needed to prepare others for the service of the Kingdom of God.
Why is Henrietta Mears Important Today?
Beyond the things already mentioned, Mears—or “Teacher,” as she was best known—tapped into a large array of eternal principles. The depth of her personal relationship with God created a natural overflow into ministry. It was who she was. She had an intimate relationship with a clear dependence on God. The love she personally experienced from God, she poured into the relationships she had with those around her. Her personal relationship with God and people, coupled with the biblical principles she mined from the word of God and other sources, are just as valid today as they were in the last century. The ministries that hers spawned, that are still focused on relationships and these biblical principles, continue to be noticeably fruitful for the Kingdom.
**For the month of February, my book,
A Little Drop of Love Henrietta Mears, How She Helped Change a Generation and You Can Too,
will be on SALE for the entire month.
Use the code LOVE at check out to receive 50% off from the WipfandStock.com link here & above.
The kindle version will also be reduced to $2.99 above and on Amazon.
