Henrietta Mears, Part 2

[00:00:04] Welcome to Women Worth Knowing, the radio program and podcast hosted by Cheryl Brodersen and Robin Jones Gunn.

[00:00:11] Hello, beautiful listeners. We are on Part 2 of Henrietta Mears, and we are learning so much from Tim McCalmont.

[00:00:19] Tim grew up in Hollywood. He is a pastor, graduated from Fuller Seminary, and he has been working on a movie he's going to tell us about at the end of this episode about Henrietta Mears, a documentary.

[00:00:33] So Cheryl and I knew that we had to get the specialists in here to tell us all about Henrietta, and I hope you go back and listen to Part 1.

[00:00:44] But what we've listened to so far is exciting. I mean, her background is not one that you would expect for a world-changing Bible teacher to arise from.

[00:00:57] I mean, she was born into affluence, but her father lost it all. She moved six times before she was eight years old.

[00:01:07] She went on to college, and she studied chemistry of all things. And then from that, she began to teach classes at her church.

[00:01:17] She was already teaching Sunday school from the time she was, what, 11, did you say?

[00:01:22] That's amazing. And went on from there, and then through a series again, listened to Part 1, how the Lord took her to, of all places, Hollywood, California,

[00:01:35] and how the Lord began to minister to her about writing a curriculum.

[00:01:40] And when we finished Part 1, we talked about Forest Home Camp that she established.

[00:01:48] What a visionary, right? What a visionary.

[00:01:50] And I think that is a moniker that we could easily give to Henrietta Mears, a visionary.

[00:01:58] That's really true. And Forest Home is a piece of that, that big vision.

[00:02:04] Well, as I was saying, in 1947, in Forest Home, there was a group of young leaders that were gathered there in her cabin following an evening meeting at the college briefing conference,

[00:02:21] I believe one of the first. And they gathered in her cabin called the Biltmore to pray.

[00:02:28] What a name.

[00:02:29] Read the Bible. It's still there, the Biltmore. And they prayed, and unexpectedly, the Holy Spirit came over the whole group.

[00:02:39] And as they continued to worship together and pray, they sensed a calling to become what they called expendables for Christ.

[00:02:50] Oh, I love that.

[00:02:51] And that became the genesis of the fellowship of the burning heart, committing themselves to go anywhere in the world to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:03:04] And burning heart would be taken from Luke 24 when Cleopas and the other disciple were walking with Jesus and didn't recognize him until he broke the bread.

[00:03:16] And they said, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the way?

[00:03:22] And what he had talked to them about was an exposition from Genesis exactly all the way through showing how the Messiah had to suffer and die and rise again.

[00:03:35] I love that.

[00:03:36] Well, everyone who was there that night was absolutely rocked by what happened.

[00:03:43] And they talked about it for the rest of their lives.

[00:03:46] I bet.

[00:03:46] From this group, and including Mears. Mears was deeply shaken by that moment.

[00:03:53] From this group emerged ministries that literally touched the world.

[00:03:59] And you can see their name on a big rock that sits today outside the Biltmore cabin.

[00:04:06] In that group was Bill Bright, who went on with his wife, Vonette, to found Campus Crusade crew.

[00:04:15] Actually, those ideas took shape in her living room in Los Angeles.

[00:04:21] Richard Halverson, who went on to be a great pastor and then became chaplain of the United States Senate.

[00:04:27] Louis Evans, Jr. became a pastor and evangelist across the country.

[00:04:32] Jack Frank became a leader in Christian camping ministries.

[00:04:36] And by extension, many others, as you alluded to, Cheryl, with your father and others.

[00:04:44] At Forrest Home in 1949, there was a young pastor evangelist from Minnesota who came to speak.

[00:04:53] His name was Billy Graham.

[00:04:57] Mears had met him earlier in her life while she was in Minnesota.

[00:05:00] And Billy was holding youth rallies for Youth for Christ around the Midwest and other areas.

[00:05:08] And he began to harbor doubts about the authority of scriptures.

[00:05:16] That was the time, though, because this is when liberalism really hit hard.

[00:05:21] And you've got the higher critics who – and you've got – what was it?

[00:05:24] The Jesus seminars about this time, too, that were saying, well, we really can't know what Jesus said and what Jesus didn't say.

[00:05:33] So there was a huge attack during that time against the church.

[00:05:37] Well, he had a friend, Charles Templeton, I believe his name.

[00:05:40] Charles Templeton.

[00:05:41] And Templeton was a student at Princeton.

[00:05:43] And he was really impacted by the liberal movement at that time.

[00:05:48] Lost his faith.

[00:05:49] And so he began to kind of counter Billy.

[00:05:52] And he then was a co-speaker with Billy when Mears invited them both to come to Forrest Home because Mears appreciated the dialogue.

[00:06:03] Wow. Not intimidated by that dialogue.

[00:06:07] Not at all.

[00:06:07] Because she has so much confidence in the Word of God and in God.

[00:06:12] That's right.

[00:06:14] So as Billy came to Forrest Home, he came early that day, that Sunday, and he met with Mears in her cabin.

[00:06:24] And the conversation took place that really ministered to where he was.

[00:06:30] And Mears challenged him at that point.

[00:06:32] And she said, Billy, I want to pray with you.

[00:06:35] And then I want you to just go out and take your Bible and just go out into the woods and seek the Lord.

[00:06:43] And so he did that.

[00:06:45] He went out into the woods.

[00:06:47] And the spirit, as he knelt next to this tree stump, and we think we found the tree stump, but we can't be sure.

[00:06:56] It's like where George Washington slept in this bed.

[00:06:59] I don't know.

[00:07:00] But he knelt next to this tree stump, pulled out his Bible, and he prayed, and he read Scripture.

[00:07:07] And the spirit came over him and spoke with a profound conviction to Billy.

[00:07:15] And he actually said that these Scriptures are the Word of God.

[00:07:22] Amen.

[00:07:23] Wow.

[00:07:24] He made that convicting statement, and he felt it was the Holy Spirit equipping him to make that statement.

[00:07:33] And he says, from now on, I will believe this is your Word.

[00:07:37] How many times did we see Billy Graham preach, the Bible says?

[00:07:42] Absolutely.

[00:07:43] And it stemmed from that moment that was reaffirmed for him that the Bible was the authoritative Word of God.

[00:07:53] And it was only a couple of weeks later that he began his historic Los Angeles crusade in the tense downtown where thousands came.

[00:08:06] And people were changed.

[00:08:08] Lou Zamparino came to that.

[00:08:09] His life was changed.

[00:08:11] Yes.

[00:08:11] I mean, just Stuart Hamlin.

[00:08:14] So many people came, and they extended the crusade by a couple of months because it was so well attended.

[00:08:23] Well, that was one example.

[00:08:25] Today, thousands come every year to Forrest Home as a sacred space for restoration, discipleship, and evangelism.

[00:08:33] And it's still encouraged to get your Bible and find a quiet place and have an experience.

[00:08:40] Hear God's voice for yourself.

[00:08:43] I think sometimes that's missing in the church is that we have such a celebrity mentality sometimes that it's just listen to me.

[00:08:53] What I tell you is in the Bible instead of, no, search the Scriptures yourself and have that experience with Jesus.

[00:09:01] That whole inductive way of learning where I own what I discover.

[00:09:06] Right.

[00:09:06] And the Holy Spirit blesses that, and it becomes part of me.

[00:09:11] Absolutely.

[00:09:11] That was so drilled in with us and became part of our DNA.

[00:09:17] Well, I had life-changing experiences at Forrest Home, too.

[00:09:20] As I grew up and I headed into ministry, I still count that as formational for me.

[00:09:24] I remember going to Forrest Home during the summer and the winter with their Bible studies, their prayer, their worship times, recreation at Lake Mears.

[00:09:35] The great fun we had.

[00:09:37] I know where they get that.

[00:09:38] And on Friday night, before leaving for home on Saturday morning, the whole group would meet around Victory Circle.

[00:09:45] We'd have fire in the pit in the middle, and we would stand up with a stick of wood in our hand, and we'd share what God had done in our lives that week.

[00:09:56] And then we'd toss the stick into the fire as a sign of our commitment.

[00:10:01] That whole scenario was very intentional, and it was very reassuring for us.

[00:10:08] And it really became part of what we look back on as foundational for our faith.

[00:10:18] Absolutely.

[00:10:18] I have several very vivid memories of that Victory Circle and being at Forrest Home and having that moment and making commitments to the Lord.

[00:10:29] And I'm just thinking there's so many listeners.

[00:10:31] I wish if we could see them raise their hands.

[00:10:33] Yes, I did the same thing.

[00:10:35] It's just so beautiful that the vision was there so early on and that she didn't give up.

[00:10:42] And to think about the generations that have experienced God's presence there.

[00:10:47] And you'll hear more about that later.

[00:10:49] But Forrest Home presently includes over 400 acres in five locations from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Ojai Valley up north.

[00:10:59] Oh, my goodness.

[00:11:00] One of them is a surfing camp, I believe.

[00:11:02] Oh, my goodness.

[00:11:03] Yep.

[00:11:04] All coming from the vision that Henrietta had as she stirred the heart with these encounters.

[00:11:13] Another part of her ministry was the Hollywood Christian group.

[00:11:19] Her interest in reaching the culture took her deep into the film industry.

[00:11:25] This drew her at the initial point to meet with people from the industry who joined with her to pray and plan for this kind of outreach.

[00:11:37] They met in her home and they began to pray about a witness for Christ in the entertainment community.

[00:11:42] She was convinced that it should be a full on presentation of Christ crucified and resurrection and resurrected the source of abundant life.

[00:11:55] That was her phrase.

[00:11:56] Christ crucified and resurrected the source of abundant life.

[00:12:01] And so they moved to meet with this group.

[00:12:04] They met with Dr. Edwin Orr and with Connie Haynes, who was a radio star and former singer with Frank Sinatra.

[00:12:12] Oh, my goodness.

[00:12:13] Dr. Edwin Orr had a burden on his heart for the Hollywood community.

[00:12:18] And Connie Haynes wanted a way to grow as a Christian in the entertainment world and to share her faith with her colleagues.

[00:12:26] So this was ideal for them, and it led to the formation of the Hollywood Christian group, providing a space for celebrities and others in the film and entertainment industry to pursue and grow in their faith outside of the public eye.

[00:12:43] That was really important to them, a space that was protected for them to be themselves and to grow as a believer.

[00:12:51] Oh, they need that.

[00:12:52] They need that so desperately.

[00:12:54] They really do.

[00:12:54] So actors like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Jane Russell, Rhonda Fleming, Stuart Hamlin, Ronald Reagan, Colleen Townsend, Connie Haynes, Virginia Mayo, Jimmy Dodd, who was the leader of the Mouseketeers on Walt Disney's program.

[00:13:14] Tim Spencer, who was the leader of the Sons of the Pioneers.

[00:13:17] They all became involved.

[00:13:20] People from stage, film, radio and television, from Warner Brothers, Paramount, Fox, Disney, CBS.

[00:13:27] They were all given an opportunity to consider the Christian faith and learn how to walk with Jesus in their work.

[00:13:35] Now, of all those names, the one I find the most interesting, actually, or transformative, would be Jane Russell.

[00:13:44] Because she had been kind of a siren.

[00:13:47] Virginia Mayo was a little more tame, but Jane Russell, and to think that she came to Christ through this ministry is huge.

[00:13:57] They held meetings in her house.

[00:13:59] And one meeting, this is a side story, one meeting, Billy Graham and Ruth Graham came to the meeting.

[00:14:07] And Jane Russell was there.

[00:14:09] And Ruth Graham tells this story.

[00:14:11] She said, I sat there next to Henrietta Mears, and she said, I looked at Jane Russell, and I said, how can she possibly be here?

[00:14:22] And she said, I didn't say anything.

[00:14:24] She said, that was what was in my heart.

[00:14:26] And she heard Henrietta say, oh, that Jane Russell, I just love her.

[00:14:37] And Ruth really felt convicted.

[00:14:41] She said, and later, I think Colleen Townsend Evans said, Henrietta Mears, we talked about loving people.

[00:14:51] Henrietta Mears loved people, wherever they were, wherever they were coming from.

[00:14:58] They were welcome.

[00:15:00] And so Jane Russell went on and actually hosted meetings in her house as this group grew.

[00:15:08] So it was amazing to see.

[00:15:10] I remember recently we had an interview with Margaret Carey.

[00:15:17] You may not know her name, but you know the name Tinkerbell.

[00:15:22] Oh, yes, we do.

[00:15:24] Margaret was a dancer, I believe, at Fox.

[00:15:28] And she was contracted by Disney to be the animated model for Tinkerbell.

[00:15:36] So she went away and worked with Disney in the studio for months, you know, going through various movements that they patterned the character of Tinkerbell after.

[00:15:46] Wow.

[00:15:46] So whenever you see the original animated feature film on Peter Pan, that's Margaret Carey doing her animation.

[00:15:54] That is fascinating.

[00:15:55] She's 96.

[00:15:57] And she came out to do an event for Disney and we interviewed her and she is this little tiny diminutive woman, so full of life.

[00:16:05] I love it.

[00:16:05] But she went, she was invited to the college group at Hollywood Press and then to the Hollywood Christian Group.

[00:16:12] And she stayed involved and she stayed at Hollywood Press until the mid-90s.

[00:16:18] Oh, my goodness.

[00:16:19] And then moved because she was getting to be pretty old.

[00:16:22] She moved to the East Coast.

[00:16:23] But she just spoke how much Mears had impacted her life.

[00:16:29] And I really love the point about the love because, you know, the word without the love can be so harsh.

[00:16:39] But the love, it's like having a spoonful of sugar for the medicine.

[00:16:44] It's that smoothing of, you know, that understanding that you are so loved.

[00:16:51] And if people don't feel it and sense it, they won't receive the word of God.

[00:16:56] You can't go any further.

[00:16:57] So the fact that she lifted out, this kind of woman who dressed a little ostentatiously but loved people just where they were at is just such a hallmark of the faith.

[00:17:17] It's such an example to us all.

[00:17:19] Exactly.

[00:17:20] Well, as time would have it, after World War II, Henrietta and her sister Margaret visited Europe.

[00:17:28] And she returned home heartbroken after seeing the devastation that had taken place after the war.

[00:17:37] So at Hollywood Press, she assembled a deputation program on a world scale.

[00:17:45] The young people became captivated by a vision of the gospel for the world.

[00:17:51] I love that.

[00:17:53] There were two from her college group, Ralph Hamburger and Walt James, who were already involved in organizing a mission involvement in Europe.

[00:18:02] And Mears looked for ways to assist in enabling their work.

[00:18:07] And that work encompassed visits by Corrie ten Boom, among others.

[00:18:12] There's another woman.

[00:18:14] Yes.

[00:18:14] We've all talked about.

[00:18:15] And I knew her really well, too.

[00:18:17] Did you really?

[00:18:17] Yes.

[00:18:18] She used to come to the tent when we were here.

[00:18:20] Yeah.

[00:18:21] Well, this was particularly important even decades later in the reunification of Europe in the late 1980s because the Berlin Fellowship, which was morphed out of this movement, became part of that change in Europe.

[00:18:40] Mm-hmm.

[00:18:40] That's so interesting, the roots and then the fruit that's come.

[00:18:46] Well, and then we were involved in a later extension of the deputation ministry in building a coffee house in Hollywood in the late 1960s, which became the Salt Company.

[00:18:56] And then that's a whole other story.

[00:18:58] But anyway.

[00:19:00] Well, I was hoping you'd touch on that.

[00:19:02] And there's also a documentary about the Salt Company.

[00:19:04] So talk a little bit about that just briefly.

[00:19:06] Sure.

[00:19:07] We released about six years ago a film called Salt and Light, The Miracle in Hollywood.

[00:19:14] It's available on Amazon.

[00:19:15] And it tells the story of our involvement and how we became involved in the streets of Hollywood at just an electric period.

[00:19:24] And we did it through this coffee house and building a music ministry at a time when music in the church was really changing.

[00:19:32] So we combined forces with Chuck Gerrard and Tommy Coombs and Love Song and your dad and others down here in Orange County.

[00:19:40] And it took over the church and actually changed Christian music.

[00:19:46] It did.

[00:19:46] It came out of that period.

[00:19:48] Well, my father was persecuted for allowing guitars in church.

[00:19:53] And as just kind of a side note, he didn't allow them on Sunday mornings.

[00:20:00] He allowed them at the night services because the controversy was so strong.

[00:20:07] But to even open up a coffee house and call that Christian music, there was a lot of controversy around that that people don't realize.

[00:20:17] Yeah, we had our first coffee house on the campus of the church.

[00:20:20] And it was a block off of Hollywood Boulevard.

[00:20:23] So we had thousands coming in and through that coffee house.

[00:20:28] It was an amazing film.

[00:20:30] It's a great documentary.

[00:20:31] My husband and I loved watching it because my husband was there.

[00:20:34] He used to drive up to Hollywood and be part of the Salt Company.

[00:20:37] And you did a fantastic job on putting that together.

[00:20:41] Well, I know what I'll be watching tonight.

[00:20:43] Yes, yes.

[00:20:44] I can't wait.

[00:20:44] Well, it's a special time for us, too.

[00:20:48] We got to go back and revisit years that were very special to us as well.

[00:20:54] Another part of her ministry was obviously in publishing.

[00:20:59] Her ministry and reputation as she came and as the program at Hollywood grew, other churches in the area noticed what was happening at Hollywood Press.

[00:21:11] And she began by receiving requests from these churches and other Christian organizations to come and speak.

[00:21:20] And then they would request her materials.

[00:21:23] So she and her two assistants were composing their own materials at the time and just cranking them out.

[00:21:30] But at first it was on a mimeograph machine.

[00:21:32] Oh, I remember this.

[00:21:33] That was the bulletin.

[00:21:35] That's how we did the bulletin.

[00:21:37] So they were cranking those out every week for their own program, which was obviously quite large.

[00:21:42] And it became so large that she then started to look for a printer.

[00:21:45] So she would contract out with a printer.

[00:21:48] And then it got to be so big, she said, we've got to start our own company.

[00:21:54] So the printer had extended credit to her until she could pay for it.

[00:21:58] And she finally decided to create her own company.

[00:22:01] And then that company eventually grew into one of the top five Christian publishing companies in the country.

[00:22:11] Well, because she and her first and her sister traveled so much, her expanded vision became international.

[00:22:19] So Gospel Light began translating into other languages.

[00:22:24] And in 1961, Gospel Light International, now called Glint, was formed.

[00:22:33] And her materials then began going worldwide, even moving into the Soviet Union.

[00:22:40] And this was during the Cold War.

[00:22:43] So I've talked to people that said her materials got into Soviet Union and were being used across the Soviet Union

[00:22:51] in underground churches and even in some schools.

[00:22:56] Well, following her death in 1963, her teachings on the Bible were assembled and put into what is the Bible all about?

[00:23:08] I have that.

[00:23:09] That's right.

[00:23:10] And it was used by Billy Graham to hand out to new believers when they came to Christ.

[00:23:15] And it's sold millions of copies in many languages and can still be found in libraries of students and teachers and pastors all over the world.

[00:23:27] And still relevant because it's God's Word.

[00:23:30] It is.

[00:23:31] It's just beautiful.

[00:23:31] And Glint continued to publish other books as well as they're publishing Henrietta.

[00:23:37] And over the years, Glint published several of my books into different languages.

[00:23:42] And I went to Bulgaria to teach a writer's workshop.

[00:23:46] And they had one of my books there in Bulgarian.

[00:23:48] And it was a Glint project.

[00:23:52] It's amazing to see the interconnections and the ripples.

[00:23:56] Yes.

[00:23:57] Colleen Evans talks about the ripple effect over all these years.

[00:24:01] You know, we're going to have to bring this second session to a climax.

[00:24:07] We have to do a third one, Carol.

[00:24:08] We have to do a third because you promised us that you were going to show us how her chemistry background came into a lot of her ministry and what she taught.

[00:24:18] And I'm so excited about that.

[00:24:22] I was friends growing up.

[00:24:23] A man named Harold Shelfont, who also was a friend of Henrietta Maris, was very instrumental also in my father's life.

[00:24:30] And he was a scientist at heart and brought science into all of his lessons and really would ignite people.

[00:24:39] And it was a different type of apologetics that was fascinating.

[00:24:43] So I want to get to that, our second session.

[00:24:46] So we're going to ask you, I know you're saying, why are you ending now?

[00:24:50] Well, time's up.

[00:24:52] So you're just going to have to come.

[00:24:54] Right.

[00:24:54] We love the stories.

[00:24:56] So come back for part three of Henrietta Maris.

[00:25:00] That's coming at you next week.

[00:25:10] Thank you for listening to Women Worth Knowing with Cheryl Broderson and Robin Jones-Gunn.

[00:25:15] For more information on Cheryl, visit CherylBroderson.com or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

[00:25:21] For more information on Robin, visit RobinGunn.com or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

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