12. Called to Train
Leaders
IN ONE SENSE this is probably the most important chapter in this book, for it contains literally a seminar resumé of Teacher's practical rules for leadership and an evaluation of her ministry technique. Teacher was called to train leaders. She became aware of this calling, and the results through the years have witnessed to that calling. It has been a consistent calling that has produced consistent results; it has not been a spasmodic spurt of occasional inspiration.
To illustrate the point, here is an excerpt from a letter from one of her spiritual sons in seminary: "Just the other day a friend took me aside and asked me to tell him very frankly about Miss Mears. As in the past, I confessed an almost uncritical and naive love for and loyalty towards this woman who has meant so much to me and to my closest friends. All of us here at Princeton from Hollywood rise up and call her blessed at every remembrance. It was because she yielded to the Christ whom she loves above all else that we met Him, that we are here today training for the ministry. Interestingly, there are over a dozen here right now who could specifically point to her as their 'mother' in the faith. There are also here approximately another dozen and a half, who are direct, spiritual descendants of Dr. Robert Munger, her own 'son in the faith.' And this is just one year's class! I learned yesterday from a graduate of 1952 that during his stay here there were roughly comparable numbers from the two churches just mentioned. This 'spiritual blood-line' extends back to the very first year of her Christian ministry."
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A striking illustration is one even unto the fourth generation. When Dr. MacLennan was going to take his leave of absence from Hollywood Presbyterian Church, he asked Miss Mears whom she thought he should get to take the pulpit. Miss Mears said that there were only two possible selections in her estimation, Dr. Courtland B. Meyers or Dr. William Evans. Since Dr. Meyers was dead, that left only one possible selection. Dr. William Evans came and remained as a temporary replacement, but when Dr. "Mac" decided to make his retirement permanent, Dr. William Evans could not remain permanently but suggested his son, Dr. Louis Evans. Dr. Louis Evans came and his sons, Louis Evans, Jr., and William began growing up in Sunday school and were both in the College Department for years; Lou, Jr., was once president of the group. They had deep spiritual experiences at Forest Home, and made their decision for the ministry.
Louis Evans, Jr., after completing his studies at the seminary and in Scotland, is now building his first church in Bel Air, in West Los Angeles. Since there is no church building yet, and since his home is very full of family with his two small sons and daughter, Lou tried to find a quiet place to study. By invitation from Miss Mears he slips into a quiet room on the first floor of her house which is directly under Miss Mears' own private study. The arrangement is that whenever Miss Mears has any time for fellowship she is to pound on the floor and Lou, Jr., will come upstairs for discussion and prayer. One day, as I heard the door closing beneath, I could not help but think that it was a striking example of the spiritual influence of Miss Mears upon the father, the son, the son's sons, and as Lou, Jr's sons grow, the influence may well carry into the fourth generation. This same illustration could be carried out in many, many instances throughout the families who have been drawn to, nurtured and inspired in the Sunday school at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.
In trying to analyze the ingredients of Miss Mears' training program, I have approached it as a necessity, for she has found the key for effective leadership and for training that leadership, and the key, if we are able to find it, should be passed around to everyone everywhere in every Christian work so that the potential of God might be opened up in an even greater way in our service.
Since science is still talking about the fourth dimension, I thought it only natural to skip over that and look for the fifth dimension in Miss Mears' ministry, and I believe I have found five "dimensions" which comprehensively describe her work and which will at least
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give us a framework. The "dimensions" of Henrietta Mears' ministry all begin with the letter "D": they are devotion, dedication, discipleship, discernment, and discipline. They should not be considered as a list but rather in the form of a five-sided figure, or a Christian life, that contains all five dimensions: a figure Christ-centered, Spirit-inspired, and under the sovereignty of God.
First, the devotion must be there to the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Son of God: the love and appreciation for Him that gives us a warm, overflowing, compassionate love for others. You must love Him before you can love others. If you do not have love for others the works are so cold and unlovely that they are undesirable. But Scripture has already said that works without love are as tinkling brass and clanging cymbals, cold, dead and useless. So first comes Teacher's great devotion to her Lord.
The dedication follows devotion, for unless you really love someone or something you do not dedicate yourself to that person or cause. And if you love someone and do not dedicate yourself to that one, of what use is the love? I imagine many Christians love Christ, or they would not be Christians, yet the love is meaningless if it is not dedicated to the Lord so that He may challenge it and channel it for His use.
The discipleship is the remaining true and the following constantly and consistently in the path of the dedication. We can love Christ, dedicate ourselves in service, but if we do not get up and go, of what avail is the dedication? Or if we get up and go but are inconsistent in our discipleship we may well be a stumbling block or a millstone to others.
Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit. He has promised that He will give us the discernment in spiritual matters if we ask for it. It is like having a "spiritual thermometer" to take the spiritual temperature of a situation, or a meeting or program, to be able to sense the spiritual pulse of a group and be able to see what is wrong or where the spiritual weakness lies. The discernment of the Spirit is a constant guide by which to measure the spiritual mood. It is this great discernment which Miss Mears has and which she tries to develop in her leaders.
Discipline is the discipline of self and the discipline in all that we do for Christ. We are in the "army of Christ." We must have the discipline of an army working together. You can have love for the Lord, be dedicated and be following in discipleship with all your
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might and main, and have discernment, but without the discipline to keep the most effective program for the Lord, they will be of no avail. This is the hardest part of the Christian program and the one least desired by leaders. It is much easier to let people get by with things than to risk their disfavor by using the hand of discipline. And I think this is the most vital key to Miss Mears' ministry and spiritual success! For you can have all of the other four qualities, but if you do not have the discipline, it will all fall to pieces. It is the necessary discipline of holding to the will of God. If you get off-course by one degree in navigation, or in spiritual matters, the longer that one degree of error is followed, the greater the distance by which you will miss your mark and the farther off-course you will be as you continue to follow that slight degree in error. The proper discernment so that one can make the immediate discovery of a slight degree of error so that the spiritual discipline necessary to bring it back to the Christ-center may be applied is Teacher's rarest gift, and the one quality she has found most rare in her leaders!
Devotion and discipline are synonymous in the mind of God, for "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." So devotion must be in the heart, to follow before and after the discipline, for discipline without devotion is cruel and bleak and damaging. And so the cycle is complete, the five-sided figure joined together.
Miss Mears talks more about the penalty of leadership than she does about the privileges of leadership, for you can't have the privileges unless you are willing to pay the penalties first. To be a leader there are certain things you are going to have to deny yourself, if you're going to be a success. Whenever Miss Mears gives a leader a responsibility, that responsibility must come first; everything else must be secondary in importance. She warns her leaders not to accept responsibility unless they mean to carry it through and unless they have the necessary time and dedication to devote to it. If you fail in your responsibility, everything will stand still, valuable time will be lost, and perhaps opportunities will be ruined that will never return again.
The regulations for leadership are similar to those for athletes. You do not have the privilege of making touchdowns until you have paid the penalty of consistent training. An athlete must deny himself late hours, the round of social occasions and many other things. A spiritual leader must realize the cost that must be met to be a success: there is the sacrifice of other interests, a dedication of time; he must
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be completely dedicated to "This one thing I do." A leader must be willing to work. The visions, dreams, prayers, desires, inspiration must resolve themselves in good, hard work. Nothing can take the place of it.
If you want to be a pianist, you can't pray that the Lord will make you a pianist and never get off your knees. The Lord cannot make you a pianist unless you practice on the piano. You can pray before and you can pray afterwards, but you had better practice in between. There must be teamwork between the Lord and the individual. As has been said, "Work as though everything depended upon you and pray as though everything depended upon God." Miss Mears has always felt that the most untrue statement in the world is, "Oh, I'd just give anything in the world if I could play the piano like that! or the violin! or sing!" People who say that wouldn't give anything in the world for this accomplishment or they would have given it! In reality they are not willing to spend the long hours in practice, the necessary money for lessons, the years necessary to become an accomplished artist. They aren't willing to make the sacrifice. They actually mean, "I would love to play the piano like that, but I chose to give my time to something else. There was something else I wanted more." Or perhaps they mean, "I'd love to play the piano like that, if it didn't take any work and if there were an easy way to learn!" But they do not mean that they are willing to give anything in the world for the ability!
If you want the results in your ministry you have to be willing to pay the price. Miss Mears has always found that the only persons who really begin to accomplish things for Christ are the ones who fall flat on their faces because they realize their inadequacies. They have tried their level best but still find it far short of what they could or should have done. As soon as anyone begins to feel satisfied with himself, or satisfied with the way the Lord is blessing him, it is spiritual suicide. Christ-confidence plus human humility would seem to be the formula for all effective Christian workers.
How does Miss Mears pick her leaders? One leader has written: "She chooses them not for what they are but for what, with God's grace, they can become. She encourages them with her unbounding enthusiasm and confidence. She makes every resource available to them, including herself and her very wonderful and capable technician, Ethel May Baldwin. She expects her leaders to develop their
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own initiative, resources, plans and materials. If you show no initiative, you are dropped."
Another letter reads: "One of the qualities among many that Miss Mears exhibited that always interested me was her uncanny ability to pick out of situations the important thing to do; or out of conversations the important issues to discuss or remember. She seems to have a peculiar discernment, and keen perception, as to just how to pick people for particular jobs and then somehow to impart to them the incentive and the energy for doing them!"
L. David Cowie, now a Presbyterian minister in Seattle, and probably her first illustrious "spiritual son" said, "Teacher is a hard taskmaster. She expects everything for Christ. She has the knack of making you feel that you are the most important person in the whole world. No matter how much she has to do she makes you feel that she has all the time in the world for you." (I think every letter mentions that quality.) "She puts you on your mettle to produce. You had to do it and she wanted you to be able to do it, to feel the sole responsibility, and not to have any feeling that she would do it for you. She literally forced me into being a leader. She pushed me into responsibility."
Dave was the third president of the new College Department organized on Miss Mears' arrival at the Hollywood church, and he remembers that he held the office for a "long, long, time!" He remembers standing outside her office door and saying, "I won't do it! I won't go down and lead the songs. I don't know how! I'm not a song leader. I won't do it!"
Miss Mears very quietly, firmly, and positively would say, "Well, you're the class president. It's up to you. Now, you go down and do it. No one else will do it if you don't!"
She has always pushed her leaders. If they accomplish one thing creditably, she pushes them on to bigger and better things. They can never stay static or satisfied with present results or with what they have just done. If they achieve one goal, she pushes them immediately to a larger goal. She pushes them beyond any capacity they ever dreamed possible. She doesn't let them repeat a success but pushes them into something new and more challenging.
The first thing I remember her asking me to do, when I was just a newcomer in the group, was to read some of my original poems at a tea. I would have been very happy to continue in this capacity ad infinitum. But no! Next came requests for original monologues for
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banquets, then writing plays for the church functions, then complete dramatic productions, then writing film scripts! I was called in for a script conference and went happily. She had gotten me to this point. Then I asked who was going to direct the film, and she waved her hand airily in my direction and said, "Oh, you can direct the film!" I had never directed a film in my life, and all of us involved in the task looked at my assignment with the same dubious sense of futility. But she had pushed me into it, so direct it I did. And the red-headed, professional Hollywood cameraman came to admit that he had never worked so hard in his life as he had for me and that I was about the only person he was afraid of! It was nothing personal. Teacher pushed me into it. Then came the production of a pageant with four hundred in the cast, jets from the Air Force, military band, dynamite blasts, biblical scenes. Teacher had told me to produce a pageant. She didn't say what, why, who, or specifically where except that it should be on the 750 acres of Forest Home on Memorial Day. What I did, or how I did it, was entirely up to me. Knowing her demands for perfection, I went to work. I produced the pageant for five years. Then a Forest Home Board member paid for the filming of the pageant, and when the assignment for the film production was placed in my hands, I never questioned whether I could do it or not; I just did it, that's all. With jets screaming overhead, horses racing by, military bands marching, Indians canoeing across the lake, four hundred people involved, a thought crossed my mind in the hot afternoons as the cameras rolled, and I wondered just how far this lady could push. It was a long road I had traveled, from reading some poems at a tea. Then, as I was hoping that I would be able to sit down and fold my hands, along comes the assignment for my first book. Mind you, I don't get to practice up on a lesser assignment; I have to cut my literary teeth on a biography of Teacher! I did not mean to write this at all. But when I began writing about the way Teacher pushes her leaders, the typewriter keys just fell all over themselves.
I almost view with "holy horror" what her next request might be. It won't be another book, for that would be too simple for her assignment; I've done that now. It will be something new, I have no doubt. And the point of it is, that if she would ask me to go to the moon and claim it for Christ, I would probably go. I know I am not giving her any new ideas, for if it is worth doing, she has already thought of it.
The practical application of this principle in leadership is the delegation
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of authority, to get the many into the planning and execution of the program. She teaches her leaders to utilize as many other individuals as possible in carrying out the work. If a leader has to "do it all himself," and keep a controlling finger on every project, then the program will be stifled, stymied and will not progress. "You are not effective until you can multiply yourself," she says. This does not mean that Teacher does not keep a close supervision and awareness of everything; but each leader must carry out his individual assignment and responsibility. Miss Mears has always striven to utilize the contribution, initiative and originality of the many and has always hoped that things she undertook would not have a "Mearsy" quality. The more people involved in the planning, the greater will be the interest. As more people help in the production, more leaders will be developed who will be able to minister to more people.
She has always trained her leaders to distribute themselves by distributing leadership and to guide the others as they carry out the plans and procedures. This is "extending leadership through others." She warns her leaders not to spread themselves too thin in their service. She recently cautioned the president of the college class that he simply could not be concerned with making personal contacts with six hundred people; he would wear himself out and nothing would be accomplished. He must work through his leaders in the department, pass on the responsibility, inspire them with the right spirit so they in turn can reach the others.
Miss Mears will never tell you what to do. You must think for yourself. You must decide the course of action. She demands that her leaders take over complete authority in the sphere in which they have been assigned. If the leader doesn't, no one else will. If you are "hired to drive a particular truck, no one else will drive that truck unless you do. Thousands of others may have the ability to drive trucks but no one has been authorized to drive that particular truck but you." So with other responsibilities: if you have been authorized to do a certain task, do it with all the initiative and enthusiasm and success possible, according to the terms of the assignment.
If you assign responsibility to others, then expect them to carry on that responsibility. Don't let them get by without doing it. If you have been assigned a responsibility and you accept that responsibility, then give others the confidence that you have accepted it completely, and that you will follow through and do it to the fullest
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extent of your ability. Let nothing cause you to fail. That is the only way to build a reputation of having the confidence of others. This distribution of responsibility and authority is a vital principle.
It is obvious that if a leader is going to lead others he must instill a confidence in others so that they will follow him. The people with whom he is working must feel that the program the leader wants to present will work and that it is the best plan. They must have confidence that his ideas are sound and right. A leader cannot force his ideas on others; he must win their confidence. A leader cannot lead through dictatorship or coercion: that is not leadership.
Everyone resents a change. This is human nature. They resent the one who comes in bristling with new ideas. Their first reaction is to reject the improvements. So you must have your line of attack carefully planned. You must win their confidence so that they will depend upon you to succeed in whatever you suggest. As a leader you can never present anything that is a failure. If you fail in something one time, that's all that is needed to shake the confidence of others in you. If one thing is allowed to be poor, one mistake made, it is a blight on every single thing from then on and you yourself are conscious of it as well as others. You lose confidence in yourself. So a leader can never let down once, not one single time, in the Kingdom's work. You may not have the second chance. You must do everything in your power to give your best to have everything perfect and pray for God to bless it. That is why it is essential to keep constantly close to the Bible in study for guidance, and to maintain a constant prayer line.
Miss Mears has learned all her psychology of leadership from the Bible by studying the ways in which God has dealt with and shaped His leaders. But the study of Scripture should not be a stilted study, she says, for you can take a bleak outline of Scripture, a mechanical verse-structure study, a dull chapter-a-day routine, and miss the Scripture. "Read until you get the meaning. I always read until I find some special portion that really speaks to my heart. Then I get a new understanding; it inspires me to new thoughts. It may be the first verse that I read or it may not be until I have read the third chapter."
A letter from one of her Sunday school superintendents states: "Miss Mears taught us by what she said, did and was. She opened up the Scriptures with rare, direct, and challenging insight. Added to her own spiritual insight, she brought to her Sunday school materials
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and to her public speaking the very cream of Bible expositors. Everyone sensed that her spiritual power, either in speaking, teaching or in personal counsel, came from her intimate fellowship with her indwelling Lord, kept fresh morning by morning and moment by moment. The women of the Auxiliary will never forget her year's exposition of the Book of Romans! We wept through the seventh chapter and triumphed through the eighth. The key to her success seems to be: reach all you can, teach all you reach, win all you teach, enlist all you win, train all you enlist."
To accomplish the final formula mentioned in that letter, you must have a clearly defined purpose in everything you plan. The program must be planned and prepared with perfection of purpose. Miss Mears' program has been to present the person of Christ; her standards are those that will most effectively carry out the program.
The church and Sunday school program should offer something different than is offered anywhere else in the world. If you offer same things in your church program that can be found elsewhere, young people will wonder why they came. The program must be "different." The program must have challenge and satisfy spiritually — otherwise, why go to church? If you offer Christ, the way of salvation, the beauty of holiness and the joy and fun that can accompany the seriousness and the sacred, they will find the answer in your program even as the tens of thousands have found the answer in Hollywood.
Parties presented at the church can have beautiful decorations and a theme, every detail "party-perfect," and a Christ-centered program; the response may be illustrated in the remark made by the president of the student body at the University of Southern California: "Miss Mears, we don't have any parties at U.S.C. as fine as those put on at our College Department here at church." The package can be as attractive as possible, just so it is filled with the true purpose of the church and the Sunday school.
As for the potential of a program begun for God and with God through Christ, Miss Mears has so often said, "If I had my life to live over again, I would just believe God. I would just believe Him more and more with never any feeling of any doubt that anything is too ambitious in the Lord, or that perhaps He doesn't mean for us to try this or that because it is too ambitious." She has maintained and instilled in all her leaders a vision that has no limits.
"Dare to look ahead!" she tells them. "Have unlimited vision under
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God, have enthusiasm and faith in what God can do. Without this vision you will become discouraged with the situation at hand; with it you will know that with God all things are possible. Beginning with things as they are and having the vision of what God can do, you will make an unbeatable team."
The young men who have trained under Miss Mears' leadership have been so thankful for the way she has taught them to look ahead and to have a vision of what God can do. Otherwise they would be discouraged as they go out into the little towns where congregations are so limited and prospects so discouraging. But "with God all things are possible," and "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" and ". . . my God shall supply all your needs . . ." and "Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things . . ." and "Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think . . ." — and with these promises ringing in their ears, they look at the discouraging circumstances as thrilling adventures and promising potentialities in Christ Jesus. One young minister went to a small town and is holding three duplicate Sunday morning services!
When young men go out into the ministry and they find no young people in a church, Teacher says it won't do any good to go out and round up a hundred, for what will you do with them then? Rather, get one person and lead him to Christ; then the two of you get one more. Build your nucleus of Christ-centered leadership one at a time. Be sure the core of your work is good, or as the numbers increase it will collapse. It is never a question of building a bigger Sunday school but rather of building a better one. As a better one is built, more will be attracted to it. Many leaders are anxious to get numbers without planning on what to do with them after they get there! Why attract thousands to a rally day program if you don't have the organization to take care of the, planned programs, teachers organized and well-trained leaders ready to plan activities?
Teacher has always demanded perfection and preparation in everything done under her supervision, and there is a direct relation between the work of preparation and the results of perfection. She has never been able to tolerate inefficiency and has never excused it, for it weakens the effectiveness of the entire program. She has demanded a vigilant standard of perfection in everything her leaders do. She feels that the great curse of Christian work is the poor way in which it is usually done. No venture in the commercial world
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would be run under ineffective and inefficient organization and administration, yet the people who work this way in the church wonder why they do not have a spiritually successful church! Often those who profess the greatest love for Christian work do it in the poorest and most slipshod fashion.
There should be a beauty and dignity of holiness in the church program, and meticulous care of the children! The Lord is certainly meticulous in everything He instructs His children to do; there is perfection and precision in the tiniest detail in every work done for the Lord by the Lord's requirements through the Old Testament. And Christ came to fulfill the laws of the Old Testament, and even raised the standards in many instances.
Teacher has always said, "Never have anything mediocre or good. The good is the greatest enemy of the best. Let your continual challenge be, 'Is this the best we can do? Can we make it better? Is this the biggest, the best we can make it for the Lord?' " But be very sure the ambition is always for the Lord's will and not for self. There must be complete consecration among Christian leaders. So many people are willing to be bellhops for the Lord, standing around waiting for someone to give them some little errand to do for Him, instead of asking the Lord to give them His greatest will for their lives. There are so few who want to do the big things for God. As Teacher has so often said, "You should not be content to pump the organ if God wants you to play on it!"
Probably the most difficult aspect of having a standard of perfection in all that we do as Christians is to maintain that standard of perfection. It is not too difficult to do something good once, a flash-in-the-pan performance, so to speak, but to maintain a standard of effective performance is the difficult and great necessity of Christian work. There are fifty-two hours to plan for the Sunday morning and evening programs. If just one of these meetings is poor, it will let down the standard and will disappoint those who come, destroying confidence in the entire program of the church. People who came to the program that was poor will say, "Oh, I went there once and I know what it is like. It was so poor and slipshod I will never go back again."
That same standard of perfection must be maintained not only through the year but through the years. If there are four children in the family and there is an effective and enthusiastic church program for the oldest child, it must be just as effective and enthusiastic and even
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more so, by the time the youngest child goes through the various departments. At Hollywood Presbyterian Church a vast host have watched their children go through the Sunday school and are now watching their grandchildren come up through the departments, and the same standard of perfection has been maintained. Henrietta Mears has seen to that.
She says one must always maintain a "one-time philosophy" in the program, as well as a consistent standard. You never know when someone will be there in the audience for the first and only time; perhaps it is the only time he will be able to come; perhaps he is just passing through the city, or on a very short visit, and this will be the only time he will ever visit the class, or the program, or the church service. Will he get the answer?
A letter from a young minister reads thus: "Last year, I met a couple who were preparing to embark for Africa who told that they had met Christ while passing through Hollywood, just happening to visit the College Department and 'by chance' hearing Dr. Henrietta Mears teach the Scriptures in her inimitable way. When I think of her present influence and then multiply that by the years, I can understand why someone once said, 'There is not an airport in a major city in the world where Miss Mears will not be met by a devotee.' "
Miss Mears has always maintained that "one-time philosophy" with everyone she meets or ministers to in any way. "You will never have a second chance at a vast number of those to whom you minister," says Miss Mears. To illustrate the point, a young architectural engineer, a graduate of Penn State, dropped in one day for a visit to the College Department. Because of the challenge he heard that one time, he is now a missionary in India. A soloist from Detroit came out to Hollywood for a visit of a week, came to the class once, and it changed the course of his life; he is now a seminary student in Dallas. An Annapolis student, a non-Christian, stopped in for one Sunday because he had promised his great-aunt he would do so; because of the challenge he heard that one time, and an invitation to Forest Home, he is now a Christian and has established Bible groups in Korea and is planning to go into vocational ministry when he returns.
Seventeen years ago a lovely young girl from an eastern state, visiting the Sunday school for the first and only time, got into the wrong department and heard the challenge for Christ given by Miss Mears. To this day she can remember every word of it. She married
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a handsome air pilot and they established a Christian home. She had come just once to visit the class.
To fulfill and maintain this standard of perfection and "one-time philosophy," Teacher's great stress has been on preparation. Whenever Miss Mears has any nightmares, they are about being unprepared. Life is filled with nightmares if you are not prepared and ready. There must be preparation for everything: for the teaching ministry, for the prayer meeting, for the committee meeting, for the party — even when just two people get together to plan and discuss a project.
The Duke of Wellington was always fifteen minutes ahead of time for everything, and he claimed that as his most important asset. Never rush up to the last minute in preparation. If there is a task that you spent little time on, but the result is still "good," that is inspiration, but you cannot depend upon inspiration; and think how much better the job would have been if there had been preparation plus inspiration.
Miss Mears always tells young ministers, "You can't just prepare your sermon for Sunday morning. You have to know that the janitor is there to sweep the church, that the soloist is there, that the organist will be there, that the flowers are arranged, that the books are out; you have to know these things. You can't do anything well unless every detail is well planned, and I find that doing things with a zest and having every detail perfect challenges people; they like to get on a band wagon that is really moving."
Don't insult people by inviting them to something that isn't planned. You can't make an invitation for the program on Sunday night, "Come on out to the service for young people. We don't know who the speaker is going to be but we know you'll enjoy him." The church is so apt to insult the intelligence of the people. God is not limited except by the limitations we put on His program. Everything God has planned is so magnificent, Teacher points out, that when you are decorating for a party, look at what God has done in His beauty and point your standard in that direction. Try to bring your standards up to the infinity of God. The compensation of anything well done is so rewarding that it is worth every effort we can make. We should never forget the words that every Christian servant hopes to hear: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
You get out of a project or program just what you put into it, and if it doesn't take anything out of you, it won't be worth doing. A congregation
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inviting a famous minister to come to preach on a certain occasion tried to get him there by promising it wouldn't take anything out of him. His reply was that if it didn't take any effort on his part, or take anything out of him, then it wouldn't be worth the trip.
Miss Mears is all for immediate action, and recommends that as soon as possible, when a person gets a good idea, he should act on it. "If it's worth doing at all, it should be done immediately. Otherwise it's like a sparkling cold glass of ginger ale; if you don't drink it immediately but set it aside for an hour or two, when you do drink it, it is lukewarm and all the fizz is gone out of it. If you lay a plan aside until later, all the sparkle is gone."
When the Hollywood Christian Group was being formed to start a Christian work among the acting profession in Hollywood films, it was suggested that the plan be set aside until fall. It was the early summer then, and there were all sorts of imagined hindrances in the way. "Then forget all about it!" commanded Teacher adamantly. "If it's worth doing in the fall, it's worth doing now, but if you wait until fall all the sparkle and enthusiasm will be gone. What is the first night you can get started?"
Three nights later the first meeting was held in her home in Westwood. Dale Evans writes of that meeting: "That was a memorable night in 1950 when a small group of the Hollywood entertainment industry knelt in the living room of Miss Mears' Westwood home and unconditionally surrendered our lives to be used of the Lord Jesus Christ in reaching others for the Kingdom of our Lord through the industry." I wonder what would have happened if the plans and the meeting had been delayed until fall? The group has been meeting weekly every since. Through this group, Miss Mears has counseled with Dale Evans, Roy Rogers, Connie Haines, Jane Russell, Marjorie Rambeau, Robert Clarke, Stuart Hamblen, Tim Spencer, Redd Harper and Cindy Walker.
Teacher has always had the great gift of being able to show appreciation for the accomplishment of her leaders. A leader should have this, in abundance. If you appreciate what is done, greater effort will be made to do more the next time, but if appreciation is not shown, the zeal and enthusiasm will die. If you want to stifle initiative and accomplishment, the quickest and most effective way to do it is to withhold appreciation. Teacher always has great enthusiasm
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in her appreciation, and she builds confidence in her leaders so that they are willing to tackle the next job and try twice as hard.
She has always trained her leaders to be good listeners, and she is the brightest example of the art. When you have become used to having Miss Mears in your audience, other audiences fall flat without her quick appreciation, her audible response, her hearty laugh as she catches every shade of humor in any situation, and her absorbed appreciation of the deep subtle meanings. She nudges whoever is sitting next to her in exact proportion to her appreciation of what is being said or done, her laughter rising as she revels in the good times of the various groups. Not only does she show great appreciation for the efforts of others, but she will never stand in the way of her leaders' advancement, even if it means that they desert her to go off to fields of other service. She sends them on their way with prayer and with promise and rejoicing. Her gift of appreciation, enthusiasm, and encouragement of others has probably done the greatest amount of work for a zestful program.
Many things that have really been accomplished — the world has first said would be impossible. Resistance is given every new idea, but when the consecrated individual, despite all costs, wins the victory, everyone is ready to jump on the band wagon. You do not make yourself popular by being a leader. People usually do not like to see any one person getting ahead, or used in a particular or outstanding way; they don't like to have their pet theories trampled on or have anyone cut across their plans. The leader must be true to his calling, regardless of misunderstandings, criticism and ill will. For comfort a leader should remember to "Beware when all men speak well of you."
To paraphrase Scriptural advice, if you are doing an effective work for Christ, you will surely meet Satanic interference. If you are in Christian work and are receiving no great upsets and hindrances, then you may be assured that you are not doing an effective work and that Satan isn't the least concerned with your efforts.
Yes, there is a penalty price attached to leadership. It takes great moral courage to be a leader. It is much easier not to take the initiative, but to sit back and relax. You have to do many things of which people don't approve, because it takes too much effort on their part to carry out new ideas. It will cause them too much trouble. Many people talk a wonderful life of dedication but when it means personal inconvenience or sacrifice, it is a different story altogether.
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Miss Mears' two aunts, Liz and Cornelia, were the typical Mary and Martha. Liz did all the work, washed the dishes and did the planning while Cornelia was the dreamer, the musician, very ethereal in her approach to life. Once in discussion with her brother, Henrietta's father, Cornelia said in complaint, "Oh dear, just think of all the dishes that Liz breaks!" To which her brother replied, "Who else would break any? She is the only one who does the dishes!" Miss Mears has always used this as an example when someone criticizes the mistakes that a leader might make. She says, "Of course he is making mistakes. No one else is doing anything about it; he's the only one going ahead with the work."
But even though the path of a leader is lonely at times, and often solitary, Miss Mears advises her leaders not to break away from people. Leaders should try to stay in favor with God and men as much as possible. One seminary student said, "I learned more sitting on a couch in Miss Mears' office than I have in all my college training."
These, then, are some of the principles as practiced and advised for effective leadership by Miss Henrietta Mears: maintain purpose of program; maintain a standard of excellence and perfection; have a keen regard for the use of time, your own and that of others; pay the penalty of leadership; maintain the five dimensions of Christian service: devotion, dedication, discipleship, discernment, and discipline; search the Scriptures; maintain constant prayer; prepare for everything.
At a New Year's Watch service in the College Department, everyone was kneeling in prayer at midnight. A young seminary student, Harold Graham, on vacation from seminary, was kneeling beside Miss Mears. When the time of silent prayer was over, he leaned over and said, "Miss Mears, do you know what I prayed tonight?"
"No," said Miss Mears. "What was it?"
"I prayed that the Lord would make me enough of a minister that I could have you for my Christian Education Director."
He was a brilliant young man, head and shoulders above his fellows, and well liked by all. He finished the seminary and took his first church, which immediately began to grow in a tremendous way. Nine months after his ministry began, he died. His sudden, early death was a shock to all. His friends back at seminary wrote to Miss Mears and asked "Why?" She pointed out to them that perhaps we
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are not training for the future. Perhaps our only time of ministry is now, in the immediate present, and perhaps it is all we'll have.
Harold Graham died twenty-five years ago (in 1932). But perhaps his prayer is being answered; perhaps the Lord is making him a big enough minister so he can have Henrietta Mears for his Christian Education Director. And if they have churches in heaven he is probably getting the church ready for Miss Mears' arrival. For it's going to be a grand and glorious reunion when all the College Departments and Miss Mears' leaders and ministers and teachers get together again. What a party that will be!
