2. Today's
Schedule
MISS MEAR's HOME is on the famous Sunset Boulevard, near the U.C.L.A. campus. It is three stories high and was built as a copy of a little French castle. It is an exact duplication and took five years to build, many of the materials having been imported from all over the world by the original builders. It has been Miss Mears' home for the past four years.
When Henrietta's sister, Margaret, who had shared and created a home for Henrietta ever since she was born, died in 1952 at Christmastime, Teacher knew that the house she had at that time would be too big for her alone. She knew she would either need a very small apartment, which would fit just her needs, or else a much larger establishment which could be used and shared by many. If she had a large place it could be opened and used for church groups, college student affairs, and would meet special group needs.
And so Miss Mears' home was found. The house was built about twenty-five years ago. When Miss Mears held open house, a prominent Los Angeles builder said, "Twenty years ago the Lord must have said, 'I'm going to build a house for Henrietta Mears. She doesn't need it now, and she doesn't know anything about it, but I'm going to have it ready for her when she does.' There is no other way to account for it. How perfect it is for your needs!"
She has a wing for her personal and private use which contains the large bedroom suite and bath upstairs, with the drawing room below, private entrance and foyer. Another wing opposite is used by a young couple who help in the supervision of the household. The housekeeper
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also has her room in that wing. This wing, to which college students have access, contains the kitchens, a small dining room and a "prayer room." The two wings are joined together by the large dining room and entry hall with Teacher's study jutting out in a separate middle wing.
It is a perfect setting for the art objects Miss Mears has collected on her travels, and for the beautiful antique furnishings, and the style of gracious entertaining which has been a tradition in Miss Mears' family. There is not a crack in the structure and it is set on a crushed rock foundation. So Miss Mears says with a twinkle, "My house is built on a rock!" There is an acre and a fourth in the large, spacious gardens surrounding the "castle."
The first Christian churches were established in homes, and Miss Mears feels that the home should have great spiritual significance. Just so, her home has been an integral part of her work. She feels that if people have been in her house and have sat at her table, a rapport has been established.
So now Miss Mears is home from her latest trip and has added several new art treasures to her collection. She shares the beauty of these treasures by calling them to the attention of everyone who comes to visit her. A large, spectacular painting of the "Altar of the Andes" adds a dramatic note to the living room. There are several paintings from Italy, one of the Apostle John, another of Christ blessing the children, and a copy of the "Madonna of the Chair." One painting her father had commissioned seventy-five years ago. He went to an artist in Chicago and told him, "There must be mountains in the background with trees and river in front." And that is exactly what the artist produced in this scene of quiet rest and beauty.
Miss Mears' study is comfortable and inviting, with windows along the walls on both sides. There are pictures of her "children" everywhere — some in wedding pictures, some with their small children, some in ministerial robes, some taken on mission stations.
Miss Mears has so many different but concurrent activities that it will be very hard to keep up with them all, but we shall try. As we leave her Sunset home, we're in Hollywood, just four blocks from Hollywood and Vine, two blocks east, two blocks north. The large new Hollywood freeway cuts dramatically above and to the north, with a cut-off leading right to the front door of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. The Gothic tower of the church is in clear view of all the thousands of cars passing by daily. Here on the corner of Gower
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and Carlos, occupying a square city block, is the beautifully integrated church plant. Old buildings have been replaced, or have been incorporated into new ones, as the Sunday school continues to burst its seams. This is her first stop, for she is the Director of Christian Education here.
Miss Mears has outlasted two pastors and was on the welcoming committee for the third; all three men were spiritual giants. Dr. Raymond Lindquist, the "new" pastor, succeeding Dr. Louis H. Evans four years ago, recently stated that many people ask him how he accounts for the success of the Hollywood church and the continuity of the program and he tells them it is the Sunday school, the organization, the carry-on; that a great orator like a Talmadge could come and attract a great host but the moment his voice dimmed, the crowds would be gone. He said that this is the amazing thing about the Hollywood church; it moves. Men may come or go, but the church moves on and there is no other solution, no other answer except the Sunday school.
As Christian Education Director, Miss Mears has full responsibility for a Sunday school of more than six thousand full-time pupils. It has been a steady, well-organized growth over the past twenty-eight years, constant, consistent, coordinated, and Christ-centered. Today this means there must be constant supervision by the group of over five hundred teachers, officers and staff members of the extended sessions during the duplicate church services. These volunteer workers must be trained, encouraged, and inspired. There is a monthly teachers' and officers' meeting which begins at five o'clock in the afternoon and continues, at least for Teacher, probably until past midnight. No one misses the meeting, not only because perfect attendance is expected, but because nobody wants to miss it.
That is Teacher's charm and challenge: to make everything so stimulating and intriguing that everyone tries to get to the front row. She has chosen her leaders for the Sunday school from the ranks of the Sunday school, and she has trained them well.
As we have seen in the preceding chapter, Miss Mears' spiritual sons and daughters are everywhere, and they all lovingly call her "Teacher." According to Miss Mears, this is the highest tribute they could pay her, for she would rather succeed in teaching the spiritual truths of Christ than to succeed in anything else in the world. Someone once tried to get her to commit herself on the more or less controversial subject of the "gift of tongues" as being the mandatory gift of the Holy Spirit. She neatly and tactfully summed it up this way: "In the
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Bible where the gifts of the Spirit are listed, teaching is at the top of the list and speaking in tongues ranks fourth. I want the top! I want the gift of teaching."
And she has the gift of teaching. She started her teaching career as a chemistry teacher in a Minneapolis high school. Her knowledge of science and chemistry has always strengthened her approach to spiritual matters and has equipped her with knowledge which her keen mind uses well as she meets the questioning minds of young people.
Today, one of her great challenges is the College Department, the Sunday school class of over six hundred young men and women of college age which she has taught for the past twenty-eight years. The group is constantly changing, so her audience is continually new. This group meets Sunday mornings for class, Sunday evenings for college hour, and on Wednesday nights for prayer meetings, with parties, deputation groups, conferences and retreats in between. Miss Mears must counsel, supervise, train her leaders and present a continuing challenge in her teaching.
There are these same meetings to supervise for the high school and junior high, and for the Ambassador group, the business and professional young people just above college age. For all of these groups the leadership has had to be trained, all teaching materials coordinated and all personnel supervised in a Sunday school of eighteen departments and six thousand members. Miss Mears' practical approach is that every age needs a different method of leadership; each age group has its own particular needs that must be met and satisfied. Miss Mears has been adamant in her right to authorize anything necessary to meet those needs.
She is also in charge of the administration for the foreign and home deputation teams, and of their over-all direction. Every summer deputation teams have gone to Europe, the Orient, Alaska, and to the migrant camps of the United States. Over twenty young people have been active in this program each summer for the last nine years.
Teacher is a member of the candidate committee to interview young people going into vocational Christian work, including the candidates for the ministry. Over three hundred young people from the College Department have gone into vocational Christian work.
Ministers representing Miss Mears' influence are scattered over the face of the map: Richland, Spokane, Seattle in Washington; Berkeley, Sacramento, Walnut Creek, Westminster, San Bernardino, Garvey, San Diego, Los Angeles, in California; New Jersey; Colorado,
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Montana, and countless other places. Missionaries have gone out to the Belgian Congo, Tokyo, Thailand, India, Ethiopia, French Cameroons, Philippines, Formosa, Australia, France, Denmark, China, Germany. The danger in mentioning places is that it is impossible and impractical to mention all, so of necessity many will be left out.
One of the principles of Miss Mears' strategy has been to train spiritual leaders; they must be trained, or they will not lead effectively. And if you have trained leadership you will be prepared to handle the followers attracted to that leadership. "I always try to win leaders first; then I know the followers will come. And I know that if I can win the young men, the girls will come, too!"
Continual plans must be made for the summer conferences, Sunday-school calling days, the summer program, and the "Sings" that take place after the Sunday evening church service for all departments from high school, college, Ambassadors and married groups through the Homebuilders, Mariners, Voyagers, and Harvesters.
Miss Mears has been at a planning session with ten of "her" young seminary students who will be working with her during the summer program. Inside the office, five telephones are ringing. Miss Ethel May Baldwin, Miss Mears' personal secretary and assistant in the Christian Education Office, who is responsible for most of the administrative work and who has been her constant co-worker since Miss Mears' arrival in Hollywood, is running interference as capably as a U.C.L.A. fullback. She keeps the appointments for counseling, speaking, meetings and committees, and keeps the concentric circles in motion.
Ethel May will never let Teacher lick a stamp or put a letter in an envelope if she can help it. "Don't do that. We can do that. Hundreds of others can do this for you . . . You can do what the rest of us can't do . . . Save yourself for that . . . I'll do that, you stay here and plan this . . . I'll send someone else over for that paper. You'll have to take this call. Most of them I can handle, but this one needs you."
Miss Mears starts to look at her mail. Ethel May snatches it from her. "I can sort this. You do the more important things."
"But that advertisement about the new pink refrigerator looks very interesting. I want to see if it makes anything else besides ice cubes!" protests Teacher.
"Never mind that now. Here come the fellows."
"Well, sometimes I like to look at the advertisements!" Teacher
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sputters, but already she is rising to greet the embryonic ministers with enthusiasm and delight.
When it is time for the meeting to end, Ethel May interrupts. "Where are your notes for the teachers' and officers' meeting for tonight, so I can type them while you're at Gospel Light Press this afternoon?"
For an instant Teacher looks blank as she shifts her thinking from the summer plans with the seminary students to the meeting at Gospel Light Press about the new Sunday school materials, and then back to the teachers' and officers meeting that night at which they will pray, plan and prepare for the individual needs of each of the eighteen departments of the Sunday school. Then she brightens, hands her notes to Ethel May and is on her way to Glendale.
Gospel Light Press occupies a new three-story office building in Glendale, California; Miss Mears is editor-in-chief of this corporation that publishes Sunday school material distributed throughout the world. The spiritual nurture of the entire Sunday school from the "cradle to the grave" has always been Teacher's great challenge, so twenty-eight years ago she started writing lessons for the departments in her new Sunday school. Ester Ellinghusen, superintendent of the junior department, became her loyal co-worker. Today, with her staff of fifty, Miss Mears is supervising continual revision of the Gospel Light Press Sunday school materials, re-appraising aims, policies and key verses. She is writing a book on How to Teach, and is procuring other outstanding writers and Bible authorities to supplement the present Sunday school material.
Gospel Light Press, like Topsy, just grew, as we shall see in a later chapter. It was never planned to be what it has become today. But that is Miss Mears' philosophy: "I never plan for big things to happen: I see a need, and then I look to see how I can do something about meeting that need. As the need is met, people respond and so it spreads and grows. The important thing is answering the need and 'whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.' "
Gospel Light Press was not formed to create any competition with other Sunday school literature houses, but rather it was started to join with the others to meet the great need of getting Christian educational material out to everyone, everywhere. To do the job better, new policies are constantly being established and old ones re-evaluated.
Then it is time for Miss Mears to return to the teachers' and officers'
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meeting; and so, leaving a fresh trail of challenge and inspiration so the others can better accomplish the work, Teacher returns to the Church to meet with the Sunday school staff members and to give them new insight, and to share with them her boundless enthusiasm. Of course, as she points out, it isn't her enthusiasm. And the Greeks agreed with her, for the Greek meaning of the word is "God in you." And that is Teacher's strength.
Tonight, after the meeting, she and Ethel May will drive up to Forest Home Christian Conference Center to see how it has progressed in her absence. Founded by her twenty years ago, it has grown from an original small cluster of rustic, redwood buildings to a magnificent "million-dollar" plant, but with the spiritual value far outweighing any monetary value. Three separate centers can operate independently or in coordination on the 750-acre layout. Over 26,000 people attended the conferences last year, representing hundreds of different churches and many different denominations. It is a "miracle mountain" located about eighty miles east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Mountains, just east of Redlands, California. Forest Home is a heart experience rather than a place. It was thrillingly dedicated to the Lord in an historical moment recorded on the pages of California history sixty years before Miss Mears trudged over the ground and claimed it for her young people. But this fact was not discovered until almost twenty years after Forest Home Christian Conference Center was founded.
The Forest Home Board of Directors, of which Miss Mears is president ex-officio and founder, meets once a month at her home for dinner and for the planning of policies and procedures. Forest Home commands a great deal of her attention, and what is done at Forest Home merges right into the youth program at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, for the two are merged in all her thinking and planning. Just as with Gospel Light Press, which was started to meet the needs of her Sunday school departments, so Forest Home was started just to meet the needs of her young people in the Sunday school at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. And as the needs were met, other churches with the same needs clamored to join the program. And so Forest Home grew.
Personal counseling is sandwiched in whenever possible, and Teacher makes herself constantly available for her young people and her leaders. Speaking engagements round out the picture; she makes very short trips with audiences combined and appearances condensed.
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Distances covered are great, but since Teacher is in truth a "fly-by-night" she can pack a great deal into a limited time.
Speaking at Sunday school conventions and conferences all over America has become one of the most vital outlets for her spiritual challenge. Proportionately they take up very little of her time, but each appearance is very telling in its effect. In between the Sunday school administration at Hollywood Presbyterian Church and keeping Forest Home on fire spiritually, she is continually answering calls to bring a spiritual spark to training conferences of teachers, leaders and ministers all over America. She is making plans to speak at the "Sunday School Fair" to demonstrate Sunday school materials and teaching methods for the Sunday School Convention Association which she helped to establish. It will be held at Stockton, California. Roy and Dale Evans Rogers, her very dear friends, will also be there.
In her messages at conventions, Miss Mears inspires, challenges, encourages, teaches. But more than this, she causes the teachers and workers to become so enthused and excited about the thrilling work they are doing that they can hardly wait to get up and get going. She gives them a vision of the importance of their work. And after all, everyone wants to invest his time in doing the most important work he can find.
She points out that over glass-topped desks all over America, millions and millions of dollars are being invested in various business enterprises, but over the table tops in the Sunday school rooms, transactions of far greater value are taking place every Sunday because they are transactions for eternity. Miss Mears tells her audiences what she knows about the Sunday school: that its teachers have the most important task — teaching the most important book, the Bible, about the most important Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, to the most important group, the children of our nation.
She points out the vast potential that is approached every time a teacher faces her class, for who knows the future of those children? She talks about what makes us tick, and serves up the whole gamut of psychological approaches to youth and adulthood. She stresses qualifications of the teachers and not just methods; the necessity for the teacher to have a well-integrated personality, and an intelligent and realistic approach to a Christ-centered and Bible-based message. For who is doing the teaching, and the quality of their Christian experience, is as important as what is taught. A teacher must be capable, trained and an inspiration, or he will never get the material across.
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In Hollywood, Teacher serves in an advisory capacity to Campus Crusade, formed to bring Christ to the college campuses of America; Hollywood Christian Group, formed to bring Christ to the film industry of Hollywood; Samarand Home for the Retired; Lambda Theta Chi Christian Sorority, formed to bring Christ to young married women; and Greater Los Angeles Sunday School Association (GLASS).
Do you have at least a small glimpse of the current schedule of Henrietta Mears? Have I given you the idea that this woman is busy? Then I have created the wrong impression. Let a young college student drop in with a problem and she has nothing more to do than to sit down and talk and pray and even to serve a cup of tea, making the student feel that she has all the time in the world, that the student is the most important person in the world, and that nothing is more important than to discuss the problem at hand!
