The Fabulous Miss Mears
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long and a half mile wide, was lo cated at the 5,000-foot level in the San Bernardino Mountains. But the price quoted for the land was pro hibitive. Miss Mears said, “ Let’s pray. If it is the Lord’s will for our young people to have this place, the price will be adjusted.”
ent conference grounds. Some were convenient, some inconvenient. Some times the church could get the dates desired. Sometimes not. As the church grew it seemed desirable to have a conference grounds of their own. A tract of land, 400 acres, one mile
ago a banquet was attended by 125 young men and women of the church who were in full-time Christian serv ice due to her influence. Naturally, there were others who could not at tend the banquet and others who have since been influenced. It was for the First Presbyterian Church that Miss Mears began writ ing the Gospel Light Press Sunday school lessons. She came to the church in September and in October, when the new quarterlies arrived, Esther Ellinghusen, superintendent of the Junior department, brought them to Miss Mears. They were both dissatis fied with the lack of depth. She questioned the pupils and one child said, “ Sunday school gets dumber and dumber. The same stories all the time.” The material was piecemeal and did not cover enough of the Bible. Miss Mears sent for Sunday school lessons from all the outstanding Chris tian publishing houses and spread it on the table in her office. The dea cons, the elders, the teachers and Dr. MacLennan came and studied it. They all agreed, “Much of it is good but it is not good enough.” The only possible answer seemed to be to plan and mimeograph their own lessons. Miss Mears, assisted by Miss Ellinghusen and others, wrote the lessons and the teachers began using them in the Sunday school. Word soon spread that “ the chil dren are learning something at First Pres.” In two years the Sunday school grew from 450 to 4,000. Par ents as far away as Laguna (58 miles) brought their children. While the lessons were still in mimeographed form, Marion Faulk ner, a druggist in Anaheim, came to Miss Mears and insisted that she sell him copies for his Sunday school. From then on, the demand from other churches was so great that it was only a matter of time until Gospel Light Press was formed and the les sons printed. Starting with lessons for juniors, the number of courses has grown until there is material for all ages, plus Daily Vacation Bible school courses. All Gospel Light Press lesson material is interdenominational and today is being used around the world by churches of almost every evangelical denomination. Meanwhile, under Miss Mears’ guidance, her church held confer ences for its young people at differ
Henrietta Mears was a thorough-going Baptist before coming to California and old- time Baptist minister J. Whitcomb Brougher, Sr. (see p. 11) once introduced her as.
TH E KING 'S BUSINESS
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