MEARS: HOW ONE WOMAN CHANGED CHRISTIANITY

Here's the decision, and it's an easy one. This 73-minute documentary tells the story of Henrietta Mears — the "mother of modern Evangelicalism" — a woman most believers have never heard of who helped shape the faith they hold. It contains nothing objectionable and everything encouraging.

Mears simplified the Gospel so ordinary Christians could live it. She helped launch Campus Crusade for Christ, helped bring Billy Graham to the world's attention, founded a publishing house and a camp, and wrote a best-selling book on the Bible. The film draws all of that into one moving portrait of a life poured out for Jesus.

If you're looking for something the whole family can watch — something that will leave you wanting to "trust God more" — this is it. Watch it.

Henrietta Mears was a Minnesota native with big hats, a peculiar style, and an unshakeable faith. In the early 20th century she felt called to bring Christ to Hollywood, and quickly became Director of Christian Education at Hollywood First Presbyterian Church.

She thought the Christian teaching materials of her day were "the dullest, drabbest stuff" — so she wrote her own. And she did it while battling severe vision problems that had dogged her since childhood. What God did with that stubborn, creative faith is the story this film sets out to tell.

Four stars, and here's what that means: this is a documentary that knows its subject is remarkable and simply gets out of her way. The story of Mears is genuinely fascinating — a woman who overcame lifelong physical setbacks to change "the landscape of Hollywood and the whole world" — and the film draws on voices like Dr. Arlin Migliazzo to ground her impact in concrete detail. His account of a Sunday school that grew 250% in her first four and a half years, reaching upwards of 4,000 by 1933, is the kind of specific that makes a life real.

The result is inspiring and well-made — a portrait that honors its subject without inflating her.

This is a documentary with a very strong Christian, biblical worldview, and it wears that conviction openly. It celebrates exactly what Scripture celebrates: a life given wholly to Jesus, a faith that produces fruit, and the courage to make the Gospel plain to a world that needs it.

The film extols the "lifesaving, joyful, creative, innovative nature of true faith in Jesus Christ." It shows a woman who refused to let debilitating illness — severe vision trouble, muscular rheumatism, a hemorrhaged nose — take her out of the game, and who saw God heal her and use her anyway. When she witnessed the devastation of postwar Europe in 1947, she came home burning to raise up young apostles of hope. Out of that came revival, and out of that revival came ministries that touched millions.

Above all, the film's message to the viewer is simple: trust God more, especially in times of heartbreak and tragedy. That's a thoroughly biblical invitation. Mears staked her whole life on the conviction that God's strength shows up precisely in our weakness — the same promise Paul received: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Some of the people who shaped our faith never made the history books. Henrietta Mears is one of them, and this warm, inspiring documentary finally gives her the spotlight — with nothing in it to keep anyone away. Gather the family, and let it do what it sets out to do: make you want to trust God more. Worth watching.