Biography
Vance Havner was born in North Carolina in 1901. In his autobiographical account, he remembered growing up in the rural community of Jugtown, surrounded by the hills, birds, books, and church life that shaped his imagination. Visiting ministers stayed in his family's home, and the conversations he heard there helped form his early desire to preach.[1] [2]
He described coming to Christian faith at ten and being licensed to preach while still a boy. He spoke in country and town churches, sometimes standing on a chair so the congregation could see him. He later attended several schools but left formal studies to continue preaching. His own account presents that decision as part of his particular experience, rather than a rule for other ministers.[1]
Havner became known for compact, memorable preaching and for calling Christians to sincerity and renewed attention to Scripture. His rural background remained visible in the language and illustrations of his ministry. The autobiographical record is valuable because it preserves his own understanding of that formation.[1]
He married Sarah Allred in 1940 and died on 12 August 1986. His enduring influence lies in his preaching and writing, which carried a plain-spoken concern for the spiritual life of the church.[2]
Sources and references
Sources
“There is no such thing as peaceful coexistence with communism or the devil because communism is moral cancer. There’s no such thing as peaceful coexistence with cancer. If you don’t get the cancer, the cancer will get you.”
“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. You can’t shovel darkness out of a room. You get it out by turning on the lights.”
“Satan is not fighting churches. He is joining them. He does more harm by sowing tares than by pulling up wheat. He accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition.”
“If you want knowledge, go to school. But if you lack wisdom, get on your knees.”
“The devil is not fighting religion. He’s too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it.”
“Too many Christians live their Christian lives inside their heads. It never gets out through hands and feet and lips.”
“The blind man doesn’t need light. He needs sight.”
“Discernment is just about the scarcest commodity in the church today.”
“Little by little sin is made to appear less sinful until the light within us becomes darkness.”
“We need the preacher that will name something, that particularizes instead of generalizes.”
“What our Lord said about cross-bearing and obedience is not in fine type. It is in bold print on the face of the contract.”
“Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them.”
“I visit the churches and find that saints who were born in revival fires are living in the smoke; that meeting houses have become mausoleums, and that the glory has departed from the sanctuary.”
“All things are His and all things are ours, except ourselves.”
“If you are a Christian, you are not a citizen of this world trying to get to heaven; you are a citizen of heaven making your way through this world.”
“God judges what we tolerate as well as what we practice. Too often we put up with things we ought to put out.”
“Popularity has slain more prophets of God than persecution ever did.”
“Too many Christians are stuffing themselves with gospel blessings while millions have never had a taste.”
“The Gospel is not something we come to church to hear; it is something we go from church to tell.”
“The measure of any Christian is his prayer life.”
“The thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.”
“If you can’t pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean.”
“We lie to God in prayer when we do not rely on God after prayer.”
“God is not impressed by length or loudness in our prayer.”