Adventist church pastor dies at 65

A memorial service for Mitchell Henson, a 23-year pastor at Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church, who died Dec. 27, will be held Saturday at the church.

Henson, 65, who served 16 years as senior pastor at the church, began preaching at the age of 4 to his baby sitter, according to a biography written by his wife, Sue Henson. He learned to sell religious magazines and books when he was a teenager.

Henson’s friends remember him as a man who kept his church door open for everyone who visited.

“Basically, Mitch ran his ministry with the philosophy that his church was a place of safety,” said Pastor Gerard Kiemeney, director of the Los Angeles metro region of Adventist churches. “No matter what your background was, you could walk into the doors of his church and you would be welcomed, and he really practiced that a lot.”

Before coming to Glendale, Henson began his pastoral ministry in 1970 in Richmond, Va. There, he taught Bible study at Shenandoah Valley Academy. He left Richmond for Danville, Va., where he helped build a new church.

Henson was ordained to the ministry, after which he assisted in the building of another church and an elementary school.

Four years after finishing his doctorate in 1980, Henson moved to Glendale.

He went back to school and earned his master’s degree in marriage, family and child therapy from the California Family Study Center. Later, he received a certificate in dispute resolution from Pepperdine University.

Born on Feb. 13, 1943, in Baltimore, Henson was the second of four children.

In 1961, he graduated from Mt. Pisgah Adventist Academy, and from there he went on to Southern Missionary College in Tennessee. There, he was drafted into the Army and spent 18 months in Germany.

He graduated from the Columbia Union College in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in theology from Columbia Union College and went on to Andrews University Seminary, earning a Masters of Divinity in 1970.

Henson is survived by his wife, Sue; daughter Jody and son-in-law Darin Padua and their two daughters, Siena and Kayla; daughter Jeri and son-in-law Bryan and their four children Klancy, Kyler, Kitrina and Keegan; his siblings and their spouses, Bill and Nancy Henson, Luke and Linda Henson and Jean and Bob Torres.

The memorial service will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church, 610 E. California Ave., Glendale.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to Reel Life Media, care of the Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church.