Messages by Mary Webster

Messages spoken at various Camps Farthest Out by Mary Webster.

Mary Webster

About Mary Webster

Mary Webster was a dedicated Christian leader and spiritual mentor whose life and ministry…

Mary Webster was a dedicated Christian leader and spiritual mentor whose life and ministry left a lasting impact on countless individuals. Born in Peoria, Illinois, she experienced early hardship when her mother died in a steamboat accident shortly after her birth. Raised by relatives, Mary developed a deep faith and a commitment to service that guided her throughout her life.

Mary’s ministry was characterized by her unwavering devotion to prayer, spiritual growth, and the guidance of others on their faith journeys. She was actively involved in various Christian organizations and led numerous retreats and spiritual gatherings across the country. Her teachings emphasized the importance of personal connection with God and living out one’s faith in everyday life.

In addition to her work in spiritual leadership, Mary was a prolific writer. She authored several books and numerous booklets that continue to inspire and guide individuals seeking to deepen their spiritual lives. Her writings reflect her profound understanding of the Christian faith and her passion for helping others grow in their relationship with God.

Mary Webster’s legacy is one of faithfulness, compassion, and dedication to the spiritual well-being of others. Through her writings, teachings, and personal example, she has left an indelible mark on the Christian community, inspiring generations to live lives of purpose and devotion.

You can find a wonderful biography about Mary Webster called The Life and Ministry of Mary Webster by Anne Mathews-Younes on Amazon.

Mary went home to be with The Lord in 2004.

[Mary Webster Portrait—B.L. Fisher Library Archives, Asbury Theological Seminary]

Messages Given By Mary Webster

Somewhere in the Shadows Is Jesus

Mary Webster tells how she led an avowed atheist named Dagmar to Christ, not through argument but through her own steady honesty. She quotes to her “somewhere in the shadows, there is Jesus” as the words that broke through. She offers the story to the movement as proof that the word must become flesh before it convinces anyone.

The Pop Bottle in the Back Seat

In the camps, Mary Webster measures Christian maturity by a growing capacity to love rather than by years or comfort. She describes keeping an empty pop bottle in her car as a private, wordless test of her own patience and self-centeredness.

Fetching Pickles For A Selfish Brother

Mary Webster preaches on Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a borrowed colt. She makes it a picture of surrendering an unsurrendered will to Christ, and she brings the image home to the camps through her sons. Her older boy takes all the peanut butter and leaves the jar empty. His surrendered younger brother still fetches him the pickles “with all the love and tenderness that he really meant it,” and the older boy is undone by the kindness.

The Cake Recipe She Never Followed

Mary Webster describes an elderly woman kneeling to wash her feet at a foot washing service. She says she finally understood that “it’s letting the other person wash your feet that makes you feel humble.” She likens substituting our own ideas for what Jesus asked to a friend who ruined a cake recipe by changing every ingredient. It is a lesson she carries back to the camps.

The Carpenter Who Built His Own House

Mary Webster tells the Kentucky CFO in 1966 of a carpenter who quietly cut corners while building a rich man’s house. At the end he learned that the house was being built for himself all along. She applies the same warning to the character believers build day by day.

The Man Who Fed A Wildcat

Mary Webster tells of a lonely man in an institution who fed a wild cat from his hand, since the people around him would not show him love. She then turns the same question on her own church and on a neighbor everyone avoided. She was speaking at the Kentucky CFO in 1966.

She Read The Bible In Ten Days

Mary Webster tells of a woman who shut herself away to read the whole Bible in ten days. The woman came out saying, “I saw what I saw and I knew what I knew.” Mary Webster then turns to small things, an acorn, a burning bush, a child’s bedtime prayer, as places to meet God, in this talk to the 1966 Kentucky CFO.

Three Excuses At The Great Supper

Mary Webster opens with Jesus’ parable of three men who make excuses to skip a great supper. She ties their excuses about land, oxen, and marriage to whatever keeps believers from the kingdom. Preaching to the Kentucky CFO in 1966, she then describes giving away her own testimony, money, and time rather than holding onto them. She closes with the example of Moses.

Grandfather’s Hands On The Oars

Speaking within the movement, Mary Webster likens the Holy Spirit’s quiet work in a believer to a grandfather rowing a boat, his small granddaughter’s hands resting on his on the oars. She then compares a surrendered Christian to an old farm wire that never wears out, because the electricity, not the wire, does the work. The recording grows badly garbled near its close.

The Tongue She Refused To Eat

Mary Webster tells the camps of three months spent serving in Japan. Offered beef tongue she does not want, she hears Brother Stanley tell her, “if you’re a Christian, eat it for Jesus.” She calls that resistance to what God gives her own unsurrendered immaturity, not real spiritual maturity.