Mainse retires from “100 Huntley Street”
BURLINGTON, ON-The founder and architect of Canada's most popular television ministry, Crossroads Christian Communication, is leaving his role as host of its daily program "100 Huntley Street" but will continue to serve as a national evangelist.
David Mainse launched Crossroads Christian Communication ministries and the daily Christian news and current affairs program, "100 Huntley Street," in 1962 and has served as its primary host ever since. Starting out in a downtown Toronto facility at the street address 100 Huntley Street, Mainse began using what was then a new technology, television, to inform, equip and inspire Canadian Christians.
In 1962 a Pembroke, Ontario television station began carrying the daily show "100 Huntley Street" and for the last 26 years Mainse has served as its host. Last year, the ministry celebrated its 40th anniversary with a cross-Canada tour.
Although a Methodist missionary's son and pastor himself, Mainse created a ministry and program reflective of Canadian Christians' denominational distinctives and with coverage representative of its regionalism. Some, such as David Reed, professor of pastoral theology at Wycliffe College in Toronto, say Mainse has managed to be a "unifying voice" to the full spectrum of Canada's denominations.
More than one million Canadians watch "100 Huntley Street" each week. Over the course of a year, almost half a million people call its 24-hour telephone ministry. Crossroads has recorded more than 90,000 people who made first-time decisions to follow Jesus Christ motivated by the television outreach and via its prayer hotlines.
More than a decade ago, the ministry's growth led it to build a complex complete with TV studios and an international broadcast training school in Burlington, Ontario.
After a year that included heart surgery, Mainse, 67, has transferred the role of host to his son but will continue to serve as an evangelist, representing clergy and helping groups he has served throughout his ministry.
"My wife and I believe that our primary focus of our time and energy is to be involved with our native people in helping to address some of the difficulties that are there," said Mainse when announcing his retirement on July 11.
Mainse also plans to represent Canadian clergy's concerns regarding the redefinition of marriage at the federal level and within the public sphere. This past year, he's also championed other causes such as how Christians can advocate legal changes to protect children from being victimized through the Internet child pornography industry.
Mainse's ministry career is notable in many ways. "Among its hallmarks is a commitment to cultivating an attitude of humility. Mainse devotes time each morning to prayer prior to stepping before the television cameras."
In an interview with ChristianWeek last year, Mainse said he has never tried to make a name for himself as a televangelist. He sees himself "more as a pastor" who takes viewers into his living room to hear what Christians are saying about their faith, lives and contributions.
While television ministries south of the border were toppled by scandals throughout the 1980s, Crossroads and the Mainse family's reputations were never publicly called into question.
Likewise, in the area of stewardship, Mainse has been known to take the most modest flight seats and to curb expenses to avoid the stereotypes of glitz and free spending that have attached themselves to televangelism or celebrity ministry leadership.
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