Leanne Payne

Leanne Payne, who has died on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at the age 82, was a Christian woman who made an extraordinary contribution to the ministry of healing prayer through over forty years of service and leadership. Called a “great soldier for Christ” by the philosopher Dallas Willard, she founded Pastoral Care Ministries, dedicated to teaching, healing, and growth in Christian maturity. She wrote seven books that continue in print in English and in at least 13 other language translations.

Leanne Payne was born during the Great Depression on June 26, 1932, in Omaha, Nebraska, the elder daughter of her parents Robert and Forrest Mabrey. Times were hard, and became even more difficult when her father died from a sudden case of encephalitis when she was three years old. Her mother moved with Leanne and her younger sister to Little Rock, Arkansas to live with family.

Leanne’s early adult life was shaped by several impulsive and painful choices that ultimately brought her to a place of deep repentance. At the end of herself by her mid-twenties, she underwent a full and lasting conversion to Christ, stepping firmly onto the path of obedience to God.

In 1963, Mrs. Payne became the dorm mother at Wheaton Academy, beginning her forty-plus year association with Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and its legacy of great evangelical leaders such as R. A. Torrey, F. B. Meyer, and Dwight Moody. A year later, she joined the prayer circle of Fr. Richard Winkler, considered the grandfather of the charismatic renewal movement. In 1965, while working for Wheaton College, she enrolled as a student and thus began her formal education. From 1965 to 1974 she studied at both Wheaton College and the University of Arkansas, earning a Bachelor of Art, and two Masters of Arts degrees. In the course of her studies she wrote her first book, Real Presence: The Christian Worldview of C. S. Lewis as Incarnational Reality.

In 1970, Mrs. Payne became the assistant of Dr. Clyde Kilby, the visionary who established the C. S. Lewis literary collection at Wheaton College (today’s Marion E. Wade Center). She worked in the collection for several years, cataloguing the letters of C. S. Lewis while sitting at his desk and benefitting richly from Lewis and the mentoring by Dr. Kilby.

Fr. Winkler introduced her to the healing-prayer ministry of Agnes Sanford in 1973 and Leanne was soon serving with Mrs. Sanford in her Schools of Pastoral Care. By 1976 she was ministering fulltime through writing and healing prayer. She moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1978, and served as a research fellow under Henri Nouwen at Yale Divinity School in 1981 . This year also saw the much-celebrated publication of The Broken Image.

In 1982, she incorporated Pastoral Care Ministries with the guidance of friends experienced in business matters. The establishment of this ministry structure brought order and Leanne flourished in generative creativity. From this time onward, she provided pastoral care through prayer and counseling mainly at the week-long PCM schools conducted throughout North America, Europe, Hawaii, and Australia. She published five more books in the years that followed: Crisis in Masculinity, The Healing Presence, Restoring the Christian Soul, Listening Prayer, and finally, in 2008, her spiritual autobiography. Dr. Donald Bloesch said of Heaven’s Calling, “It poignantly shows how the author has been mightily used by the Spirit of God to spearhead a ministry of renewal and celebration.” In 2008 Leanne founded Ministries of Pastoral Care, which has allowed her week-long pastoral care schools to continue beyond her retirement and to this day.

Leanne was known for her deep devotion to God, her profound thinking, her writing about “incarnational reality” – how God dwells in his people – and for the way the triune God would respond mightily to her prayer, “Come, Holy Spirit.” She shared the winsome character of her mentors, Dr. Kilby and Agnes Sanford, the “eternal child,” delighting always in creation whether it be a squirrel, a perfectly formed flower, or a man or woman made in the image of God.

Leanne is survived by her three grandchildren and four great grandchildren. She is preceded in death by her mother Forrest, father Robert and sister Nancy.

There will be a memorial service at Wheaton College in March, date to be announced.

Memorial contributions will be welcomed to Pastoral Care Ministries and all funds contributed will provide for the continuing publication of Leanne’s books. Memorial tributes can be posted at ministriesofpastoralcare.com or mailed to Ministries of Pastoral Care, P.O. Box 3792, Peoria Il 6162-3792.