Life Stories

Paul Henderson

"Henderson has scored for Canada!"

Foster Hewitt's words still ring in the ears of a generation of Canadian hockey fans. With 34 seconds left in the final game of the 1972 Summit Series, Paul Henderson scored the most famous goal in Canadian hockey history, his third game-winning goal in as many games.

Born in Kincardine, Ontario, Paul had a long and successful professional hockey career, including seven 20-goal seasons in the NHL. Yet he will always be remembered for helping Team Canada, trailing 1-3-1 in the Summit Series, to win three consecutive games and a special place in the hearts of Canadians.

On September 28, 1972, Paul Henderson, his team mates, and a nation celebrated 'The Goal of the Century'

While 'The Goal of the Century', as it is often called, made Paul a hockey legend, he has another goal that is even more important to him. A goal rooted in Scripture: "I want to be useful to the Lord Jesus Christ," he says, "I want to be prepared for everything that He may bring across my path."

2 Timothy 2:21 is one of the many verses in the Bible that Paul turns to for guidance in his life. It reads: "If anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work." (NASB)

"I try to live my life in a very intimate relationship with God," he says, "to spend time with Him every day bright and early in the morning. I make sure that I'm in close fellowship with Him... I ask Him to fill me with His Holy Spirit and then I go out with a tremendous sense of confidence that I am going to be God's person."

Now more than twenty years removed from his hockey career, Paul works to help others become God's people too. As the founder and president of The Leadership Group, he meets with groups of businessmen to discuss "how we can become better fathers, better husbands, and better followers of Jesus Christ, and how to use the gifts, abilities and talents that God has given all of us." This work began back in 1985 with three men, and has grown to about 80 groups of men who meet together in boardrooms in the morning. In this work, those words in 2 Timothy take on a new importance.

"When I speak, I pray all the time that I would be that clean, empty vessel, that God might have total access to, and that He might speak through me," Paul explains.

In the Bible, Paul believes that God has given him a great tool not just for his work, but for life. "I've memorized probably a thousand verses of Scripture," Paul notes, "when you get into His Word on a day to day basis, it puts things in perspective.

Paul and his wife speak at marriage conferences, using the Bible as the basis for their talks. "If you want to have a great marriage, you open up the Bible. We teach nothing but Biblical principles, and they work."

"I think the Bible is more relevant now than in any time in the history of mankind. I think it's an incredible book. It's the only book that you ever read that the author is present with you every time you read it."