Oprah Winfrey calls Bulloch County native Harville Hendrix the “Marriage Whisperer” and he is coming to Statesboro on Tuesday, March 13 to deliver the 20th Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Lecture in the Emma Kelly Theatre at the Averitt Center for the Arts.
His lecture is titled, “Thank you Statesboro, for my Soul.”
The 7 p.m. program is presented by the Bulloch County Historical Society and admission is free, but tickets are required and may be obtained at the ticket office. The lecture series is supported by the Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Foundation. 
Harville Hendrix was born on a farm in Bulloch County and moved to Statesboro for high school. He worked in Fletcher’s Drug Store and Henry’s dress store before being ordained to the Christian ministry by First Baptist Church when he was age 17. He also served as pastor for the Pine Street Baptist and Olive Branch Baptist churches during his last year in high school and all through college at Mercer University.
During the summers of his college years, he was on the circuit as a youth evangelist.
    After graduating from Mercer, Hendrix received graduate degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. He later served for nine years on the faculty of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
    After leaving SMU, he entered private practice as a clinical pastoral counselor, did research on couples for eight years and, with his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt, developed Imago Relationship Therapy, a couples therapy described in the best seller “Getting the Love You Want.” This therapy is now practiced by more than 2,000 therapists in 32 countries.
    This global network of Imago therapists is overseen by Imago Relationships International, where Harville and Helen are leading voices on the board and the 30-person international faculty.
    Together, Hendrix and his wife have authored nine books on intimate relationships and parenting, which have collectively sold more than three million copies and have been published into 60 languages.
    Hendrix was featured on the Oprah show 18 times, helping Oprah win her first Emmy for “Most Socially Redemptive” daytime talk show. In recent months, he was included by Ms. Winfrey in her top 20 shows. Harville has been featured in many other television and radio shows and in countless magazine and newspaper articles worldwide.
    For the past four years, Harville and Helen have helped ignite a global movement to educate the culture about the essential value of healthy couples for a healthy world. Harville and Helen have been married for 29 years, have six children and five grandchildren. They live in New York City and New Mexico.
    The Bulloch County Historical Society plans to organize one or two lectures each year. The purpose of the series is to present outstanding thinkers and authors who can contribute to the public’s understanding and appreciation of Southern history, literature, and culture. The Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Foundation will continue to sponsor this series.