Jack De Vries was hired on by the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia and began his work as Ministry Training Coordinator in January 2008. In 2012 this role shifted to that of Ministry Development Coach.
Jack came from Canada where he pastored three Christian Reformed churches: Alliston CRC, Alliston, Ontario(1983-87), a church plant:...
Jack De Vries was hired on by the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia and began his work as Ministry Training Coordinator in January 2008. In 2012 this role shifted to that of Ministry Development Coach.
Jack came from Canada where he pastored three Christian Reformed churches: Alliston CRC, Alliston, Ontario(1983-87), a church plant: New Life Community Church, Pickering, Ontario(1987-95), and Bethel CRC, Listowel, Ontario (1995-2007). Jack is a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity - 1983) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Doctor of Ministry - 2003) Jack and his wife Jeannie currently live in Petrie, a northern suburb of Brisbane in Queensland. They attend and are members of Bray Park Community Church. They have four adult children and seven grandchildren living in the USA and Canada.
In Isaiah 58:11 we read: "The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Australia has seen times of drought and floods. There is another type of drought in Australia; there is a spiritual drought. But God promises to provide refreshing rain, a never ending supply of refreshing water. The water he provides will satisfy the needs of all Australians. As we take up the missional vision God has given us we extend the life changing invitation of Jesus: "Come! Whoever is thirsty, come, and take the free gift of the water of life!" (Revelation 22:17)
A badger will not back down. Not even to a snake. Honey badgers have a bite that makes cold-blooded enemies’ blood run even colder. No amount of bee stings will cause the honey badger to retreat from a hoard of honey straight from the hive. If cornered or trapped you will soon discover where we get the phrase: "Mad as a sack of badgers!" Related to their cousin the skunk, the badger is equipped with long,...
50/50 might not seem like a good proposition. Suppose like 27 year old Adam Lerner in the 2011 film 50/50 you discover you have cancer in your spine and the survival rate for your type of cancer is 50/50. How would you feel? Your mind might become like a pinball machine in your head. Thoughts flip this way and then that way. Back and forth. Will you be alive in five years? Perhaps yes; perhaps no! ...
Cola is king in Australia. Four of the five most popular soft drinks in Australia are cola flavoured. Coca-Cola is by far the favourite cola drink. Over 5 million Aussies drink Coca-Cola regularly. Altogether, world wide, 1.7 billion servings of Coke products are consumed every day. But did you know that COLA is also critical to growing a healthy church in the 21st century? Now stay with me. I am not referring to the sugar laddened...
People all over the world are worried about getting infected! And rightly so. Today (23 June 2020) there are over 9 million confirmed cases in our world of people infected with the COVID-19 virus. Almost a half million people have died. A second wave of new cases has been identified in parts of Australia. To help keep people safe the Australian government has encouraged people to get the COVIDSafe APP, a tool to help stop the...
Over 2 million men in Australia are colour blind! People who are colourblind usually have difficulty with the colours green, yellow, orange and red. The area rug (as seen here) my wife Jeannie recently picked for our lounge area cannot really be appreciated by someone who is colour blind. It was a bit of a stretch for someone like me, who usually sticks with browns, beiges, and greys. But the colours sure brighten the room! A...
