December Featured Article
MEET DAVE DeVRIES
Dr. Dave DeVries, a seasoned church planter, pastor, coach and strategist, serves as the Executive Director for Vinia (the Missionary Church Western Region). He launched Lake Hills Church (Castaic, CA) in 1990 where he pastored for sixteen years. He also served as the Director of Church Multiplication for the MCWR since 1998 and as a missionary with One Challenge since 2006. Dave’s experience in church multiplication led to his doctorate in transformational leadership at Bakke Graduate University. He also received an MDiv from The Master’s Seminary and a BS in business administration from Biola University. Dave and his wife, Deanne, live in Bellevue, Washington. They enjoy gardening, travel, reading, coffee and, when possible, hanging out with their two adult children.
Home for Christmas!
Recently I shared with my wife about a Christmas when I was in junior high. My parents decided to go to Hawaii with my grandparents during Christmas, and my brother and sister and I all spent Christmas Day with different families. It was one of the strangest Christmas mornings I can remember. I wasn’t home. I didn’t wake up in my own bed. I don’t even remember if we had a Christmas tree that year because no one in our family was home for Christmas.
It wasn’t wrong, but it just didn’t seem right. What I really wanted was to be home on Christmas Day, celebrating Christmas with my family.
If you’ve ever been away from home or away from family on Christmas, then I’m sure you are familiar with what I felt. And if for some reason you are far from home this Christmas, I hope you’ll be back home soon.
Last Christmas, we flew to Houston to celebrate Christmas together at my son’s home. This was our first experience being in Texas for Christmas, and we had so much fun sitting on the floor opening presents together on Christmas morning.
This Christmas we are looking forward to having both our kids at our home in Bellevue. For Deanne and me, we can’t wait for our kids to come home! We love how they are pursuing their individual callings as performing artists, yet we love it when we can be together!
As you reflect on your engagement in Jesus’ mission and particularly the significance of this season, let’s remember how Christmas celebrates God’s love for us.
“This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
Dr. Doug Webster writes in his book A Christmas Journey, “In love, God made the first move toward us and has continued the movement ever since. The emotion we experience toward God is based on his grace-filled movement toward us … He left his home to bring us home.”
Aren’t you glad that God has expressed His love like that? And ultimately, one day we will all be home for Christmas with Him!
Article by Dave DeVries, Regional Director, Vinia