Jack Deere

1.07.10

ewhitney — 2010-01-07T19:03:58+00:00

Jack has no scheduled events at this time. Please check back soon for more updates.

Working on a new book

ewhitney — 2009-05-04T20:24:30+00:00

I am happy to be really diving into a new book on the Holy Spirit right now. Hoping to have more to post soon. I recently updated my events schedule. Feel free to take a look and please keep checking in!

An Update on Paul Cain

ewhitney — 2007-01-29T17:50:18+00:00

In light of Paul Cain's recent announcement of restoration to ministry, we have been repeatedly asked for input. First, we rejoice in God's mercy that provides anyone with total forgiveness for any sin that is repented of. However, forgiveness of our sin is not the same as being restored to public ministry. We care much about Paul's life before God and his future ministry. We believe that his future ministry could far surpass his former ministry, if he allows the full restoration process to take place. Paul originally agreed to submit to Larry Alberts and his team in his restoration process. These men are well known and respected by many of Paul's friends in ministry. We strongly urged him not to leave Larry's care and oversight. However, he left Larry's oversight just over a year ago and moved to California to relate to a group of men that we do not know much about. Neither do we know the process that they say that Paul went through. Therefore, we cannot say with confidence that this is a genuine restoration that is according to the principles of God's Word. It will be harmful to Paul and others if he is released prematurely and then relapses into his past failures. As shepherds in the Body of Christ, we would bear great responsibility if another person was hurt by Paul's sin. We ask you to join with us as we continue to ask for the fullness of God's grace in his life and for his future restoration to public ministry.

Anger

ewhitney — 2006-09-25T15:55:57+00:00

Title		MP3 Download	CD
Series - 5 messages

$25 cds
$8.99 mp3s

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Powerful Worship

ewhitney — 2006-09-05T20:10:03+00:00

Experience worship. This series uses Psalm 100 explain what worship is and why the healthiest people in the world are worshippers. It answers the questions of who, how and how often we should worship. It shows why the foundation of profound worship is knowing God. It also demonstrates why music is such a powerful instrument of worship.


The Power Worship 4 mp3 series for $6.99

If you purchase the MP3 version, you will be sent a link to download the files via Softsell.

Real

ewhitney — 2006-08-30T16:57:10+00:00

When alcoholics from my church go to their first AA meeting, they frequently come back and say to me, "I wish the church could be more like the AA meeting." They tell me everyone was real and no one judged them.

Power after Overcoming

ewhitney — 2006-08-29T20:01:39+00:00

One of the hardest things for church people to understand is that our negative resume is where our greatest strength lies. It is not the things that I have not done that give me power, but rather the things I have overcome or recovered from. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we should not be pure and obedient. But sometimes our purity may be due to the absence of opportunity, and sometimes our obedience may not be from the heart. A good case could be made that the essence of American Christianity is concealment. We encourage people to go underground with their sin. We pastors do it when continually tell our success stories from the pulpit, or when we preach an idealized version of the spiritual life that no one really lives. People in the church do it when they judge others. The message people get is "hide your sins if you do not want to be judged." I find that people are encouraged when I share my failures publicly. Your story is very powerful, especially the part where you have gotten back up from a stumble, where you have recovered from a serious mistake. Your story is powerful because it is real. We need more real people in the church today and fewer religious people.

Recovery Groups ???

ewhitney — 2006-08-28T18:38:07+00:00

We want to start recovery groups at our church. A recovery group is a group of people who have suffered a similar addiction or survived a similar abuse. The best known recovery group in America is Alcoholics Anonymous. Why a group? Because a group provides a much more effective healing environment than individual counseling. Alcoholism is a form of insanity. (Actually, any addiction in its latter stages is a form of insanity.) An alcoholic believes that if he stops drinking he will never be happy again. His drinking may have already cost him the loss of every precious thing in his live, yet he will still believe that he can not be happy without alcohol. If you, a nonalcoholic, try to point how insane this is, the alcoholic will just say that you don not understand. And you really do not understand his craving or his insane thinking. But a recovered alcoholic understands both the craving and the insanity. He or she is the best one to minister to the one who stills lives in drunkenness. One of my dear friends who is alcoholic went to an AA meeting expecting a judgmental lecture on the evils of alcohol. Instead he found a bunch of happy, colorful, former drunks having a good time without the mood elevating effects of alcohol. He felt understood instead of condemned, and hope instead of despair. That two and half years ago, and he has not had a drink since. These groups are called "recovery" groups because an addiction always steals life from us, always harms our true self. In a loving, nonjudgmental, spiritual environment we have the opportunity to recovery what has been stolen from us.

Memories and Abuse part 2

ewhitney — 2006-08-25T17:02:48+00:00

The book I mentioned yesterday, Memory and Abuse, claims that 1 out of 3 women suffered abuse as children and 1 out 4-10 men suffered abuse as children. I have been astounded by these numbers. As soon as I began to talk, both privately and publicly, about childhood abuse, people started telling me their stories. Some of these stories come from friends that I have known for a long time, but they were just too shamed to tell what had happened to them. Remember, if you can't talk about, it owns you. If the trauma done to you was chronic, repeated over a long period of time, it is very common for you to block it out. Children survive repeated abuse by dissociating from it. Sometimes the memories are vague or can even be completely blocked out for a time. Painful memories trapped in our subconscious cause physical, emotional, and behavioral problems. If we do not have the opportunity to grieve and process the traumas done to us, we may suffer negative consequences indefinitely. If we block out the trauma completely, our healing becomes even more difficult. One of the things we are doing at Wellspring is creating and training prayer teams of 3-5 people to facilitate the healing of people who live chronic physical, emotional or relational pain.

Memory and Abuse

ewhitney — 2006-08-24T19:23:50+00:00

I just finished reading Memory and Abuse: Remembering and Healing the Effects of Trauma by Charles Whitefield, M. D. (1995). I read the book after an amazing conversation with a pastor's wife. I have known this wonderful lady for a long time, but never had a serious conversation with her. Even though her husband and I have been good friends, she always seemed a little distant. She finally told me her story. Her father had sexually abused her when she was young. She never told anyone, not even her husband. She felt too defiled and shamed. She was afraid of men. She did not have anything to say in group conversations. She felt if people really new what she was like they would not want anything to do with her. Then after many painful years of shameful silence, she told her husband what had happened. Eventually she confronted her father, and that was the final step for her to freedom. She is a different person today. She no longer lives in fear or shame. Because she tells her story openly she is helping other victims of abuse get free and find healing.

Back in Texas

ewhitney — 2006-08-23T13:53:36+00:00

I am back home now, in Texas. I just came out of our staff meeting at the church I pastor, Wellspring. One of the major issues we’re dealing with is how to create more opportunities for people to develop deep friendships. I am absolutely convinced that “lone ranger Christianity” is defective Christianity. We all need deep friendships. It is very common in evangelical Christianity to hear men claim, “My wife is my best friend.” This sounds spiritual, but in reality a man’s wife is usually his only friend. All of us need one or two close friends of the same sex who know pretty much all our secrets. Remember, if you can not talk about it, it owns. Deep friendships are a primary source of joy and safety. They also help us stay out of addictions and break free of addictions. Deep friendships are essential for healing the shame that binds us.

My Time On the Road

ewhitney — 2006-08-21T23:12:14+00:00

I am on the way home from Sydney, Australia, where I just finished a conference at a Dayspring Church, a great church. The theme of the conference was Living Free from Shame and Addictions. It is amazing how much shame and addiction is in the church today. Part of the problem is that we pastors are silent on these subjects. And sometimes we even shame those who are already bound by shame and addictions.

The most recent estimates that I have seen claim that about 10-15 % of the population in America suffer from alcoholism. Yet every time I ask an audience how many of you have been significantly harmed by alcoholism, either your own or that of a loved one, 50-60% of the audience raises their hand. Alcoholism is one of the most perfect diseases. It does not just hurt one person, but whole families. And one of its primary symptoms is denial. It convinces the alcoholic that he or she is really not an alcoholic. I have been studying addictions like alcoholism and pornography for the last two years. I have also been studying shame. I am convinced that addiction and shame are two of the most pervasive strongholds in the church today that impair our friendship with Jesus.

At the Dayspring conference we prayed for many people bound by various addictions. Because the Dayspring staff is so full of grace people felt safe confessing their secrets. Pastor David Crabtree also teaches that grace is more than undeserved favor. It is also God's empowering presence. This helped people to feel hope as well as safety. One of the things that I constantly emphasized during the conference was, "If you can not talk about it, it owns you." The power of darkness begins to be broken as soon as we tell a safe and loving person our shameful secrets. This happened during every ministry time at the conference.

Dayspring has a large, well trained ministry team that stands at the front of the church and prays for people at the conclusion of each service. Many people confessed their addictions and shame, and received prayer. This is the beginning of freedom.

The Power of Generosity

ewhitney — 2006-08-16T14:36:06+00:00

The only free and happy people in the world are givers. Yet the majority of Christians find it so hard to give. The statistics for the American church are that 80% of the ministry of any local church is supported by 20% or less of its members. The average churchgoer gives 2% or less of their income. The first step in financial freedom is learning how to give. This series will teach you how to break the spirit of poverty over your life, to increase your income and your enjoyment of what you have. It will show you why giving is such an important part of your relationship to God.

Price: $30
Number of CD’s: 6
MP3 Price: $10.95

CDs	MP3

If you purchase the MP3 version, you will be sent a link to download the files.

Trusting in His Goodness

ewhitney — 2006-08-08T17:28:09+00:00

There is a big difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is the pain we feel when we make a mistake. Shame is the pain we feel when we think we are the mistake. When shame hits us, we feel like we are uniquely bad. God does not use shame to motivate us. Shame comes when we put hope in something other than Jesus. It is great to hope for things, to hope for a new job, a new house, friendship, and the like. There is nothing wrong with hoping for things. The problem comes when we hope in those things. When we look to someone or something other than God to feel our worth or value. When we put our foundational hope in something other than God, it will shame us. We must place our hope in God. The basis of our hope is the goodness of God and not our performance. The devil wants you to believe that if you live well, good things are going to happen to you and if you live bad, bad things are going to happen to you. That is not true. We will all have failures, immaturity and slips ups in our life. Therefore we do not want the basis of our hope to be in our performance. We want to go much higher and have our hope in the goodness of God. “You are good” says the Psalm. His goodness leads Him to act in our lives. We must place our confidence in His goodness. Gods goodness is His righteous generosity. He is free to gives us anything He wants for we are His blood bought children. Generosity means we get more than we need and more than we deserve. John 10:10. His goodness replaces our shame.

Are you Growing Spiritually?

ewhitney — 2006-08-08T14:31:44+00:00

Many people do not understand what it means to grow spiritually. Perhaps, most people measure their spiritual growth by the absence of sin or certain sins, and by the consistency of religious activity, e.g., praying, reading the Bible, going to church or witnessing. But these are false measurements in our hands. They will only produce spiritual depression or deception. In this 3 series cd collection find out why and how to discover if you are really growing closer to God. The answers in this series will surprise you.

Price: $15
Number of CD’s: 3
MP3 Price: $5

CDs	MP3

If you purchase the MP3 version, you will be sent a link to download the files.