Our Staff

       Wendy                         Pastor Joan                        Elaine

STAFF

Jubilee’s first pastor was Rev. Peter Slofstra, who served us from 1988 – 2003.  Under Pastor Peter’s leadership Jubilee flourished and grew into a vibrant community of openness, acceptance and creativity. Our membership reached its peak in 1993, but has since then steadied out.  One of Pastor Peter’s passions was Jubilee Night, which he and Marja, who did much of the shopping and cooking, led for many, many years.  ml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Pastor Duane VanderLaan accepted a call to Jubilee in the fall of 2005, which was his first ministry position.  He brought fresh energy and gifts in worship leading, and his presence was positive and upbeat. In the summer of 2010 Pastor Duane left to serve as co-pastor of Drayton Reformed Church, primarily responsible for youth and shared preaching, which was a role better suited to his gifts and strengths. 

Jubilee has also been blessed with the gifts of a number of Calvin Theological Seminary interns.  Our first intern was Joan DeVries in the summer of 1999.  In the two summers between Pastor Peter and Pastor Duane we were ably served by Steve Koster and Jana VanderLaan. The next summer Pamela Martin completed an internship with us.  Today we are thankful to have Rev. Joan DeVries back in our midst as our Interim Pastor. 

Director of ministries

Jamie VanderBerg, a member of Jubilee and leader of our youth group, was hired as Jubilee’s first Director of Ministries.  His areas of responsibility were primarily youth, outreach and small groups.  Jamie was also very involved in our As One and Strange Waters services (contemporary and alternative) which have since been discontinued.  He served Jubilee from 2002 to 2005, when he became the Campus Chaplain at the University of Guelph.

In January 2006 we hired our second Director of Ministries, Jake Snieder.  Jake’s main areas of involvement were with our youth programs, with starting up our Life Groups ministry, and in the summer day camp, Camp SHOUT.  Jake also left in the summer of 2010 to take up a full-time position as youth director at Grace CRC in Chatham.  The Director of Ministries positions had both been 75% positions. 

Worship & music director

In January 2006 we also hired a Worship & Music Director at 25%.  Rachel Rensink-Hoff served us very capably until she was offered a full-time professorship at McMaster University for the fall of 2009.  Our music teams and worship leadership are still benefiting from her work here. 

Jubilee’s Administrator, Wendy de Jong, was a member of the original steering committee. Her secretarial duties began in April 1987 with typing of liturgies and bulletins, originally for 10 hour per week.  As the church grew and developed, her task also developed, and now includes working directly for Council as recording clerk, much of the administrative work for the various programs, committees and Ministry Board, creating and designing projection backgrounds, and as needs arise, serving with the Worship Committee and Visual Arts Ministry.  This position is set at 30 hours per week, but became temporarily full-time in 2010 when the Director of Ministries left. 

Custodial

For most of Jubilee’s early years our church was cleaned weekly by teams of six-eight members of the congregation, who were assigned cleaning duty, much as nursery duty is assigned.  However, as the building grew with the basement being completed, it was decided to hire a custodian.  Jane Kuntz was Jubilee’s first custodian for 5 years and today the cleaning is done by Elaine de Kleine.