A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MINISTRY OF DAVE & PAULINE SEIVRIGHT – I wrote this for a person whom I had not seen in many years:
After my conversion in 1972, I joined with a small group of three young professional and businessmen in Jamaica to have a ministry of evangelism. With the help of missionaries from Worldteam Missions (then based in Miami, Florida) we formed 20 small group Bible Studies and reached about 200 new converts to Christ, primarily young professionals and businessmen. This took place in a variety of venues. The largest was in the Executive Dining Room of my law firm, and most of the others were in homes. We also had one at Liguanea Club, an exclusive Country Club, another on a construction site for construction workers, and one at a car repair shop for mechanics. We also hosted an outdoor outreach dinner at our home for about 500 people.
In 1975 I resigned as a partner of Manton and Hart, one of the most prestigious law firms in Jamaica (now merged into Myers, Fletcher & Gordon), in order to give more time to this exploding ministry. I continued as a lecturer at the Norman Manley Law School of the University of West Indies.
A year later, Pauline and I left Jamaica in the summer of 1976 for an extended summer with Dr. Francis Schaeffer and Edith, his wife, at L’Abri in Switzerland. While in Switzerland I resigned entirely from my career in law, and returned in February 1977 to English L’Abri, with the entire family, for full-time study in philosophy and apologetics. In September of 1977 I became a full-time Student under Dr. J. I. Packer at Trinity College, Bristol, England to do further studies in theology.
We moved to the USA in June of 1979 to plant the first multi-racial, multi-cultural Presbyterian church in Miami, and I completed my studies at the Master’s level with Westminster Theological Seminary, which had a campus in Miami at that time. In 1982 I graduated from Westminster and was ordained as the pastor of the newly formed church, which in 1987 merged with Immanuel Presbyterian Chruch (now “Crossbridge Chruch” affiliated with Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New York where Tim Keller was senior pastor). After the merger, the vision of a multi-racial, multi-cultural, church was fully realized. We attend Crossbridge which has a wonderful Brazilian pastor and it is a wonderful church to bring new converts.
It was time to get back to evangelism, personal discipleship of young professionals, and mentoring. Since 1988 Pauline and I have had a unique ministry with Cru. I started with Executive Ministries in 1988. I took Executive Ministries to Jamaica and worked with Robert and Judy Levy, but continued to live and work in Miami.
After that I transferred to International Ministries of Cru and visited many parts of the world – five continents. During that time I got to know a number of Germans doing internships and studies in Miami and the USA, led them to the Lord, started visiting Germany regularly and began a ministry there. Pauline at that time had a job with Air Jamaica, so I could fly around the world as much as I wanted. We also had our son David and his family living in London and our youngest daughter Rachel in Australia so I was able to visit.
The ministry in Germany was mainly to young professionals, lawyers and investment bankers, etc. It was the first time in 40 years that Cru had been able to reach leaders at the very top of the professional and business spectrum. They got behind me and paid my expenses for the first few years so that I could develop the ministry and I used to visit up to 6 times per year. I also recruited a full time missionary from the USA to move to Germany and live in Munich to help me with the ministry. Now I visit Germany only once or twice per year, and we are supporting a church plant of Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New York in Munich, and we also have one of our couples attending a similar church plant in Frankfurt. Pauline and I have now attended six weddings in Germany and the professional and executive young leaders there are very much a part of our family.
The same thing has happened in Miami, where I mentor and disciple a number of similar top professionals, the majority are “Anglo” and Hispanic with a few Jamaicans. One of my “spiritual sons” is Jorge Reynardus, who teaches about 400 men each week as teaching leader of BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). Other spiritual sons are group leaders at BSF. These men from Miami travel to Germany with me from time to time. The Miami ministry and the German ministry are connected at several levels. I teach at least one retreat in the Austrian alps each year for the Germans and we also host a similar retreat each year usually in the Florida Keys, but in the US I often use guest speakers. I myself have been a guest speaker at church retreats in Germany and New York. As my mentees have moved around the world I have even taught retreats in Madrid, and ministered in Italy. I became a special consultant to the VP of Cru for Europe, because as much as I enjoyed Latin America and Africa, I realized that my L’Abri background uniquely qualified me for Europe, and most Americans are not equipped to effectively reach Europeans evangelistically.
All of the above is documented mainly with photos on my website. I also have a family page with updates on our family. See: www.seivright.com
