Jeanette is married to Richard who serves as the National Director of AFES. Alongside Richard, Jeanette has ministered with AFES at Wollongong University and the Australian National University. Now living in Sydney, they attend St Matt’s Anglican Church in Botany, and Jeanette started teaching Biblical Studies to the junior students of St Catherine’s Anglican School in Waverley at the start of 2025. We caught up with her before she began her new role.
ACR: Jeanette, sharing Jesus with others has been a big part of your life. Can you tell us how you came to know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? Were there particular seasons, people, or experiences that played key roles?
JC: By God’s grace, my parents both love Jesus and prioritise his glory, so I first learnt about Jesus through them. They taught andmodelled (both are necessary!) what it means to treat Jesus as the most important person in the world. We didn’t do family devotions, but they faithfully prayed and read the Bible themselves every day (something I took note of) and also with me until I could read the Bible for myself. My mum taught High School Scripture full-time, and my dad was very involved in church as a lay preacher. Their lives matched their words – they wanted to wholly live for the glory of Christ Jesus.
My childhood faith grew and matured through Sunday School, Youth Group and various Christian camps. In early high school, for example, I heard a talk on Mark 7. Immediately after Jesus taught the Pharisees and disciples that uncleanness infects us all because of our sinful hearts, the Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus. Unlike the Pharisees, this woman knows that she’s unclean and that Jesus is the only one who can help her. Desperately eager to be part of God’s family, she’s happy to accept the meagre ‘crumbs that fall from under the table’ (Mark 7:28). God used that passage to convict me of my sin. I felt the dirtiness of my heart – my disrespect, my envy and anger… so, when the speaker offered the invitation, I asked for forgiveness and committed my life to following Jesus.
Another significant season of growth came through opposition. I had a friend who was a Jehovah’s Witness. She questioned my understanding of Jesus and salvation. ‘You’ve been brainwashed’, she said. ‘You only believe in Jesus’ divinity because that’s what you’ve been told. But the Bible says otherwise.’ I pondered her concerns and thought, ‘Yes, I should read the Bible for myself and see if I’ve been wrongly taught.’ So, as I kept chatting with my friend, I started reading the Bible more and more. Our one rule was that we could only reference the Bible – theologians and other writers couldn’t be used to defend our position. By God’s grace, the Lord used this season to give me a genuine hunger and thirst for the Bible. I spent hours poring over large slabs of Scripture and seeing Christ clearly in both Testaments. I felt like the guys on the road to Emmaus – ‘Did not our hearts burn within us… while he opened to us the Scriptures?’ (Luke 24:32). The Lord opened my eyes to see with great delight – Jesus truly is the Lord of the universe, the creator of the ends of the earth; salvation is found in no one else; we’re rescued by God’s gracious work not our own efforts.
I’m very grateful for how God graciously revealed himself to me in the Bible and confirmed the faith first taught to me by my parents.
ACR: What was your pathway into ministry?
JC: As high school drew to a close, I started thinking about what to do with my life. In God’s sovereign goodness, he exposed me to the pain of death in multiple ways. While hard, this clarified my priorities (as Psalm 90 says). This life is very short – eternity is forever. So how could I use my life to promote Jesus?
When I got to university and discovered there were hundreds of students eagerly thinking the same way, I was thrilled! AFES and Beach Mission (with Scripture Union) were very formative in training me for a lifetime of loving Jesus. I learnt how to read the Bible for myself, how to run Bible studies, how to think theologically about different things, and how to talk to unbelievers about Jesus. AFES’s National Training Conference was a particular highlight – going from a small country town with few Christian peers to a student conference with thousands of people who were zealous for God’s glory felt like a tangible glimpse of heaven.
So, when an AFES Staff worker invited me to consider full-time ministry, I was like, ‘Where do I sign up?’
ACR: After formal ministry training, you served with AFES. What have been some of the highlights?
JC: I’ve loved opening up the Bible with young women and, together, discovering more and more about God’s goodness in Christ Jesus. I loved walking up to strangers and asking them about faith and life beyond the grave. And I loved seeing people become Christians simply by reading a Gospel one-to-one.
Every year, AFES groups are boldly inviting friends and strangers to meet Jesus in the pages of Scripture. But in 2024, all campus groups combined their efforts by using the same slogan and branding. I had the privilege of serving with the Evangelism Team to think through the logistics of this National Mission. We wanted to keep the Scriptures central – just as God spoke and created light, so too does God still speak today, rising people to eternal life as the dead hear his voice in the Bible (2 Cor 4:1-6; John 5:19-29). So, we simply sought to encourage and equip people to read John’s Gospel with unbelievers using five simple questions (see uncover.org.au for more). In God’s mercy dozens and dozens have been saved across Australia.
I was particularly encouraged to hear of God’s work on some of our smallest campuses – in Albury–Wodonga, their tiny group of four Christians saw two students become believers. In Darwin, they had about ten unbelievers regularly reading Uncover John in Bible-reading-triplets. In Toowoomba, the AFES group partnered with local churches where older men and women started evangelistic reading groups in their retirement home and studied John’s Gospel with other 90-year-olds!
How wonderful to see people of every generation boldly sharing Jesus with such eager joy. Please pray that AFES will never cease in its fervent zeal to proclaim Christ from the Scriptures in all his glorious truth and grace.
ACR: After many years with AFES, can you tell us a little bit about your new ministry and why you decided to take on this new role?
JC: I’m eager to use all the gifts and opportunities that the Lord has given me for his glory in whatever context I’m in (‘To him who has been given much, much is expected’ – Luke 12:48). In the Lord’s sovereignty, my role with the National Mission came to a natural end last year, while my husband’s role as National Director concludes this year, so we’ve been prayerfully pondering what to do next.
When I heard about a vacancy at St Cath’s in their Biblical Studies department, I was immediately excited about the possibility of teaching children about Jesus. I’ve always enjoyed kids’ ministry and love the creative challenge it is to simplify theological truths in a way that kids will understand. I also hope they’ll enjoy learning about Jesus, so I hope to incorporate music, drama, arts and crafts as I teach God’s word.
School ministry is also an immense privilege. I’ll get to teach the Bible to almost 320 girls in Biblical Studies classes, chapel services and lunchtime Christian groups. What a wonderful chance to share Christ every week with so many people who might not otherwise know about Jesus! As I’ve spoken with people about this new role, I’ve been so encouraged by the many people faithfully teaching the Bible in our schools through SRE and School Chaplaincy. May we continue to make the most of these opportunities!
ACR: What are some of the challenges that you anticipate in school ministry?
JC: The compulsory nature of Christian education in Christian schools requires thoughtfulness to navigate. I want students to know the supreme goodness of knowing Jesus, but I don’t want them to feel forced to believe or bored by the weekly Bible lessons. I want to work out how to teach in a way that is full of respect for their agency but gives them an irresistible taste of the blessings that can only be found in Christ Jesus.
I’m therefore wanting to be considerate of song choices. Most of our church songs assume belief – ‘thanks for saving me’, ‘I worship and adore you’, ‘I know you’ll bring me safely home’. I don’t want to put lies into the children’s mouths as they sing and accidentally slip into a form of universalism – this would give students a false sense of assurance, which would be unhelpful.
Otherwise, please pray that I’ll pitch the lessons at the right level! Having spent the majority of the past 20 years on university campuses, I’ll need to significantly adjust my language choices and teaching methods. Please pray I’ll be faithful in this!
ACR: Do you have any particular hopes or areas that you really want to focus on as you start this school role?
JC: I really want to show the joy of following the true Jesus. It can be tempting to teach good morals when teaching children (they do need to learn right from wrong!), but a focus on human flourishing is hollow and empty without knowledge of Christ Jesus. I’m praying that I’ll not stray from the gospel but will faithfully teach through books of the Bible so that kids understand that Jesus is the best thing ever! We all need to know that life isn’t about us and our happiness, but everything – all of human history – is about Jesus! I hope children are so enamoured by Christ’s glory and grace, his kindness and power that they’ll want to give their entire lives to him.
One way I hope to do this is through song. Songs are a wonderful teaching tool – I can still remember many of the songs that I learned as a child! So, I spent the summer listening to lots of kids’ music – Colin Buchanan, Sovereign Grace Kids, Slugs & Bugs and Emu Music. I’ve been particularly listening out for didactic songs that teach truths about God and what he’s done for us through Jesus. Again, I want to avoid false assurances of salvation. I’m also trying to look for songs that reinforce the big ideas we’re looking at in the Bible each term. So, when I’ve not been able to find songs for particular topics, I’ve come up with some of my own! Here’s a small collection I’ve come up with so far.
ACR: What can we be praying for you and your future students?
JC: Please pray that I’ll get to know the students quickly and remember everyone’s name! This will be quite the challenge given I’m teaching over 300 young people. But I’d love to know them personally so that they know that Jesus also loves them as individuals.
Please also pray for godliness, grace and courage. Pray that I’ll be a fragrance of life in the school and a shining light of Christ’s glory as I interact with students, staff and the broader community. Pray that I’ll conduct myself in a way that honours Jesus and abounds in patience, humility, dignity and self-control. Please also pray that I’ll speak of Jesus in a way that is gracious and kind, but doesn’t shy away from teaching about sin, death and punishment. The sweet salvation of Jesus is all the better when we truly comprehend our desperate plight.
And so finally, please pray that people would be receptive, and many will come to humbly trust in Jesus as King and Saviour! May he be exalted above all.
This article was first published in the ACR’s Easter 2025 Journal.