www.jean-jacquessuurmond.nl

life and career

Born in 1950 and raised in a secular family, Jean-Jacques Suurmond became in 1970 involved in diaconal work in a Pentecostal church in the Netherlands.

In 1978 he married Marianne Vonkeman, with whom he has two daughters.

In 1979 he became a licensed minister of the Assemblies of God and worked as an associate pastor at North Hollywood Assembly of God. He became involved in the ecumenical charismatic movement in California and, afterwards, in the Netherlands.

After supplementary studies at Utrecht University, he was ordained a Reformed minister in Gendt and, from 1993, in Vlaardingen. Presently he is active as a chaplain at SHDH in Haarlem.

In 1999 he graduated as a Gestalt therapist at Multidimens institute. For ten years he worked as a therapist in private practice. Nowadays he is active as supervisor. He holds the European Certificate for Psychotherapy (awarded by the EAP, Vienna).

Since 2005 he is a column writer for the daily newspaper Trouw.

ACADEMIC WORK

He received his B.A. degree from Continental Bible College in Brussels and graduated at the School of Theology of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena (M.A. and Ph.D., 1983).

He taught at Fuller Seminary and the Centrale Pinkster Bijbelschool and presented papers at Fuller Seminary, the University of Birmingham, Free University (Amsterdam) and Utrecht University. He published quite a few articles in theological journals at home and abroad. His main study concerns the spirituality of world-wide Pentecostalism (Word and Spirit at Play). Some contributions from his hand deal with the interface of psychotherapy and spirituality.

Many of his publications deal with spiritual themes and are meant for a broad audience.