Former IDES Executive Director Rick Jett Dies

(Updated with visitation and funeral information.)

By Jim Nieman 

Rick Jett, who was associated with IDES (International Disaster Emergency Service) for almost four decades, and who led the mission agency for 19 years as executive director before retiring two years ago, died on Wednesday. 

“Rick put his hope in Jesus and he shared that message around the world and through his incredible leadership at IDES,” the nonprofit wrote on their Facebook page Thursday. “Please pray with us for his wife Nancy, his children Richard and Rachel, along with his grandchildren and extended family.” 

Visitation will Monday in Noblesville, Ind., with a celebration of life service Tuesday in Carmel, Ind. (More information below.)

“Since 2019, Jett . . . has battled health issues that have required him to undergo dialysis three times a week,” we wrote in an article about the leadership transition at IDES in January 2021. At that time, Jett began serving as executive director emeritus. His official retirement was in September 2021. David Stine succeeded Jett as executive director of IDES, which “exists to meet physical and spiritual needs of suffering people throughout the world in the name of Jesus Christ,” according to its website. 

IDES was started in the early 1970s by Milton B. Bates, a pattern-maker with Fisher Body who served as an elder in a local church. He and his wife, Janet, initially corresponded with missionaries from their kitchen table in Marion, Ind. 

In 1991, Jett wrote about the origins of IDES (which is celebrating his 50th anniversary this year). We shared that article in a Throwback Thursday feature at our website recently (click here to read “IDES Was Started by a Man with a Mission.”). Jett married Milton and Janet Bates’s daughter, Nancy, in 1980. Jett served on IDES’s board for 16 years before becoming executive director.   

Under Jett’s leadership starting in 2002, IDES board chairman Mark McGilvrey wrote in 2021, “IDES has expanded its role as a relief agency increasing the number of countries served to 127 with over 7,000 projects. We have seen thousands of people baptized into Christ, millions of meals given out, and hundreds of thousands of displaced people provided shelter, food, clean water, and medical supplies. It is hard to imagine where IDES would be without his and Nancy’s leadership and service.” 

At the time of Rick and Nancy Jett’s retirement from IDES, the agency had grown to 14 full-time staff members. 

Prior to leading IDES, Rick Jett served in full-time ministry with Galesburg (Kan.) Christian Church and then, for 18 years, with Marion (Ind.) Church of Christ.

Rick Jett, a native of Bethel, Ohio, was a 1978 graduate of Ozark Christian College. Rick and Nancy Jett received OCC’s Seth Wilson Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2014. Rick Jett also served as president of the ICOM (International Conference on Missions). 

Rick and Nancy Jett were married 43 years. In additional to Nancy, survivors include one son, Richard; one daughter, Rachel Hutson; and six grandchildren. He was preceded in death by one sister, Reba Sue Wheeler.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at Randall & Roberts Funeral Center, 1685 Westfield Road, Noblesville, Ind. 46062. A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Venture Christian Church, 14501 Hazel Dell Parkway, Carmel, Ind., with Mark McGilvrey officiating. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made International Disaster Emergency Service, specifically the Rick Jett Leadership Fund, which is “dedicated to funding global pastoral and church leadership training opportunities.” 

Complete obituary information is available here.

Jim Nieman serves as executive director of Christian Standard.