WHEN /

JULY 20-23, 2022

WHERE /

Journey Church
10307 Eamon Road NW
Calgary, AB
T3G 5H2

Speakers

David & Anita Ruis

David and Anita have been the National Directors of Vineyard Canada since 2014, while also continuing to travel internationally to speak and lead worship. A burning passion for the Ruises is both practical and theological integration of creative worship in church community, and deep life engagement with issues of poverty and social injustice.

David is a well-respected worship leader and songwriter, and has authored two books: The Worship God Is Seeking and The Justice God Is Seeking. As a team David and Anita are also effective church planters and seasoned pastors, having established Vineyard churches in Canada and the US. David has also been instrumental in seeing Vineyard communities established in Nepal and India. Anita has worked in a variety of settings outside pastoral church work, both in addictions recovery work and community support roles. Much of the Ruises' focus has been in indigenous settings, working with people experiencing poverty and subsequent marginalization. They also have significant experience facilitating leadership development.

The Ruises currently reside in Kelowna, BC. In their down time they love to be creative and hang with their grandkids.

Kathy Maskell

Kathy Maskell is the lead pastor at East Denver Vineyard. She joined the MHV staff in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic, much to our delight. She also leads the Vineyard Justice Network and served on the Executive Board for Vineyard USA.

Her heart for justice led her to work with Love146 (an organization committed to ending child sex-trafficking), studying abolitionist movements, and has worked hard to create creating intentional spaces for deep conversation and meaningful action for social justice.

Kathy was raised by Buddhist parents and came to faith while earning a degree in English from the University of Chicago and went on to get an M.S. Ed from City College (CUNY), and an M.Div. in systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary (NYC). She and her husband, Caleb, co-planted the Elm City Vineyard and have two children, Josiah and Emmanuelle. Some of her favorite things to do right now are exploring her new city for awesome museums and the tastiest breakfast places for dates.

Every four years our Canadian Vineyard Family comes together to celebrate the life we share as followers of Jesus and His way. This July we will be gathering in Calgary Alberta. As we look over the years since our last National Celebration, we are keenly aware that Jesus the Master gardener has been at work in this Canadian Vineyard garden. It has been a revealing and pruning time for us all, a season of roots being established and reestablished and robust strength being added to our weakness.

In many ways these years between our last National Celebration in Montreal in 2018 and our upcoming gathering in Calgary have been nothing short of extraordinary. In the midst of a significant re-org, the overarching theme of “Health Begets Health” has had us doing a lot of reimagining, to get to the roots of who we are together, and to discover what is shaping our local expressions of the Vineyard. An authentic response in heeding this call has required us to be open to fresh accountability, and spiritual formation, right down to a personal level. The political, economic, medical and societal climate around us has added layers of challenge as we have navigated this transformative work as a family together.

For many of us, life has felt and perhaps still feels complicated and at times overwhelming. In light of this reality, we sense the call of the Holy Spirit to us as a family as we gather in Calgary to focus our attention on “Just Jesus”. Our hope is, in the simplicity of this “compass setting”,Jesus will meet us and give us a fresh understanding of who He is and who we are in Him.

The words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 capture for us what we are reaching for in this year’s National Celebration. Let us paraphrase here. “I am afraid for you. Afraid that somehow, by the serpent’s cunning, you have been led astray from the simplicity of devotion to Jesus. You have drifted and things have become far too complicated in your lives. You need to get back to just Jesus. In this drift you at times have ended up embracing a different Jesus; a different gospel; a different Spirit than what, and who, you began with. And sadly, you can’t even see how this has happened and accept who you’ve become far too easily.”

We are so looking forward to gathering in Calgary and to experiencing the wonderful life, hope and celebration that comes from being with Jesus together.

Youth & Kids' Track Leaders

Rebekah Croker
Kids' track leader

Bekah has been a children’s pastor and child activist for over 20 years. She has had the great adventure of working with children and children’s workers (social workers, teachers, parents, foster parents, ministers, counsellors, etc.) in over twenty countries around the world. She partners with ministries and projects that work to fight and advocate for children who are in extreme need or trauma. She also works to create ways for children to know God and have fun and authentic discipleship as followers of Jesus. Bekah’s biggest goal is to show kids the love of God. She believes that kids discover who they were made to be when they truly know how much God loves them.

Andrew Glidden
Youth track leader

Andrew is the lead pastor at Saint John Vineyard in Saint John, NB. This is his first lead pastor role as he has spent most of his ministry career in youth ministry. Andrew was a youth pastor for 5 years and then worked in the Youth and Family Department for the Canadian Baptist of Atlantic Canada. In this role Andrew resourced youth and children’s pastors by running training events, developing curriculum, and providing consultation. During this time he also co-founded the One Conference, the largest multi-denominational youth conference in Atlantic Canada. Andrew has been married to wife Courtney for 14 years and has 4 energetic children from ages 2-9. In his free time he enjoys kickstarting board games, pretending to be a woodworker, and pursuing a masters in counselling.

SCHEDULE /

You can get all the schedule details right here.

An invitation from David and Anita Ruis, National Directors of Vineyard Canada.