Andy Saperstein has been a Vineyard person since 1987 and has lived and worked in Asia and the United States for the past nearly 40 years as a linguist, pastor, church planter, missionary, and scholar. Completing his BA in Linguistics at the University of Chicago and his MA and PhD in Linguistics at The Ohio State University, he worked among Afghan refugees in Pakistan as a Fulbright Scholar and linguistic consultant; served in Samarqand, Uzbekistan investing in the emerging church, educational development, academic teaching, and literary translation; and served in senior leadership roles in a major international Christian organization. Andy returned to the U.S. in 2006 to work at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture in a Muslim-Christian dialogue and reconciliation program, and then in 2009 to Vineyard Columbus in Columbus, Ohio, where he served as Pastor of Global International Ministries and Leader Formation, as well as in multiple other leadership roles. Since Autumn 2024, he has served as Associate Pastor of Elm City Vineyard Church in New Haven, CT, which he and his wife, Kathryn, helped plant in 2007.

Andy is passionate about helping Christian communities and individuals grow in nearness to God, spiritual formation, devotion to the local church, and participation in God’s mission in the world. He delights in helping missional people cultivate rich formational lives as they labor outwardly for Jesus’ sake, both at home and abroad in multicultural contexts. Most recently, he has published 12-for-12: A Practical Guide for a Year of Spiritual Formation in Community, and for the past 15 years has led communities of leaders who have helped hundreds of others grow into more deeply formational and missional lives in community with Jesus and his people. 

Andy is a committed commuter cyclist and enjoys hiking, camping, reading, writing poetry, and working as an amateur philosopher-plumber. He has been married to his wife, Kathryn, for more than forty years and has four children and five grandchildren.