BOTH LOCATIONS

Jay Pathak
Jay Pathak
VUSA National Director
Jay Pathak

Jay Pathak is the National Director of Vineyard USA, starting in January 2022. He also serves as the Lead Pastor of the Mile High Vineyard, a family of neighborhood churches in Denver, that he, Danielle, and a small team planted in 2001.

Jay co-wrote the book, The Art of Neighboring, with Dave Runyon. His passion for sharing his faith with the people around him is at the center of his calling. He is a humble, empowering leader who is passionate about raising up leaders around him. His strengths, in particular, lie in strategically placing people on teams where they thrive. Additionally, he regularly thinks of ministry in the context of culture and developing relationships and partnerships in the city, government, and across denominational lines.

Jay has led in various contexts throughout the Vineyard starting as an intern for Rich Nathan at the Columbus Vineyard in his early ministry days, and stretching into various positions of translocal leadership including serving on the Vineyard USA Executive Team for many years. He is a sought-after speaker and coach while keeping strong ties to the local community.

Jay has a BA in Philosophy from The Ohio State University and is a graduate of the Vineyard Leadership Institute.

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John Mark Comer
via video
Author, Founder of Practicing the Way
John Mark Comer

John Mark Comer was the founding pastor at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon where he spent many years working out discipleship to Jesus in the post-Christian West, and organized community around a simple idea: practicing the Way of Jesus together.

In 2021, after leading a five-year initiative around spiritual formation called “Practicing the Way,” John Mark stepped away from that role to create simple, beautiful formation resources for church communities around the world.

Today, he’s developing new practices, courses, and podcasts for Practicing the Way and serving as a teacher in residence at Vintage Church LA with his wife T and their three kids.

John Mark is also the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including Practicing the Way, the bestselling The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and Live No Lies, God Has a Name, and Garden City.

John Mark holds a master’s degree in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary, but these days you’ll find him out walking the oak groves of the Santa Monica mountains working on his next project.

Dr. Henry Cloud
Dr. Henry Cloud
via video
Author, Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Henry Cloud

Dr. Henry Cloud is a clinical psychologist, pastor to pastors, and New York Times bestselling author. His 46 books, including the iconic Boundaries, have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Throughout his storied career as a clinician, he started treatment centers, created breakthrough new models rooted in research, and has been a leading voice on issues of mental health and leadership on a global scale.

Dr. Cloud lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Tori, and their two daughters, Olivia and Lucy.

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Kenn Gulliksen
via video
Founder of first Vineyard Church
Kenn Gulliksen

Kenn Gulliksen started a church in West LA in 1974 known as the first Vineyard church.

Average people, as well as actors and musicians whose names would be familiar to us today (Bob Dylan, T-Bone Burnett, Keith Green), were connected with Gulliksen and the Vineyard.

From Gulliksen’s church, the first Vineyards were planted in 1975. Believing that God had instructed him to do so, Kenn officially gave the name “Vineyard” (from Isaiah 27:2-3; John 15:5) to this association of churches, and led them for about five years. By 1982, there were at least seven “Vineyards” in a loose-knit fellowship of churches.

In the early 80s John and Carol Wimber, who had become a part of Calvary Chapel, converged with Kenn’s church and after becoming friends, it was clear to Kenn that John was emerging as the leader of the growing network of Vineyard churches. The official recognition of this transition took place in 1982: the emergence of what was to be called the “Association of Vineyard Churches.”

Kenn went on to plant numerous churches on the west and east coasts and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Joanie. He is a soft-spoken, kind man and we’re so grateful for the time spent talking with us for this conference.

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Dr. Carmen Imes
via video
Associate Professor, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
Dr. Carmen Imes

Dr. Carmen Imes serves as associate professor of Old Testament at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.

Carmen is passionate about helping students and other laypeople engage the Old Testament and discover its relevance for Christian identity and mission.

She is best known for her books Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters (IVP 2019) and Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters (IVP 2023). Imes has appeared on over 100 podcasts and radio shows and releases weekly “Torah Tuesday” videos on her own YouTube channel. She writes for Christianity Today, the Politics of Scripture blog, and The Well (InterVarsity). Imes is also a frequent speaker at churches, conferences, and retreats.

Before arriving at Biola in 2021, she served as professor of Old Testament at Prairie College in Alberta, Canada. Her academic journey began when Carmen and her husband served as missionaries in the Philippines with SIM International, reaching out to ethnic minorities. Imes loves introducing students to the rich insights of the global church.

James Choung
Rev. Dr. James Choung
via video
Vice President of Strategy & Innovation for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA
Rev. Dr. James Choung

Rev. Dr. James Choung serves as Vice President of Strategy & Innovation — overseeing evangelism, discipleship & leadership development, planting, global engagement & justice, multiethnic initiatives, and the Creative Labs — at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA.

He is ordained through a local Vineyard USA church, and has written three books — the latest being a co-written book titled Longing for Revival. He speaks frequently and consults at campuses, churches, seminaries, and conferences, and most recently taught a doctoral course on evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary. His work has been featured in Christianity TodayLeadership JournalOutreach MagazineSeminary Now, and exploregod.com.

James wrote his D. Min. dissertation on postmodern leadership development also at Fuller Theological Seminary, received his M. Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and studied management science and marketing at MIT. He has previously served on the pastoral staff of a Boston-area urban church plant, of a megachurch in Seoul, and led an LA-adjacent house church. As for other interests, he has led worship at various national conferences including the Urbana Student Missions Conference, and serves on boards for higher education and overseas for-profit and non-profit startups.

For fun, he likes to travel with his wife, laugh with his two sons, spoil his daughter, bask in Los Angeles’ endless summer, and swing a racket in hopes of playing something like tennis.

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Dr. Caleb Maskell
VUSA Associate National Director, Theology & Education
Dr. Caleb Maskell

Caleb Maskell is the Associate National Director of Theology and Education for Vineyard USA. Born in London, he immigrated with his family to New Jersey in 1986, at the age of nine.

Caleb has been involved in leadership in the Vineyard movement for twenty-five years. After spending a gap year at the Toronto Airport Vineyard School of Ministry in 1995, he went to the University of Chicago to study theology, philosophy, and literature in the interdisciplinary undergraduate Fundamentals program. While there, he joined the core planting team of the Hyde Park Vineyard Church, where he served as a worship leader, a small group leader, a setter-up of chairs, and whatever else Rand Tucker asked him to do.

After college, full of questions that had emerged from the beautiful collision of serious academic study and the practical realities of church planting, Caleb enrolled in the M.Div. program at Yale Divinity School. For four years, he immersed himself in the study of theology, church history, and scripture, while also leading worship and working with middle school and high school youth groups. After graduating in 2004, he worked for three years as the Associate Director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.

In 2007, along with his wife Kathy and their friends Matt and Hannah Croasmun, Caleb planted Elm City Vineyard Church in New Haven, Connecticut. That year, he also began a Ph.D. program at Princeton University, focusing on the history of American religion, with an additional emphasis in African-American Studies. After moving to Manhattan for four years while Kathy went to seminary, the Maskells ended up in suburban Philadelphia, where Caleb completed his Ph.D, while teaching regularly at Princeton Theological Seminary, and serving as the Worship Pastor at Blue Route Vineyard Church.

Since 2010, Caleb has led the Society of Vineyard Scholars, which exists to foster and sustain a community of theological discourse in and for the Vineyard movement. Caleb is passionate about developing leaders and institutions that will help to produce a healthy, courageous, and hospitable future for the church in the twenty-first century. Caleb and Kathy now live with their two kids, Josiah and Emmanuelle, in the heart of Denver, where Kathy pastors East Denver Vineyard Church.

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Danielle Pathak
Associate National Director, Pastoral Health & Formation
Danielle Pathak

Danielle Pathak is the Associate National Director for Pastoral Health & Formation. Danielle grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and started attending the Columbus Vineyard as a young teenager. It was there that she learned to love the Church and started to gain invaluable experience in loving and serving the people around her. It was also in this season that a pastoral ministry call began to develop for Danielle.

Danielle attended Ohio State University and graduated with a BA in Human Development and Family Studies. She attended Vineyard Leadership Institute in Columbus, Ohio for theological training before church planting in Denver with her husband Jay and a small team in 2001. After several years of building and developing the Arvada Vineyard and also having her daughters, she became the Staff and Spiritual Formation Pastor for the Mile High Vineyard, a family of neighborhood churches in the Denver area which includes the original Arvada Vineyard. She formed a deep conviction that a pastor’s life must be cultivated and intentionally tended to, with a contemplative, wholistic yet mission-oriented framework. This conviction has shaped her leadership and calling.

She completed a certificate in Spiritual Direction in 2013 from Sustainable Faith, took on additional training in Family Systems work, and most recently added a certificate in Spiritual Formation and Leadership in 2020 from the Transforming Center in Chicago, IL.

Her true joy in this life outside of her faith is her family, her husband Jay, and her daughters Jasmine and Sofia. They thrive when traveling the world exploring new places, cheering on the sidelines of a soccer game, or spending a weekend in the beautiful Rocky Mountains!

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Dr. Charles Montgomery, Jr
VUSA Associations Strategic Coordinator
Dr. Charles Montgomery, Jr

Charles A. Montgomery, Jr serves as the Associations Strategic Coordinatorfor Vineyard USA and Teaching Pastor at Vineyard Columbus.

Charles also founded a successful multiethnic Campus (Vineyard Columbus East) and has pastored there since 2012. His passion is to develop Beloved Communities as espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, an alumnus of Charles’ alma mater, Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Charles has a B.A. in Mathematics from Morehouse, a Master of Divinity from Emory University (Ga) and a PhD in Ethical and Creative Leadership from Union Institute University (OH).

He has earned several credentials in Diversity Training and is a Certified Spiritual Director through the Sustainable School of Faith.

He considers his greatest accomplishment (ok, grace) being married to his childhood crush, Kimberly. Charles and Kimberly are avid Buckeye fans (Go Bucks!) and make their home in Columbus Ohio.

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Adam Russell
Director of Vineyard Worship (USA)
Adam Russell

Adam Russell is the Director of Vineyard Worship (USA). In his role as Director, Adam brings his experience as a songwriter, worship leader, and senior pastor together to help guide and direct Vineyard Worship in living out its core purpose, which is to gather the worship community, train worship leaders, and make compelling records of the songs that God births in our wider movement. Additionally, Adam serves as a Vineyard USA Trustee and also leads his home church, Vineyard Campbellsville.

As a writer of many well-known songs in the Vineyard movement (“Let Your Kingdom Come,” “High King of Heaven,” “Name Above All Names,” “Folks Like Us”), Adam has also produced several records for Vineyard Worship (Promises of Wonder, All Things Rise, Kyrie Eleison, Wear The Crown).  In addition, he has traveled extensively inside and outside the Vineyard training and encouraging worship leaders, songwriters, and creatives.

“Vineyard Worship has been a huge blessing to the global Church, and that call is still valid,” Adam reminds us. “We are only one little thread in God’s worldwide tapestry, but we are a part, and we must sing our song, and give our gift.” Adam’s hope is that the Vineyard would love God first and most and that one aspect of our devotion would be songs that move God’s heart.

Adam and his wife Heather live with their four children on a small farm in rural Kentucky where they also grow grapes and make wine.

WEST

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Lauri Varieur
AAPI Association
Pastor at Fullerton Vineyard, CA
Lauri Varieur

Lauri Varieur copastors the Vineyard Fullerton Church with her husband Wade. Lauri is a second-generation Chinese American. She is originally from New York and currently lives in Southern California with her husband and daughters, Kyrie and Arabella. She has been in the Vineyard for over 30 years. 

Lauri has spent her career working as an executive in the creative branding sector for many fashion brands. She began her career in Paris and NYC before relocating to LA. She has worked for Donna Karan, BCBGMAXAZRIA Group,  Herve Leger, and more.

Being a co-vocational pastor has allowed Lauri to serve in her local church and continue to minister in the marketplace.

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Aisha Oyarekhua
Black Pastors & Leaders Association
Compassion & Justice Coordinator at Valley Vineyard Church, CA
Aisha Oyarekhua

Aisha Oyarekhua is the Compassion and Justice Coordinator at the Valley Vineyard Church in Reseda, California. She serves as Compassion and Justice Specialist with Vineyard USA Missions, and is also a practicing attorney in California specializing in civil litigation. She is passionate about seeing people understand the heart of the Gospel and experience lasting spiritual growth. Aisha’s life can be summed up in one sentence–she loves God, she loves people, and she loves justice. Her fascination with the notion of justice and fairness began at a very young age and led her to become an attorney. She is passionate about access to justice for the less privileged.

Aisha has a heart for the incarcerated and does a lot of juvenile justice work with incarcerated youth; mentoring and supporting them to transition out of a life of crime to become law-abiding citizens living a life of purpose. She is a Justice Ambassador for Prison Fellowship International and a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in foster care. 

Aisha lives her life by Proverbs 29:7 and spends a lot of time volunteering to protect the rights of the poor by providing free legal services to the poor. She believes that providing access to basic legal services to the less privileged is an essential aspect of loving her neighbor. Aisha is the Vice President of Christian Legal Society in Los Angeles and was recently awarded the Volunteer Attorney of the Year by Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles.

Aisha earned her LL. B (J.D equivalent) from the University of Benin, Nigeria, in 2003 and was called to the Nigerian bar in 2005. She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2014. She is a certified Anger Management Coach and enjoys helping people work on having a better handle on their emotions because she believes that good emotional and relational health should naturally flow out of good spiritual health. 

Aisha is a Spiritual Director in training and is a part of Derek Morphew’s Kingdom Theology Mentorship Program. She loves hiking and visiting the National Parks.

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Jimmy Reyes
Hispanic Association
Pastor at Valley Vineyard Church, CA
Jimmy Reyes

Jimmy Reyes serves as the Lead Pastor of Valley Vineyard in Reseda, CA. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jimmy moved to the San Fernando Valley when he was 10 years old. He is a third-generation follower of Jesus, as all of his grandparents were pastors and church planters. Jimmy met Jesus as a young boy, earned a theology degree from Harvest Bible University, has had the privilege of helping plant two churches in Los Angeles with the Vineyard movement, and has produced two Spanish albums with Vineyard Music.

Jimmy has a strong desire to see people come to Christ, not just attend church, and be transformed into true disciples of Jesus who seek to disciple others and make a difference in our city and our world. He considers himself a bridge-builder and longs to see people of different ethnicities, ages, and socioeconomic status come together as a kingdom community that represents the diversity of Heaven here on earth.

Jimmy has been married to his beautiful wife Ali since 2000, and they have two children, Jacob and Jada.

EAST

Denise
Denise Rhrissorrakrai
AAPI Association
Executive Pastor at Hope Astoria, NY
Denise Rhrissorrakrai

Denise Rhrissorrakrai joined the Hope Astoria pastoral staff team in 2015 and serves as the Executive Pastor.  She enjoys listening to people’s stories and her passion is to see people thrive through forming an intimate relationship with Christ.

Denise grew up in central Pennsylvania, then moved to Boston to pursue her B.A. at Harvard University.  After graduating in 2000, she worked at Oracle and served with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.  In 2004, God rocked her world by calling her into a church-planting adventure in New York City, and it’s been home to her ever since. She served on staff for several years at the Vineyard church she helped to plant in Manhattan, before transitioning to pursue her MSW from Hunter College.

Denise is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and has enjoyed working as a counselor. She currently lives in Middle Village, Queens with her beloved husband Kahn and son Joel. 

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Clay Harrington
Black Pastors & Leaders Association
Senior Director of Breakthrough Ministry at Vineyard Cincinnati Church, OH
Clay Harrington

Clay Harrington was taught at an early age timeless truths about God by his mother. But during his teenage years, he turned away from God to live a life of sin.

It wasn’t until the age of 30 that he would turn from a sinful lifestyle to a life sold out for Christ. Since his born-again experience, Clay has experienced a number of radical encounters with the Father and made it his life’s mission to help the Church realize they are dead to sin and how to live alive to God.  Today, Clay is committed to proclaiming freedom to captives, healing the sick, equipping the saints to live naturally supernatural, and inspiring the church to live radically for Jesus.

Clay is married to his wife, Regina (affectionately known as babygirl), and they are blessed with two sets of boy/girl twins. Clay and his family reside in OH, where he works as the co-founder of the Cincinnati School of Supernatural Ministry (CSSM) and currently works as the Senior Director of Breakthrough Ministry at Vineyard Cincinnati Church.

Isis & Mynor Canel
Isis & Mynor Canel
Hispanic Association
Pastors at La Viña Cincinnati, OH
Isis & Mynor Canel

Mynor and Isis Canel are a dynamic couple with 33 years of marriage under their belt. As first-generation Hispanics, they’ve cultivated a life marked by love, family, and a passion for community impact. Blessed with three children and a cherished granddaughter, their journey has been one of shared purpose and dedication.

In the realm of ministry, Mynor and Isis have left an indelible mark. They played pivotal roles in planting La Viña congregation in Los Angeles and Guatemala City. In 2008, the Lord led them to Cincinnati, where they took on the challenge of planting La Viña Cincinnati. For 14 years, they’ve served as bi-vocational lead pastors, guiding their congregation with wisdom and compassion.

What compelled them to plant a church in Cincinnati was a commitment to social justice. Witnessing the struggles of the Hispanic community in an area known for its crime rates, they made the courageous move from LA to make a difference. Their vision extended beyond the pulpit, as they also founded and oversee an extension of Harvest Bible University in Cincinnati, where men and women are being trained and equipped to become pastors to plant churches.

Outside the ministry, Mynor and Isis find joy in family gatherings and cherished moments with friends. Road biking has become their shared stress-relief activity, allowing them to explore new paths together. Their church reflects their commitment to diversity, conducting services in both English and Spanish. Their overarching passion lies in aiding the less fortunate, particularly immigrants who often arrive with only the clothes on their backs. Mynor and Isis embody a love for God, family, and community, making a lasting impact on everyone they encounter.

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