"Debt: good, bad or ugly? Are you a good steward of God’s gifts? What does the Bible tell us? Let’s talk…"
Anne has been with FaithLife Financial since 2007. Her team is responsible for developing, implementing and administering our “Giving Back” programs. This includes working with churches, chapters, Christian organizations and partners in the Christian community to leverage our fraternal uniqueness and ultimately build a better world. Anne has more than 20 years of management experience including recruiting, sales, marketing, e-business, consumer service, project management and business analysis. Anne enjoys curling, many sports and is very active in her church community. She has three very active children and a spoiled puppy that keep her busy.
Craig Carter - Food and Sex: A Strange of Two Appetites
"In 1959 people could eat anything they wanted, but have sex only according to strict rules; today it’s the opposite. Why?"
Dr. Carter has been teaching theology and ethics at Tyndale University College & Seminary in Toronto since 2000. He also serves part-time as "Theologian in Residence" at Westney Heights Baptist Church. He teaches theology and ethics in both settings and also preaches regularly at Westney. Dr. Carter firmly believes that theology is done from and for the Church and is for the people of God, not for an academic elite alone. In his teaching and preaching ministry, he seeks to implement the motto of St. Francis of Assisi: "In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity."
Bruxy Cavey - The Power of Religion
"Why did the first century religious establishment reject Christ's message? Why does the 21st Century religious establishment often do the same?"
Bruxy is the Teaching Pastor of The Meeting House - a church for people who aren’t into church. This multi-site community in the Greater Toronto Area shares the same teaching and vision: to create safe places for spiritual seekers to ask questions and develop thoughtful faith. Bruxy’s accessible style, historical rigor, and refreshing candor make him a popular guest on television and radio programs and at universities across Canada. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario with his wife, Nina and three daughters, Chelsea Chanelle and Maya, and their lovable dog Toby.
Bishop Keith Elford - Power Between Generations
"Sharing power is a common source of church conflict. This workshop deals with practical and theological issues surrounding power sharing and power passing between generations."
In May 2008, delegates from across Canada elected Rev. Keith Elford to a fourthterm as the Bishop of The Free Methodist Church in Canada. Bishop Elford's mandate is to give leadership to the FMCiC’s vision “to see healthy churches within the reach of all people in Canada and beyond”. Prior to becoming Bishop in 1997, Rev. Elford was a pastor for 24 years, serving Free Methodist congregations in Calgary, Alberta; Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Whitby, Ontario; and a church plant in Willowdale, Ontario. Since 1999, he has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Free Methodist World Conference. Bishop Keith holds a B.A. from Spring Arbor University in Michigan and an M.A. from Canadian Theological Seminary. The Elfords have two adult children. Rebecca and Adam Schnell and their daughter Abby live in Jackson, Michigan where Rebecca serves as the Family Ministries Pastor at Jackson Free Methodist Church. Greg and his wife, Erin, live in Mission, British Columbia where Greg is Lead Pastor of New Heights Free Methodist Church.
David Fitch - Complicity with the Powers
"A look at the way three common beliefs (the inerrant Bible, the Christian nation, the decision for Christ) foster Christian complicity with the powers."
David Fitch (PH.D. Northwestern University) is the church planter, and one of the pastors of “Life on the Vine Christian Community,” an emerging church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the NW Suburbs of Chicago IL (lifeonthevine.org). He also is the B R Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary, Chicago IL. He is co-founder of up/rooted (up-rooted.blogspot.com) a collaborative friendship of pastors engaging postmodernity in the Chicagoland area and blogs at reclaimingthemission.com. He is the author of the recent book The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the mission of the church … as well as many articles in theological journals. He is a regular contributor to New-Wave E-Zine, Church and Postmodern Culture Blog, as well as Christianity Today’s Out of Ur Blog. He is a regular speaker on the topics of emerging church, evangelicalism, postmodernity and the challenges facing the church in North America. He is married to Rae Ann and they have a son “Max.”
Leanne Friesen - Powers vs. Vowers
"Discuss the ways Satan attacks marriage in our culture and how the Church can stand against these forces to protect marriage."
Leanne is currently Senior Pastor of Mount Hamilton Baptist Church in Hamilton Ontario where she has served for the past four years. She has a great passion for marriage and pre-marriage ministry and considers it a real blessing to be able to journey through these life phases with couples as part of her work. She has been married to Dallas for six years, and they have spent four of them working together at their church. They are also enjoying raising their one year old son, Josiah, together.
Wendy Gritter - Bridging the Gap
"Navigating diverse perspectives on sexuality to find a generous, spacious place for true relationship with our gay neighbours."
Wendy is committed to engaging the local church to reach out to and minister effectively with those addressing questions of faith and sexual identity. Wendy has served as the Executive Director of New Direction Ministries for five years.
Sylvia Keesmaat- Romans 12 and 13: Disarming the Powers
"They were political and social. They were at the heart and in the heart. And in Jesus they were disarmed. Forever."
Sylvia Keesmaat is a gardener, homeschooling mother, and adjunct professor of bibilical studies at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. She is the author, with Brian Walsh, of Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, and editor of The Advent of Justice. Sylvia lives on Russet House Farm, a solar-powered organic farm in Cameron, ON.
Bishop Mark MacDonald- Principalities, Powers, and God's Mission to North American (Turtle Island)
Mark MacDonald is the Anglican Church of Canada’s first National Indigenous Bishop. He has served on the board of The Indigenous Theological Training Institute; the faculty of Leadership Academy for New Directions (Land XXVIII); and, a trustee of the Charles Cook Theological School in Tempe, AZ; and is the Board Chair for Church Innovations, Inc., member of the Episcopal Council of Indian Ministries, Member of the Governor's Council on Suicide Prevention (AK), President of Alaska Christian Conference. He is also a Third Order Franciscan. Mark and his wife, Virginia Sha Lynn, have three children: daughters Rose May Li, Brenna Li, and one son, Adrian Blake.
Dan Oudshoorn - Abandoning our Home Amongst Impotent Powers: Pursuing New Creation in Solidarity with the Poor
"This workshop argues that genuine change is premised upon severing connections with 'the Powers' and making new ones amongst the powerless."
Dan is increasingly convinced that movement into a mutually liberating solidarity with the poor and the oppressed is at the core of what it means to follow Jesus and live as human reflections of the divine image. This conclusion is one that Dan has come to through both his years of study (he is currently writing a Master's thesis entitled "Apocalyptic Eschatology and the Subversion of Empires: Reading Paul in New Creation Communities") and ten years of working with, and journeying alongside of, various street-involved populations. Along the way, Dan has been a part of organisations as diverse as the Yonge Street Mission (when he worked at the Evergreen drop-in for street-involved youth) and AIDS Vancouver (where he volunteers at Boys-R-Us, a drop-in for male and transgendered sex workers). He has also spent four years living in a few different 'intentional Christian communities', including one he helped to start in Vancouver's downtown eastside. Dan is married to Melanie and they are expecting their first child in January of 2009.
Ingrid Heinrichs Paul - Fair Trade: The Power to Change Lives
"Fair Trade is not about charity or pity, it’s simply a fair way of doing business. We have the power to empower."
Ingrid has been a Fair Trade advocate for most of her life. Ingrid made her first Fair Trade purchase when she was about 12 yrs old, a shopping experience that led to 20 years of volunteering with Ten Thousand Villages in Ontario, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 2001 she left her job as a Maternity Nurse to become Manager of the Ten Thousand Villages store in Princeton, NJ. Two years later she moved home to Ontario to open the new Ten Thousand Villages store in downtown Oakville, a position she held for almost 4 years. With her passion for letting people know about the importance of Fair Trade, Ingrid is now the Education and Media Coordinator for Ten Thousand Villages Canada. She has been interviewed on CBC Radio's Metro Morning, Here & Now, and Fresh Air programs, as well as on CP24, Listen Up!, Web 2.0, Calgary's City Line Breakfast TV, and London, Ont's A-Channel Breakfast. Ingrid has spoken to community groups, churches and schools across Southern Ontario. The goal of her talk is to "increase people's awareness of the exploitation involved in many of the products we purchase every day, and the difference it really makes when we shop Fair Trade."
Joanne L. Rudnick - Powers of Sex Trade & Slavery
"This workshop will give attendees an overview of the work that the International Justice Mission is doing in this hurting world."
Joanne L. Rudnick serves as a representative of International Justice Mission Canada as well as an Investigative Associate. IJM is an international human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression. Based on referrals of abuse received from relief and development organizations, IJM conducts professional investigations of the abuses and mobilizes intervention on behalf of the victims. Joanne has been deployed multiple times to Cambodia to assist with training at the IJM field offices. An experienced investigator, Rudnick has served with the Toronto Police Service for 20+ years and is currently working in internal affairs investigating police misconduct. She previously was a Detective in the Sex Crimes Unit and in the past has also been assigned to patrol, general investigations, the Youth Bureau, Elder Abuse, and uniform supervision as a Sergeant. Her training experience includes aiding the organization of two International Sex Crimes Conferences. Rudnick has also assisted the development of the child abuse policy in her church, and conducted related training in sister churches.
Jared Siebert - Power Between Generations
"Sharing power is a common source of church conflict. This workshop deals with practical and theological issues surrounding power sharing and power passing between generations."
Jared Siebert, currently serves as the National Director for Church Development for the Free Methodist Church in Canada. His main responsibility is to prepare the denomination to respond to the massive cultural change that churches are facing. He hopes to accomplish this through the planting of new kinds of churches and by developing sustained health and contextual conversations at the local church level designed to bring churches face to face with there mission in their respective neighbourhood or region. Jared began ministry 1998 with his wife, Katherine, in Kingston in a church plant called the “Next Church”. He currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario with his wife Katherine and two boys Soren and Nathan.
Brian Walsh - Empire Remixed: Homemaking in the Empire
"From creational homemaking to imperial homelessness, from the homemaking power of hospitality to xenophobic powers of exclusion. Politics, community, justice, faith."
Fishing, birds, good coffee, scripture, Sylvia, Jubal, Madeleine and Lydia, students, music, books, writing, rivers - these are some of the passions of Brian Walsh. Often doing his best thinking either over a good cup of coffee in a local coffee shop, or in a river with a fishing pole in his hand and binoculars close by, Brian insists that Christian scholarship, and all of life, must be integral and closely tied to the rhythms of creation. While he doesn't always succeed in achieving such wholeness (or simply letting it happen), these are his goals. He also teaches graduate level courses on postmodernity, theology of culture and homelessness at Wycliffe College, within the Toronto School of Theology. He is the author of a number of books including: Beyond Homelessness, Colossians ReMixed, Subversive Christianity, Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be & The Transforming Vision.
June Keener Wink -The Power of Movement
"In this workshop we will explore ways of releasing depths of feeling and creativity in relationship to ourselves, others and God."
From her background in body movement and art, June offers a unique approach to the integration of body, mind and spirit. She leads groups in movement and art activities. She is an internationally known potter whose specialty is "Dancing Flame Oil Lamps" which are used for personal and group meditation. She also makes chalices and patens, and other liturgical ware. She is author of an article, "Shedding the Snakeskin," in Women's Studies Quarterly 21/2 (Summer, 1993), is the subject of a chapter, "Bible Study and Movement for Human Transformation," in Body and Bible, (1992), and is featured in an interview in The Witness, entitled "In Pursuit of a Dancing God," by Marianne Arbogast (May 1995)." She also wrote "Joy in the Dance" in The Living Pulpit (October - December 1996).
