Aaron Boyd
Dr. Barry Buzza
Dr. Barry Buzza has been Lead Pastor of Northside Foursquare Church from its inception in 1979. He not only serves as Pastor of three campuses, but also as President of the Foursquare Churches of Canada. Northside Church began using Alpha in 1998 and has successfully run the entire program 56 times with thousands of participants. Barry is an active enthusiastic proponent of Alpha, both at home and abroad.
Brian Thiessen
Brian lives in Cloverdale, BC with his wife Loralee, and their five children, Tyus, Brendan, Makenna, Jonathon, and Samuel. He has been playing music for the past 35 years and guitar for the past 30. Brian is presently involved as a songwriter, session guitarist, producer, worship leader, and roofer. He has played on numerous worship albums over the last 20 years, for artists like, Brian Doerksen, Andy Park, and others.
Calum Rees
On meeting Calum you quickly realise two things; that he has a tremendous sense of fun and that he is a Welshman! Music and laughter run deep in the blood of every Welshman and Calum is no exception.
His musical credits are like the who’s who of Christian music. He has played drums on some of the most impacting worship recordings in recent history playing with some of the most popular artists around. He is an incredible technical exponent of the drums, but what is also special about Calum is that he is a deeply sensitive soul, and it’s from his compassionate heart that the rhythm flows.
Calum together with Ed Freitas, Liam Watts and Terl Bryant, holds the Guinness world record for the longest drum roll, a massive 22 hours 14mins and 23secs!
Calum now resides in Vancouver and is happily married to Joyce.
Gemma (Cathy Hardy and Karin Dart)
Gemma is the musical partnership of Cathy Hardy & Karin Dart. Cathy’s primary occupation is teaching children music education and Karin’s is spiritual direction. In the last 7 years, they have also devoted time to songwriting, recording, leading contemplative retreats and contemplative services, like Taize Evening Prayer. Karin’s primary instrument is the harp. Cathy is a soprano and plays keyboards and various recorders. Together they have recorded two CDs; ‘rest..inspirations from Taizé’ and ‘trust…inspirations from Taizé’.
Darcy McAlister
Darcy is a creative dreamer kind of guy who works with youth and young adults. Specifically his role is to find the mavericks across Canada – and to release them into their global missions dreams! Darcy speaks across Canada to youth and their leaders about the destiny call on their lives – and he’s a Dad, a soccer coach and a lousy Halo player. He lives in Langley, BC and is married to Leanne who is actually a better speaker. They have 3 kids – Nick, Robyn and Ben plus a dog!
Daryl Samson
Daryl Samson is the Program Director at the Orchard Recovery and Treatment Centre on Bowen Island. Daryl specializes in the assessment, treatment, intervention and monitoring of addictive disorders and chemical dependencies. He has the unique combination of educational, professional and personal experience to relate with individuals who suffer from addiction. Daryl has fourteen years experience in this fascinating and rewarding field. Daryl credits Dr. Ray Baker of Healthquest as a mentor who influenced the approach he utilizes when interacting with the addicted and their loved ones. Modeling balanced recovery and instilling hope in those whose hope has gone is Daryl’s passion.
Donna Dinsmore
Donna J. Dinsmore comes to us from Vancouver via South Carolina, where she taught choral music for seventeen years. In addition to earning a Masters of Music Education degree at the University of Illinois, she experienced four exciting performances on the Carnegie Hall stage in New York City, singing the Berlioz Requiem and Verdi Requiem with Robert Shaw and preparing her students to sing with the National Youth Chorus.
In 1996 Donna followed her heart to Regent College in Vancouver where, in addition to earning a Masters of Christian Studies, she served as the worship coordinator for the College, and in that capacity was responsible for over 700 different worship events.
Her experience in the Regent community helped shape her passion for Christian worship and spirituality, and has given her a distinctive voice in the often bewildering world of Christian worship. Donna knows how to pass on the best of a culture’s worship and music practices to future generations by giving them the experience and understanding to make the tradition their own. It is this richness of “enlightened cherishing” that she brings with her as she works in communities that are content neither with commercialized music resources nor static traditional resources.
Donna currently serves as the Worship Pastor at White Rock Baptist Church in the Vancouver area. She is also in love with the north island of New Zealand, where she has spent ten weeks over the last two summers “being with” Bible Colleges and local churches. She plans to return to New Zealand this fall to continue the vital conversation around her central conviction that worship is both all about God and all about us.
http://www.donnadinsmore.com
Duffy Lott Gibb
Duffy is the Coordinator of Arts and Director of Summer School at Regent College. Armed with two masters degrees in the area of Arts and Theology, one in dance (MCS Regent College) and the other in visual arts (MPhil St Andrews University, Scotland), she delights in managing the Lookout Gallery and enjoys
working with students working toward their degree through the Integrative Project in Arts and Theology. Prior to Regent, Duffy ran summer programs at Oxford University, handled legislation on Capitol Hill (Washington, DC) and worked for various US non-profits in the area of the arts. She has been profoundly shaped by her experience choreographing musicals for children with and without disabilities. Together with her husband, Julian, a Regent MDiv student, they delight in history, traveling and, of course, art.
Joyce Rees
Joyce Rees has served as the director of Jacob’s Well since it was founded eight years ago. Jacob’s Well is a relationally focused ministry in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, Canada’s poorest neighbourhood. (www.jacobswell.ca) Joyce has also served as a pastor for ten years in two churches. In addition she has taught extensively about justice. Joyce brings a vital challenge to the church regarding current paradigms of ministry with marginalized people. She is married to Calum and they are expecting their first child in August.
Karen Reed
Karen is an ordained minister, who served 21 years at Broadway Church in Vancouver, BC. A graduate of Regent College, Karen worked in a corporate setting prior to pastoral ministry. She is a regular Alpha conference speaker (also serving on the Alpha Canada board for 10 years since its inception), and is currently on the board of World Vision and her denominational District leadership team. She is pioneering a role for her denomination as an urban missionary, in a strategic community in Vancouver – Commercial Drive, and was recently seconded to serve as CEO of the Lower Mainland Christian network called More Than Gold.
Having lead Alpha courses for over 10 years, she believes that Alpha dances well between the current cultural shifts and is an excellent tool that fosters health for the local church.
Karen is passionately in love with Jesus – who has a claim of Lordship on her whole life. He alone holds her in the grip of His transforming love, having taken the broken bits of her life and weaved them into a story of His grace and power – which motivates a passion to become like Him and to make Him known.
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a co-pastor at Capilano Christian Community on Vancouver’s North Shore where he has served for 14 years. Mike also served for two years on the counseling staff of the Burnaby Counselling Group and as an individual and marriage counselor and currently has a small private practice as a pastoral counselor in North Vancovuer. He has 20 years of experience working pastorally with couples. Also, over the past 30 years of ministry Mike has been involved in premarital preparation and marriage enrichment in many venues in local churches, at Barnabas Family ministries, and throughout the Lower Mainland with the Vancouver-based Marriage Project. Mike and his wife Nancy have been married for 34 years and know the joys and struggles of pursuing a good marriage. They have two grown sons, Christopher and Justin. Mike enjoys building furniture and turning bowls and generally acquiring the right tool for the job. He also eats too much chocolate.
Paddy & Carole Ducklow
Paddy Ducklow is “pastor emeritus” of CapChurch in North Vancouver, BC (www.CapChurch.ca) where he served as the team leading pastor for 15 years. He is a Registered Psychologist and a Christian Minister and who loves his Mac notebook, studying and teaching on “Christian leadership,” and pulling things out of his garden when he is miserable. He reads theology books with a yellow highlighter at a local coffee shop (where he has a vegan muffin named after him!) and has recently been appointed as the Erb-Gullison Professor of Family Ministry at Carey Theological College. Paddy’s Doctoral degree is in leadership and conflict resolution. Mostly he is the overly proud parent of two adult children and the delighted husband of one wife (and this for 37 years).
Carole Ducklow is a registered marriage and family counsellor, a leader at CapChurch (www.CapChurch.ca), supervises the Adjunct Counselling Service at Regent College, and offers psychological assessment for missions and vocations. Her private practice work (in her home-based office) focuses on couples and individuals with a Family Systems Theory orientation.
Carole loves to cook, hosts a book-reading group and is having a bit of a tough time giving up being the best parent that her children will ever have. Carole teaches marriage enrichment, parenting conferences and counsellor training weekends in Canada and the US.
Peter Davyduck
Phil Janz
Philip Janz is a producer/engineer/arranger based out of the greater Vancouver area, Canada. He started professionally producing album projects in 1995, primarily in North American and in Europe, and has had the privilege of serving along side many artists and worship leaders (such as Brian Doerksen, Andy Park, Kathyrn Scott) around the world up until present. He also has been travelling & performing with Brian Doerksen’s band since ’95 . He currently resides in Mission with his wife Brenda and 3 children, Jonas, Noah & Rebecca.
Rick D'Orazio
Rick, together with a small group of friends in 1999 joined together to plant the Freedom Centre International, a community church located in the heart of Port Credit Village in Mississauga, Ontario. Currently, Rick serves as the church’s team leader. He has a passion to see local church communities healed, equipped and released into all the different spheres of society.
Known for his passion for life, enjoyment of resourcing people’s dreams, and his dedication to loving well, Rick is a servant leader. When he’s not challenging, equipping and strengthening his own congregation to “make history” for God, Rick travels internationally to provide support and advice to various Partners in Harvest (PIH) church plants. Rick is also one of the founding members of a local community advocacy group known as the Friends of the Mississaugas.
Rick and his wife Colleen have four children—Kailyn, David, Jonathan, and Talia—as well as a dog Oscar—all of whom keep them busy and fulfilled.
Terry Neudorf
Tim MacIntosh
With his engaging and often humorous speaking style, Tim will share with delegates how the Lord has used Alpha to bless the ministries of Granville Chapel in Vancouver (where Tim served for 25 years) and Bethany Baptist Church in Richmond (where he has served for the past 4 years). He is thrilled at the wholeheartedness of the conversions experienced through the Alpha course and the enthusiasm of these converts to tell others. A gifted speaker, Tim loves expounding God’s word, helping people grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and discovering the realities of faith, especially for the first time. It was therefore a natural step for him to lead the church in adopting Alpha, regularly running courses ranging from 6 – 60 people and seeing the Lord radically transforming lives.
Tim is married to Sarah – they have 4 children, aged 6-15. He serves on the National Board for Alpha Canada and speaks at Alpha Training Conferences across Canada.
