2024 Speakers
Main Stage Guides
Shaila Visser
National director, alpha canada & Global Senior vice-president , alpha international
Shaila Visser is the National Director of Alpha Canada and the Global Senior Vice-President for Alpha International. She is the Executive Producer of both The Alpha Youth Film Series (2013) and The Alpha Film Series (2016) and currently sits on the Board of the Damascus Road Foundation.
Shaila has a heart for people coming to know Jesus and is passionate about helping the local church flourish. She is a gifted communicator who is known for her strategic leadership as well as her ability to bring people together. Shaila is recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Christian Women in Canada.
Shaila loves hiking, beaches, next generation leaders, her big anglo-Indian family, and achieving new goals- whether that be fitness, books, or learning. Shaila lives in Vancouver BC with her husband, Ryan Visser, a Vancouver Police Officer, and their four-legged family members, Talon and Benny.
vijay krishnan
lead pastor, the well
Vijay Krishnan is the Lead Pastor at The Well Church. He and his wife Jennifer were part of the group who “planted” The Well in 2005 and in 2009, after leaving his career in business to join the pastoral staff.
Growing up as a pastor’s kid, the church was a part of Vijay’s life from the beginning. It was there that he met Jesus and became a christian. The church provided him opportunities to form friendships that have lasted for decades, learn about his spiritual gifts and abilities, and receive guidance from the generation ahead of him.
Vijay, his wife and their three sons are privileged to be a part of what God is doing in, and through, The Well Church.
sharon witton
co-pastor, toronto city church
Sharon Witton is the co-pastor of Toronto City Church with her husband Brendan. Toronto City Church is an intercultural, intergenerational church with a passion to impact the city of Toronto and the nation of Canada. Sharon serves in a number of organisations and movements including the Ministers Network Canada, and Empowered 21 where she is the Next Gen North American Regional Co-chair.
She also sits on the board of I am Compelled, an educational charity, the Culture Changers, a non-profit organisation that focuses on tackling critical cultural issues that affect the church and the next generation, and Alpha Canada.
Sharon’s passions include empowering women, raising next generation leaders and seeing believers grow in the prophetic. She and Brendan have two awesome kids, Micah and Shiloh.
domenic ruso
Lead Pastor, The180 church
Domenic is a pastor, author and leader who believes that this is the best time to learn and engage with the next generation. His passion for the church has led him to the church plant (the180.ca) in Montreal region where he grew up. It is in this emerging secular context that Dom is constantly working through complex questions about faith, spirituality, truth and how those intersect with faith in Jesus and the Bible. He has a PhD in Church History & is passionate about teaching and preaching in that way that will help leaders and churches rethink their leadership paradigms for biblical engagement with our emerging Post-Christian context.
sawyer bullock
associate pastor, bayview glen church & Illusionist
Sawyer Bullock is an international, award winning speaker and mentalist. His unique mixture of wit and trickery has brought him to places like North Korea, Rwanda, Las Vegas, and is a regular performer at TIFF.
Whether it’s guessing your PIN number, stopping his pulse, or stealing your watch, Sawyer’s magic pushes the boundaries of imagination and gives us a glimpse of wonder in the world.
Oj the Dj
Resident DJ for Outpour
Oj has been a DJ for several years with most notable events with World of Dance, Warner Brothers, Kingdom Bound in New York, Otafest Calgary, Change Conference in Toronto, Youth Quake in Saskatchewan, Lecrae, KB, and over 100 high school and university events.
Born in America and living in Canada with a Nigerian heritage, Oje is typically fusing different cultures together in an aim to bring unity amongst people.
With a following of 500K, DJing in over 8 countries, opening and playing with acts such as Lecrae, For King and Country, KB and hundreds of high school and university events, OJ has music for everyone!
Lab Speakers
Jon Thompson
Jon Thompson, Lead Pastor of Sanctus Church
Jon Thompson is the Lead Pastor – Vision & Preaching of Sanctus Church, a multi-site church in the Greater Toronto Area where he has been on staff for more than 20 years. Under Jon’s leadership, Sanctus is characterised by dynamic Biblical teaching, vibrant community groups, compelling media, and powerful times in worship.
Jon has a Masters of Theological Studies from Tyndale Seminary, Toronto and a Doctorate of Missiology from Fuller Seminary, California. Jon is husband to Joanna and father to three kids – Hannah, Emma, and Noah.
Jon speaks and teaches globally on the convergence of spiritual gifts, spiritual practices, and spiritual experiences in the life of the believer and the local church.
Jason Persaud
Jason Persaud, Senior Advisor at Alpha Canada
Jason is a Senior Advisor with Alpha Canada. He has the privilege to serve Pastors and churches exploring the Alpha course in cities across Canada.
Jason is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Culture Changers. A ministry that helps churches and organizations change culture. He also creates content on social media focusing on cultural issues to engage the Next Generation reaching over 190,000 on TikTok and Instagram. He has served in ministry for over thirty years as a pastor and home missionary with Youth Unlimited Toronto (Youth For Christ).
Jason travels as an itinerant speaker and consultant. He recently completed his Master’s in Practical Theology and Leadership at Northpoint Bible College and Seminary in Haverhill, MA.
Jason has been married for 18 years to his wife, Kerri, who is a part of the pastoral team at Bramalea Christian Fellowship in Brampton, ON. They have two amazing children, Kaela (16) and Nathan (13).
Kaarina Hsieh
Kaarina Hsieh, Lead Pastor of Parkway Forest Community Church
Rev. Kaarina Hsieh has served actively in pastoral ministries for over 25 years in a variety of contexts. For 17 years, she served on faculty and is the former Dean of Students at Tyndale Seminary. There she also gave oversight to the Department of Student Development and Chapel ministries and her particular areas of teaching foci at the Seminary were in Youth and Family Ministries, Gospel, Church and Culture and in areas of Spiritual Formation.
Since 2012 Kaarina has served as Lead Pastor of Parkway Forest Community Church located in North York (Toronto). Parkway Forest Community Church is a dynamic, multi-cultural, age and socio-economically diverse church that is always seeking to build bridges into the community, finding ways to love the city to Jesus.
Kaarina serves on the General Executive of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and also serves on the Board of Directors for Youth Unlimited GTA. She continues to champion for the spiritual growth and health of youth and their families to greater wholeness in Christ.
Kaarina and her husband Wayne live in, love and serve the community they’ve been called to with great joy and a deep sense of God’s Kingdom purposes.
Karmyn Bokma
Karmyn Bokma, Pastor and Itinerant Speaker
Karmyn Bokma is a pastor and speaker in the GTA. She has worked in many ministry capacities over the years, from youth and young adults, to discipleship, to preaching and teaching, to senior pastoring. Through all of it, she continues to learn more deeply the way God has intended for all of us to work together, using the gifts he has given us. Helping others discover this is one of her favourite things to do. She is married to Ben and has 3 kids Ellie, Zeke and Silas.
Jeff Brodie
Jeff Brodie, Lead Pastor of Connexus Church
Jeff Brodie is the Lead Pastor of Connexus Church, located north of Toronto in Barrie and Orillia. He brings vision, oversight, and leadership to Connexus’ multiple growing campuses and developing network of Canadian churches.
At 25, Jeff left a career as a professional educator and packed everything in his car to work at one of the first multi-site churches in North America. He has led in a multi-site context ever since.
After working alongside Carey Nieuwhof for several years, Jeff took the baton as the Lead Pastor of Connexus Church eight years ago. He leads a world-class team whose passion is to see unchurched people come to know the hope of Jesus.
He is passionate about investing in the next generation of leaders and helping churches develop strategies and leverage tools to scale and reach more people. He believes in taking chances on people early, calling out the potential in leaders, and passing on leadership to the next person with intentionality.
His wife, Leslie, is a guidance counsellor, and his boys, Gavin and Carter, love school sports, NFL football, and Harry Potter.
Like you, he’s learning as fast as he can and is still trying to figure all of this out.
Ethan Park
Ethan Park, Partner at Extract Capital
Ethan is an investor, operator, and entrepreneur, whose calling is to engage business expertise in the Kingdom’s work. Ethan’s skills include: investment management, fundamental business analysis and structuring, incubation of businesses and marketing, and mentoring. Ethan is Partner and co-founder at Extract Capital, a hedge fund manager based in the US and Canada with assets under management of US$400 million, having launched in 2012 with US$2 million. Prior, he graduated from Richard Ivey School of Business in 2006 and worked as Analyst at Rothschild, an M&A Investment Bank. Being called to faith and work integration and living a life of generosity, Ethan has invested in various social and missional businesses. He resides in Mississauga, Ontario with his wife, Janette, and two children, Bailey and Jonas.
Alyssa Esparaz
Alyssa Esparaz, Content & Public Relations Manager at Compassion Canada
Alyssa Esparaz is the host of Compassion Canada’s curriculum for young people, True Story: What God Wants Us To Do About Poverty. She is passionate about encouraging her generation to bring Christ’s hope to the darkest places of the world, and speaks regularly on behalf of Compassion Canada. She is the founder of Freedom Creations, a social enterprise that sells knitted products and donates 100% of profit to fight modern-day slavery. Alyssa also blogs at godsgal4ever.blogspot.com and writes a regular column for Love Is Moving magazine. When she’s not doing any of the above or working towards her International Development degree at the University of Toronto, she can be found cheering for the Raptors, dreaming about going on an airplane, or eating way too much ice cream
Matt Vincent
Matt Vincent, Lead Pastor of Lewisville Church
Matt stepped into church leadership somewhat reluctantly in 2002, but has always strived to follow the invitation of Jesus. This had led to many wild adventures and new opportunities. In the mid 2000’s Matt stepped away from his role with The Meeting House (a large multi-site church in the GTA) to plant a church with family and friends. This church known as REUNION now represents a network of 9 churches across Canada and into Kuwait and Colombia.
In 2023, Matt began a new chapter of ministry by becoming the Lead Pastor at Louisville Baptist Church in Moncton, NB. It is here that he lives with his wife Bobbi, their kids Tabea, Silas and Hadley, and their much loved French Bulldog – Moose. He loves good food and delicious coffee, especially when they can be shared with friends.
Brooke Nicholls
Brooke Nicholls is a Worship Leader and Songwriter from Toronto, Canada, where she serves as a Staff Worship Leader at a multi-site Church called Sanctus. When she’s not at her home Church, she’s leading worship at different Churches and Ministries across Canada and beyond. Brooke has been named the Female Vocalist of the Year for the last three years at the Canadian Gospel Music Awards and her new album, ‘Pursue’, is nominated for a 2020 Juno Award. Brooke is married to her guitar player Steve; together they love leading the local church and pointing people to Jesus.
Dr. Helen Noh
Dr. Noh’s area of specialization in both clinical practice and research is in the area of marriage and family therapy. She completed her internship at Glen Roberts Child Study Center and Verdugo Mental Health in Southern California. Dr. Noh worked with children, adults and families dealing with mental health issues, including depressive and anxiety disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as well as family system issues, such as marriage and parenting. Her areas of research interest include applied psychology and counselling with an emphasis on the integration of psychology, theology and spirituality.