Caleb Maskell
Associate National Director, Theology and Education
Resources and equips Vineyard pastors with relevant theological resources, rooted in the whole counsel of scripture and the historic teaching of the church; oversees healthy processes for the shared articulation of & commitment to Vineyard identity among pastors & churches.
Meet Caleb
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.
Q&A with Caleb
What are you most excited about in this new chapter?
Over the past two years, the Lord has brought the Vineyard to a crossroads moment. He has given us grace to reflect on our history, remembering more than forty years of His faithfulness and goodness to us. In this season the Lord has also given us a clear invitation to do the hard work necessary to steward our gifts and calling as a movement for decades to come. I am so excited to be part of this work!
What's your dream for Vineyard churches?
My dream for the Vineyard movement is that our theology will always be lived out. I dream that our churches will be communities where shared commitment to Jesus’s radical proclamation of the Kingdom calls forth courageous practices of biblical discipleship…and, in the same way, that the fruits of these courageous practices of Kingdom risk-taking continually lead us back to a deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus.
What's one thing you learned as a pastor that you'll bring into this role?
As a young pastor, I had a meeting with a famous Anglican theologian. In the middle of our conversation, he paused and asked me, “Caleb, what do you think the gospel is?” As I began to fumble with my words, he gently interrupted me and said, “The gospel begins here: In your unloveliness, you are Beloved.” It was a profound moment, reminding me of the merciful center from which all good news must flow. We never stop needing to hear and receive this truth.
