In this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with Caleb Maskell about immigrating to the US as a child, the disorientation of self he experienced, and how this manifested socially and academically. Caleb shares about failing classes in high school, how he eventually discovered his love for learning and critical thinking, and how that was entwined with the frequent experiences he was having with the Holy Spirit. Finally, Jay and Caleb talk about the direction of the Vineyard relating to theology and education.
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.
Show Notes:
Register for Vineyard USA’s National Conference “Making All Things New”: https://conference.vineyardusa.org/
Power Healing by John Wimber: https://amzn.to/3G7OEVr
Let Us Dream by Pope Francis and Austen Ivereigh: https://amzn.to/3Gcn5uf
