Matthew Ruttan has pastored Westminster Church since 2008. He has a focus on biblical teaching and daily discipleship.
He writes The Up Daily Devotional five mornings a week and hosts The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan.
Since 2001 Matthew has been married to Laura, a grace-abounding kind of person. Together they have three children (11, 14 and 15) who are brightly on-the-go. They live a heartbeat from the Celestial City.
Matthew is foremost a Servant of the Word. He loves simplicity, sincerity, clarity and campfires. He loathes his phone, but still uses it.
For 5 years, William served as minister at First Church in Penetanguishene, and as youth pastor for 8 years prior. For his role as Youth & Outreach Coordinator he believes he will continue to grow in his love for the Lord and His Word.
He is blissfully married to Tori and the proud father of Abel, Aiden, Ewan and Eben (who will often be with him wherever he goes). He loves the intersection of music, art and faith. He believes that Christ deserves to be the centre of every area of our lives, especially at home.
When he is not doing ministry, being with his family, or taking much-needed afternoon naps, he pretends to be a DJ, beatmaker, graffiti artist, and a probably-too-old-for-it aggressive inline skater.
Nena is the Music Director at Westminster. She and her husband John have been members there for six years. Music has been Nena’s passion since she began accordion lessons at the age of six and she brings this passion (but not her accordion) to her work. She has been married for 43 years and has 3 children and 3 grandchildren, who bring her immense joy.
She graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and also received both the Piano Performer and Piano Teacher’s ARCT diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Nena enjoys the challenge of finding the appropriate music for each service and collaborating with the choir and guitarists to minister to the congregation. She believes, with St. Augustine, that “The one who sings prays twice.”
At Westminster we have 9 elders who are elected from the congregation and by the congregation.
Along with the pastor they meet monthly to oversee the mission and work of the congregation.
Each elder oversees a specific aspect of the church's work.
Our elders are Pastor Ruttan, Carolyn Trott (Clerk of Session), Mary Colvin, Jim Bewick, Cathy Clark, Guy Gagnon, Aaron Harris, Colin Leonard, Steve Sainsbury, and Tom Walsh.
The word "elder" does not refer to age, but to a position of recognized (and elected) leadership in the congregation. Eldership is a model of church leadership found in the New Testament.