Josh Williams

Lead Pastor

Josh, originally from Iowa, moved to New Haven for school. While not knowing what was in store, Josh came for an adventure. He found it through studying and trying to live out justice, love, and community. After graduating Yale in the spring of 2008, he decided to stay in New Haven to go to Yale Divinity School for a M.Div, to pursue his future wife, and to invest further in New Haven.

Around the same time, Josh plugged into Elm City Vineyard and soon became its first intern. During that process, Josh started a few prayer groups on Yale’s campus and established and grew a connection ECV has with Agape Church for the Housed and Unhoused where Josh serves along with a core group of ECVers. Right before his graduation in 2011, Josh was ordained as a pastor in the Vineyard and accepted a job with InterVarsity where he served as a campus minister for Yale College. Weeks later, he happily married his wife, Tina, in a very musical service followed by a reception with much dancing. They live in the Kensington neighborhood of New Haven where they are seeking to love their neighbors. Recently, Josh became ECV’s first full-time Lead Pastor, and he is thankful and excited for how God is maturing ECV’s vision and taking us to new places.

Matt Croasmun

Staff Pastor

Matt and his wife Hannah, along with Caleb and Kathy Maskell, planted the Elm City Vineyard in the fall of 2007. He completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies (New Testament) in the spring of 2014 and serves as the Director of Research and Publication at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Teaching is his calling—in the church and in the university setting. Matt loves music, having majored in music composition as an undergraduate (MC ’01) and  writing and performing music in a variety of venues. After college, Matt spent a year on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Yale and Wesleyan and then, after getting married, spent 3 years at the Yale Divinity School through the Institute of Sacred Music. He serves on the steering committee for the Society of Vineyard Scholars for Vineyard USA and has a real passion for connecting the life of the mind and the life of faith. Matt also loves soccer (playing and watching), TEDTalks, the Chicago Bulls, NASA, and U2. He will also regularly insist to you that his daughter, Junia, is the cutest little girl on the planet.

Asha Evans

Family Pastor

A Californian by birth, Asha is delighted to finally experience the beauty of four seasons in New England. Asha received her Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics from UC Davis. After several years teaching and working with university student services, Asha and her husband, Robb, moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where she studied Turkish, taught English to refugee children, and had her first daughter. In addition to three years in Turkey, Asha has spent time in Iran, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Mexico, and her father’s native homeland of India and hopes to travel the world with her husband and three daughters one day. Her work with a peace building organization (Pathways for Mutual Respect) brought her to New Haven eight years ago. Now she works as a childbirth educator and doula, dreams of training as a midwife someday, homeschools her kids, loves being outdoors, enjoys artwork, crochets blankets, and does all the voices when reading aloud. She knows God is up to good work among the children and families in our community and is excited and honored to be serving ECV as the Family Pastor.

Tina Williams

Worship Pastor

Tina originally hails from Jacksonville, FL. Since moving to New Haven in 2005, she studied at Yale College and at UConn Law School, became involved with the homeless community in New Haven through Agape Church for the Housed and Unhoused, and married ECV’s own Lead Pastor (see above). She’s now happily serving as ECV’s worship pastor, and in her free time is working as an attorney at Wiggin and Dana. Her favorite things include: singing, worship music, meeting new people, eating all kinds of food, and the pursuit of justice in the world.  She lives with her husband in the Kensington neighborhood.

Laura Gable

Administrator

Laura is a native Californian. Before moving to New Haven in 2011, she volunteered with YWAM Europe, working with various urban programs focused on serving the homeless, youth, and the marginalized. During this time she developed her passion for art and loved seeing the powerful and empowering effect it has on communities. In addition to being the administrator, she also works with a non-profit that serves adults with developmental disabilities in New Haven. She is passionate about equipping adults with disabilities to live independent and self determined lives. She also loves cooking, eating all manner of food, hiking in the Connecticut woods, and the long New England winters.