Leadership

Pastors & Staff

Rob Wilms

Senior Pastor

Rob and his wife Charlotte joined Avalon in the summer of 2014.  Rob had finished his Masters of Divinity and was excited to return to pastoral ministry. This has been both his and Charlotte’s return, from Calgary, to the “Promised Land” as Rob grew up in Saskatoon and Charlotte grew up in Regina (opposites attract ;-). They have four beautiful children – Elizabeth, Clara, Nathan, and Evelyn. Rob is inspired by great music and great stories – having cut his teeth growing up on Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia. He is also an avid Riders fan and Ottawa Senators fan. His greatest passion as a pastor is to participate in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in peoples’ lives as he continues to experience Christ’s ongoing work in his own life. 

Nicholas Inder

Associate Pastor

Nick and his wife Abby, have been attending Avalon since getting married in the fall of 2019. Nick became Avalon’s intern pastor as a part of his Bachelor of Arts in Pastoral Leadership. Since completing his internship, Nick has been brought on staff as an associate pastor with his main role being youth ministry. Nick moved a lot growing up, but he considers himself a Saskatchewanian at heart. Abby is from Manitoba, but the good part where most of them still cheer for the Riders. Nick and Abby call Saskatoon home and hope to live here for a long time. This year they added their daughter Noelle Laine to their family. Nick loves building things that will later fall apart, tending gardens that will never grow, and always having a messy, incomplete project in the way of Abby’s nice clean home. Nick loves youth ministry and is interested in counselling and mental health, so he is continuing his education at a casual pace by taking a Master's Degree in Pastoral Counselling. Nick wants to see the youth grow to love Jesus and wants to provide a space for youth to find shelter from the storms in their lives. 

Lynne MacPherson

Parish Nurse

Lynne is pleased to offer her services as a Parish Nurse to the Avalon church community. Parish Nursing is a professional specialty recognized by the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association. Lynne has been an RN for over 25 years and brings experience in both acute and long term care nursing. As a graduate, Lynne worked for five years at RUH on the neurosurgical ward. Following this, she began work at Circle Drive Special Care Home, and has remained there since, with a brief stint in Geriatric Assessment at City Hospital. Besides working the floor doing clinical nursing, she currently holds a contract position as Parish Nurse at Circle Drive Special Care Home. Lynne has been a foster parent for over ten years. She and her husband Blair have adopted a son out of foster care, and raised four adult children. They are Grandparents to eleven. Lynne's heart cry as a nurse is to support people emotionally and spiritually as they face challenges to their health, whether that challenge be physical, mental or emotional.

Laura Funk

Office Administrator

Laura grew up at Avalon, first attending with her parents and siblings when she was six.  She is married to Kevin, and has two daughters, Rachel and Jessica.  Rachel is married to Phil and has two very busy and growing rapidly sons.  Both  are the apple of Laura's eye.  Jessica lives in Martensville and works for Prairie Heart Mobility in the city.   Laura began working in the office as the Administrator in June of 2011, after deciding that a 16 year career teaching First Aid and CPR was long enough.  Although she sometimes misses the huge amount of human interaction she had with teaching, she enjoys the challenges that come in maintaining the office. Laura has a love for music, and in particular, music within worship.  Laura is a Music Team Leader, co-leading with Marsha Jago.  However, her true passion has been to raise her girls to love the Lord and to strive to live for Him.  When not at Avalon, you might find her scrapbooking, cross stitching, learning new crochet stitches to teach to Rachel, and most recently, learning the craft of quilting. 

Board of Elders

Myron Janzen (Chair), Pastor Rob Wilms (Vice Chair), Murray Wall (Secretary),
Braden Jago (Treasurer), Tyrone McKenzie, David Wieseth

Elders are elected annually for a term of three years, and cannot serve for more than six years without having at least one year off.