Welcome
Pastor Will and Renée have been joyfully married since 1996 and have served in pastoral ministry in the Greater Toronto Area for 27 years.
Pastor Will graduated from Eastern Pentecostal Bible College (BTh, 1995) and Tyndale Seminary (MTS, 2010). He is currently studying for his Doctor of Ministry at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri.
In addition to pastoring, he teaches Pentecostal History at Master's College and Seminary in Toronto, Ontario, and Vanguard College in Edmonton, Alberta. He is also a frequent camp speaker and marriage enrichment facilitator. He has also served three terms as District Presbyter.
Since 2009, Pastor Will and Renée have served at Richmond Hill Pentecostal Church in the heart of the Greater Toronto Area. They love the multi-cultural vibrancy of worship and loving fellowship of the people of God.
Pastor Will is deeply passionate about biblical preaching, whole-life discipleship, community outreach, and equipping people for works of service. He believes Christ came to give us abundant life and empower us to bring the kingdom of God to earth.
His vision is to raise up a generation of Christ-centred and Spirit-empowered leaders to serve in the local and global marketplace.
His wife Renée is originally from Montreal and speaks French and German. Renée holds a Ph.D. in Health Care Administration from the University of Toronto and is a post-doctoral fellow at York University and Trent University, specializing in child and youth mental health. Renée is also the Kids’ Ministries Director at Richmond Hill Pentecostal Church.
William Sloos: Published Works
(2023). Leading Pentecostal-ly: Creating New Opportunities for People to Encounter Jesus. Enrich, Summer 2023, 24-27.
(2023). The Church. Essential Truths. The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. 62.63.
(2021). The Church: Refreshing the Statement of Essential Truths. Enrich, Winter 2022, 25-27.
(2021). After the Revival: Pentecostalism and the Making of the Canadian Church Book Review. Enrich, Summer 2021, 26-29.
(2018). Starting Points: Forerunners and Founders. Picture This!, The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. 12-23.
(2015). Picturing the Sermon: The Art of Communicating God’s Word Through Pictures. Nexus, 86-92.
(2013). The Innovative Spirit of Early Canadian Pentecostals. His Witnesses, 111-119.
(2010). Christ Our Healer. Authentically Pentecostal, 53-66.
(2010). The Story of James and Ellen Hebden: The First Family of Pentecost in Canada. Pneuma 32, 181-202.
Contact Info:
Email: williamsloosjr@gmail.com
Richmond Hill Pentecostal Church, Toronto, Ontario.
Early Pentecostal History Tour of Toronto. Pentecostal History Class, 3rd Year Undergraduate Students, Master's College and Seminary, Peterborough, Ontario.
The United Pentecostal Missions of Toronto Camp Meeting at Moyer's Bush Mennonite Campground at Dickson's Hill, Markham, Ontario, 1909. The meeting was hosted by A. G. Ward (extreme right, second row from top) and welcomed prominent Pentecostal Rev. A. A. Boddy from the Pentecostal Missionary Union in Britian and American missionary evangelists Alfred and Lillian Garr. Six Toronto pastors provided leadership: George Chambers, John Salmon, George Murray, George Fisher, Stephen Craig, and Ellen Hebden (James and Ellen Hebden and family are likely pictured bottom row, front and centre). A young Aimee Semple McPherson is also in attendance.
Gravesite for Ellen Hebden, pioneer of the Pentecostal movement in Canada and leader of the East End Mission, 651 Queen St. E., Toronto, Ontario. Grave located at St. John’s Norway Cemetery, 256 Kingston Road, Toronto - rediscovered and uncovered in 2008.
An early organizational meeting of Pentecostal leaders at Fred Young's home at Mille Roches, Ontario (now an underwater ghost town). The meetings at Mille Roches and Montreal would later develop into the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, chartered in Ottawa, May 17, 1919. Error in photo: Charles Cross, foreground 3rd from right, is actually Clarence Lancelot Cross (1888-1971), Charles’ father. Clarence Cross and the MacCready brothers (Alexander and Anthony) held the first known “Pentecostal” services in Canada in 1905 at Sand Bay Corners, Ontario.
R. E. McAlister's Apostolic Faith Mission, 375 Bank St., Ottawa. In 1906, McAlister attended the Azusa Street Revival on Los Angeles where he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He returned to Ottawa and opened up the Apostolic Faith Mission where he held early Pentecostal services at this location.
Following A. G. Ward’s message on the Pentecostal experience at the Bethany Church in Kitchener in 1908, over 100 clergy and laypeople left the Mennonite Brethren in Christ to join the emerging Pentecostal movement. Among the defectors included George Chambers, Solomon Eby, Sarah Pool, and John T. Ball. The following year, A. G. Ward held a meeting at a Mennonite Camp in Dickson Hill, Ontario in an attempt to unite the Pentecostal people under the P.M.U. - the Pentecostal Missionary Union out of England. Alexander Boddy, a P.M.U. leader from England even attended the camp meeting. However, Ellen Hebden remained opposed to any form of Pentecostal organization, believing that any organization would limit the free leading of the Holy Spirit. The organization of Pentecostal people would wait another 10 years before the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada was officially chartered. It is plausible that A. G. Ward’s preaching of Pentecost at the Bethany Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church in Kitchener in 1908 was the catalyst for the organizational movement of Pentecostal people in Canada. [Error in picture caption incorrectly states “Toronto” - should be “Kitchener”.]
The East End Mission at 651 Queen St. E., in Toronto. Led by English Missionary Ellen Hebden, the East End Mission became the centre of the Pentecostal outpouring in central Canada when Ellen Hebden received the baptism of the Holy Spirit here on November 17, 1906. For the next 3.5 years, the Hebdens held Pentecostal services at this location before relocating their ministry to 155 Broadview Ave.
Following his studies at God's Bible School in Cincinnati, George A. Chambers was a Mennonite Brethren in Christ pastor in Guelph, Ontario, then later in Toronto, where he openly opposed Ellen Hebden’s Pentecostal revival. Following his baptism in the Holy Spirit, he apologized to Ellen Hebden, then Chambers led a Pentecostal mission at 375 Parliament St., in Toronto. Chambers then pastored a Pentecostal church in Elkland, Pennsylvania. He later returned to Canada to pastor a work in Vineland, Ontario in 1912. In Kitchener in 1919, at the first national conference of the Pentecostal Assemblies in Canada, Chambers was elected the 1st General “Chairman,” a position he would hold for 15 years.
Site of the 1st PAOC National Conference, November 25-28, 1919; 31 Clergy in Attendance; 15 Scott Street, Kitchener, Ontario
15 Scott Street, Kitchener, Ontario - original building
First National Office of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada; The McAlister Family Home, 740 Queens Ave., London, Ontario
In 1894, artist Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith painted Lights of a City Street, oil on canvass. A fine depiction of urban life in early Toronto, it is considered to be one of the finest pieces of Canadian Art held by the Hudson's Bay Company. Bell-Smith's son (same name) pictured in the painting (man at centre in black suit tipping his hat) became a prominent pioneer-leader in the early Pentecostal movement in Canada.
Canada’s first Pentecostal Church, Kinburn, Ontario, 1911. R. E. McAlister, founding pastor.
In 1905, Pentecostal house meetings were being held in Sand Bay, Ontario led by brothers Alexander and Anthony McCready. Clarence L. Cross, a local 17 year-old boy, joined them in 1906 and served as pastor of the Sand Bay assembly for over 25 years. A oneness pastor, Cross is pictured prominently in the Milles Roches photograph when Pentecostal leaders met at Fred Young’s Farmhouse in 1917 to plan the chartering of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. The Sand Bay house meetings are the earliest known Pentecostal meetings in Canada. The church building, now converted to a home, is located at 559 Sand Bay Road at Sand Bay Corners, Ontario.
Former Sand Bay Pentecostal Church, 1925-2001. From 1925 to 1941, the church was affiliated with The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, then in 1941, the church joined the Apostolic Church of Pentecost (oneness) which later because the United Pentecostal Church International.
Ontario Bible College, 50 Euston Avenue, Toronto, opened its doors on October 3, 1939 with 45 students enrolled. In 1951, with 240 students, the school moved to the Nicholl’s Hospital building located at 780 Argyle Street in Peterborough and became Eastern Pentecostal Bible College.
Nicholl’s Hospital Building became Eastern Pentecostal Bible College in 1951.
Aimee Semple McPherson was born just outside of Salford, Ontario in 1890 and would go on to become one of the greatest Pentecostal evangelists of all time. Although there has been a plethora of research about her life and ministry, her Canadian birthplace has received little recognition.
Upon entering Salford, Ontario, provincial heritage signs lead visitors to the historical plaque about Aimee Semple McPherson’s birthplace. There is also a store in town that has a small museum with books, pictures, and various memorabilia highlighting Aimee Semple McPherson’s life and ministry. The home she grew up in is still in use as a private residence in Salford, Ontario.
Aimee Semple McPherson Historical Plaque, Salford, Ontario.
At the height of her popularity, Aimee Semple McPherson revisited Salford and posed in front of the local United Church.
Pentecostal cemeteries are common in Newfoundland (71 cemeteries), but they are rare in the rest of Canada (New Brunswick 16, Nova Scotia 5, PEI 1, Quebec 1, Ontario 5, Manitoba 1, Saskatchewan 2, and Alberta 7 - all in the Edmonton area). In the Ottawa Valley, there are 4 Pentecostal cemeteries (Pembroke, Quadeville, Cobden, and Shawville). Given that the Ottawa Valley is a historical heartland of early Pentecostalism, all 4 cemeteries contain graves that speak of the early pioneers and continue to serve their communities to this day.
Quadeville Pentecostal Cemetery serves a rural community deep in the heart of the Ottawa Valley.
In 1997, Cobden Pentecostal Church took stewardship of the Pioneer Cemetery in Osceola, a rural cemetery with deep holiness roots. Many of the grave markers speak of waiting for the final trumpet call and a longing for the resurrection.
Mohawk Pentecostal Cemetery serves the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the First Nation Reserve of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. The cemetery is located just east of Deseronto, Ontario at 83 Bayshore Rd., Tyendinaga, Ontario .
In the Western Ontario District, the Six Nations Pentecostal Church Cemetery is located at 1527 Fourth Line, Ohsweken, Brant Municipality, Ontario. The very first burial was for Pastor Zeno Porter, who was the Pentecostal Pastor at Six Nations when he passed away in 1947. The cemetery now has over 150 graves and continues to serve the local community.
Edmonton, 2021. Students of Pentecostal History at Vanguard College visiting the first Pentecostal church in Edmonton, the Pentecostal Assembly of God Mission Hall, 1920.
Visiting the John McAlister House. John McAlister was known as the “man who brought Pentecost to Edmonton.’ His home was where he first held Pentecostal ‘cottage’ prayer meetings in 1916 which led to the founding of Central Tabernacle.
Visiting the grave of D. N. Buntain, founder of Northwest Bible Institute, now Vanguard College, Edmonton.
Site of the 1923-24 Dr. Price Revivals in Vancouver, BC; 10,500 seat Denman Arena at 1805 West Georgia Street at the northwest corner with Denman Street. During Price’s 3-week evangelistic and healing campaign in Vancouver, it is reported that over 250,000 people attended the meetings and drew the attention of the national media. Although Price’s healing ministry was not without controversy, these meetings ignited Pentecost throughout the lower mainland of British Columbia.
For three weeks in May 1923, Rev. Charles S. Price (1887-1947) held daily (and often twice daily) evangelistic meetings and faith healing services at the Denman Arena in Vancouver. Frank Patrick, owner of the Arena had this to say about the Price crowd: “[T]he evangelistic party addressed over a quarter of a million people in the space of three weeks. On more than one occasion, I could feel the very building tremble with the singing of the multitude who were unable to wait for the opening hymn.”
One testimony of a believer who experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit at the 1923-1924 Price revivals in Vancouver.