Pastor Griepp's bio

I remember turning my life over to Christ at a young age and being freed from intense anger.  In its place, a genuine love for others began to develop.  Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I moved with my family to Arizona when I was five.  A few months later my father was killed in a car accident and our family went through one of the darkest times of our lives.

During the next four years I looked for a father, and was excited when my mother married a Mohawk Native American.  This turned out to be the beginning of a test to see how much of my heart was truly filled with God’s love.  Over the next nine years I was challenged to be forgiving and loving to my stepfather, in spite of issues that I couldn’t reconcile with his role as a pastor.  Despite all this  conflict and stress, I eventually developed a strong relationship with him to the point where he was the best man in my wedding.  We remained good friends until 1984, when I was at his bedside as he passed into eternity.

Looking back I see how God used this painful time in my life to prepare me to minister to a generation growing up behind me that would experience the highest rates of family breakup and the introduction of stepfathers, some of whom would be a source of great pain in their lives.   God had answers through His Word for my life, and I know that those answers are still valid for hurting and broken people today.

Looking back over the 30 years of ministry here in NYC with my city-born wife, I can see that God prepared us to minister here and feel right at home in this multicultural environment.   I am privileged to be ministering in the greatest city in the world at a time when all the people of the world are coming here to seek a better life.  Many are coming because of the promise called “The American Dream,” but haven’t been told that it will not provide what they are really looking for.  Sooner or later when this truth sinks in, I know they  increasingly become open to the truth that in comparison to eternity, this life is very short, and that they need something far more than the American dream can provide.  We have an answer for this need, which is to stand before God on Judgment Day and be declared innocent because of Jesus having paid for their sins.

I am grateful for my early experiences with the International Bible Society as a community evangelist in the five boroughs, and then as an assistant pastor for Dr. Daniel Mercaldo at Gateway Cathedral in Staten Island.  These were foundational experiences to my wife and I in our present ministry leading Grace Church (now Church @ the Rock) for the past 20 years.

As we continue to plan for and look to the future, my concern and commitment is to continue to see men assuming their God-given responsibilities and leadership in their homes and in the church.   It is my intense desire to see the boys coming up now become all the men God wants them to be!   Additionally, it is vital that women support their husbands and sons in this.  In the midst of a sea of voices teaching ideas contrary to these truths, it is a tremendous task.