Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Rhodea.
Hi Greg, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My earliest memory is from the age of two when I was napping on my dad’s lap as the train we rode went through a tunnel. That must have been Kentucky. I was an only child, born in Indiana, but we moved around a fair bit when I was young: Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, and ten years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I loved running around the woods behind our house, waving around a wooden sword and battling orcs. (Or were they just bushes?)
When I was fourteen years old, we moved for two years to the middle of the jungle in Indonesia. My dad was a civil engineer, and he got a job working on an expansion to a nickel mine. This was quite an education! We got to visit a lot of countries over those years, and my eyes were opened our big world–both good and bad. Favorite experiences included visits to Australia and various parts of Asia and Europe. I’m a redhead, and vulnerable to sunburn, so we went through case after case living that close to the equator.
Up until this point, I had wanted to be a pilot. Yet when I was sixteen years old–still living in Indonesia–this began to change. I’d grown up in a Christian home, but during those years in Indonesia I grew in my own faith and became settled this this path was not just something from my parents, but something I believed in. That year in Indonesia, I began to get a sense that God wanted me to be a pastor. My answer? “No way!” I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to join the Air Force. Blow stuff up! But the feeling would not go away, and I agonized over it for months.
That summer we moved back to the US, this time to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As we got involved in a church there, I realized that my heart had changed, undramatically. The desire to be a pilot had faded, and I became settled on ministry.
I went off to Bible college in downtown Chicago at a place called Moody Bible Institute. This was a valuable time of learning and growing–in a great city–and I met my wife Kailoni there. We got married in 2005 and moved back to Upper Michigan to work at my home church there.
Along came two kids, and shortly after, a desire for more education. So we packed up again for almost eight years, this time in a land flowing with BBQ and tacos–Texas.
At Dallas Theological Seminary, I was able to dig into biblical studies with a special focus on the New Testament. We were blessed with three more kids, and we enjoyed many warm evenings in the apartment pool or playing in nearby parks. After completing a master’s degree and a PhD, it was time to look for the next church where we could serve.
As I was combing through job postings, I saw a position at a church in a town called Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Grand Rapids? As a Michigan boy, I knew where the other Grand Rapids was. I’d never heard of this one. But as we applied for the position and visited, I fell in love with the church, the town, and the prospect of leaving big city life to return up north.
So we moved to Grand Rapids in the summer of 2016, where I’ve been serving as the lead pastor of Grace Bible Chapel. We’ve found the church, town, and people all to be blessings. Occasionally, when I’m stuck in traffic for maybe four minute at the main intersection in town and start to get irritated, I need to remind myself of what traffic was like back in Dallas. A two block backup at the Old Central School? No problem.
Since we moved to Minnesota, our family has loved jumping into all the opportunities our region offers. We live in a house on a lake, and we love water sports, swimming, and hiking through the woods. As someone of Finnish descent, one of the first projects was to build a sauna. Winter brings snowboarding, board games, and extra time at our local martial arts gym, Northland Tae Kwon Do.
We were blessed with two more kids since we moved to Grand Rapids, bringing the total up to seven. I am grateful that God brought us to this community and church, and I look forward to the many adventures to come.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Our roads are not always easy. Yet thankfully, often we can look back and see how some good came in along the way.
A few tough seasons come to mind. My third year in Bible college was a dark time in several ways. On top of some of the normal young adult angst and uncertainty, I also went through a time of doubt in regards to my faith. Can the Bible be trusted? Is Christianity true? Some days it sure didn’t seem like it. While many people with religious commitments can experience such things, my experience felt specially sharp since I was someone headed into ministry as a “career.” Was all this a waste? Was I on the wrong path?
A Christian writer named Tim Keller wrote in his book “The Reason for God” about the value of doubt. He points out that a faith without doubt can be much like a body without antibodies. The process of honestly considering and wrestling with doubts can leave us stronger in the end. Thus, doubts are not to be avoided, but to be explored carefully. (He also advises that we remember to also “doubt our doubts.” In other words, to make sure we are asking for the same level of evidence from competing views as we are for Christianity.) Thankfully, as I wrestled through that time (and in the years to follow), I found sufficient answers for my doubts and concerns. Part of the value of this experience for me is that I have a heart for people with intellectual objections to Christianity.
Other challenges come to mind as well. Uncertainties about life and direction. Will I make it out of this PhD program alive? Will we find the right place to live and serve in ministry? Yet looking back, I’m struck by the fact that most of my worries and concerns never came to fruition. God brought us through safely, where we needed to be. Okay, here’s the hard part–to remember that going forward!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My particular interest is to understand the Bible in its ancient context and to teach it well today. The heart of the biblical story, of course, is Jesus Christ. We are told that he was not just a good teacher, but actually the eternal Son of God, come down to earth as one of us humans. His mission was to succeed where humanity had failed, to live a perfect life that honored God, to pay the price for humanity’s guilt by dying on the cross, and to defeat death in the resurrection.
Interesting question–is all that actually true? As I dug into matters, I was pleasantly surprised to find that we have robust historical evidence that Jesus really was raised from the dead. The behavior of the first Christians actually makes little sense apart from this fact. I was especially impressed by how we have seven letters from the first-century Apostle Paul that are considered undisputed as to authorship. That is, everyone agrees they were legitimately from Paul, even non-Christian atheist or agnostic Bible scholars. That’s a fascination fact to me. In these letters are passages like 1 Corinthians 15 and Galatians 1, where Paul claims to have witnessed the resurrected Jesus firsthand. So these claims are not late legendary developments, but first-century claims written within decades of Jesus’ death.
While we cannot prove that Jesus was raised from the dead in a mathematical or repeatable way, it is interesting that we have exactly the kind of evidence a real resurrection would leave behind. If a person is open to the possibility that there is a God of some kind, here is impressive evidence for his intervention in the world. And of course, if Jesus really was raised from the dead, then all the other pieces of Christianity fall into place.
I’m currently working on writing a book along these lines, focused on Paul’s seven undisputed letters. I hope others will find this line of thought as interesting and compelling as I do.
You can find me most Sundays at church, doing my best to help us understand and respond to what we have in the Bible. Come on by anytime!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m rather balanced on risk-taking. I try not to take unnecessary risks, but I understand we do need to step out if we want to accomplish anything worthwhile.
So, on the cautious side, I’ve chosen to never purchase a motorcycle. I know I’d love it–I also know I would probably run into a tree! I have decided to stick to a Sea-Doo, as falling into the water is more forgiving than concrete.
On the aggressive side though, I would much rather fail spectacularly then to have never tried at all. So let’s push forward and go for it! (After looking both ways, of course.)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://grandgrace.org/
- Instagram: @gracebiblechapelgr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracebiblechapelmn
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gracebiblechapel9478
