Daniel Bishop, Lead Pastor
I grew up with the dream of being the head grounds keeper at Angel stadium and mowing their lawn, but God changed my dream when I led one of my best friends to the Lord when we were 18 years old. My Youth Pastor and Dad both told me I should consider going into the ministry. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Proverbs 16:9 which says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” God started to establish my steps to serve in His church. The Grove first hired me at 18 to serve as a youth intern. I attended California Baptist University (CBU) and received my bachelor’s degree in Applied Theology while playing soccer for the school. After graduating from CBU, God directed my steps to live in Chile for a year serving alongside some of The Grove’s missionaries with the hope of gaining a heart for missions. I knew missions was important, but thought missionaries were a little weird and their kids even weirder. 😊 Clearly, God needed to wake me up. God ended up giving me a huge heart for missions, missionaries, their kids 😊 and the local church while serving in Chile. I witnessed how God uses the church to bring the Gospel to all people. Our former Senior Pastor at The Grove, Tom Lance, emailed me while I was in Chile and offered me a job at The Grove. I ended up taking the job when my commitment in Chile was done and became the Jr. High Pastor. A few months later I met the love of my life, Natalie Bishop, who is my best friend and number one teammate in serving our church. We served in Jr. High ministry for 2 years, High School ministry for 5½ years and then entered into a 5-year succession plan as Tom Lance mentored me to take over as the new Lead Pastor. During this time, I completed my master’s degree in Theology at Gateway Seminary. I was officially named the Lead Pastor of The Grove February 2, 2020.
To sum things up, I love the Lord with all my heart, I love my family, I love my church, I love coaching my kids in sports, I love mowing my lawn, watching the Angels (even when they lose), I love a good meal, and I love golf. More than anything, I love the idea of living my life for the glory of God and doing my best pleasing Him in every area of my life until He brings me home.
My prayer for The Grove is that we would be a healthy, loving, and faithful church that brings God glory in all things. I pray that we would truly be a church that lives up to its purpose statement of “Being Changed by God to Reach All People.” I pray we would faithfully share the Gospel with all people, as we praise the Father for what His Son, Jesus, did on the cross for our sins. I pray we would preach His word faithfully in a world that is constantly turning away biblical truth. I pray we would truly make disciples that not only love the Lord, but desire to share His love with their family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and strangers. I pray our church is able to raise up new pastors and missionaries that we could send out and reach the unreached. My prayer for The Grove is that we would bring a smile to God’s face as we do everything He wants and nothing He doesn’t want. Our goal is to bring God glory in all we do and may He give us the wisdom, faith, boldness, and love to be a faithful representative of who He is to the world.