Jeff Grindle Ministries
I was born in Clinton, Massachusetts on September 5, 1962. You might be wondering how I came to be involved in southern gospel music growing up in New England. Well as a small boy I remember my mother tuning in every Sunday afternoon to a television show called The Gospel Jubilee. I heard music performed by The Happy Goodman Family, The Florida Boys, The Hinsons and many others. At that young age I fell in love with the music. I grew up in a Christian home and when I was 9 my parents, in response to God's call on their lives, packed us up and we moved to Castile, NY so they could attend Elohim Bible Institute. Following a ministry at a Christian Youth Camp, my dad accepted the position of youth pastor at First Central Baptist Church in Chicopee, MA.
Following high school and while others in my youth group I graduated with were headed off to Christian colleges, I wanted to get as far from church and God as I could. So I joined the Navy and left the church and God behind. It would be another ten years before I would regularly attend any church. During those years I got married to my wife Susanne and we began to raise a family.
Following the death of a friend, I began to look for something more in life. That search ended while on Christmas leave back in 1990. Sitting in a pew, I heard a pastor say that there is no meaning to life apart from Jesus Christ. Those words hit me like a hammer. I had looked everywhere for meaning and purpose except from the God I had left behind 10 years before. I repented of my sin, my selfishness, and my desire to be in control of my life and placed my faith in Jesus Christ.
After transferring to Charleston, South Carolina, I was watching Jerry Falwell one Sunday morning and I heard the music again. Bill Gaither had come out with this new video series featuring all the singers I had heard as a young boy. It was sort of a homecoming for me. We attended Miles Road Baptist Church in Summerville, SC and the pastor, Dr. Jim Palmer, brought in evangelists and southern gospel singers on a regular basis.
I was having a good ol time and I sensed that God was doing something special in my life. I was asked to join the church's choir and eventually was asked to sing special music. I hadn't sung in public since I was about 8 years old. But the Lord had opened the door, so I ran through it. I would later surrender to the ministry at that church. In 1997 I left the military, and accepted a call to West Saint Charles Baptist Church in Boutte, Louisiana as their Minister of Education and Outreach. During my time there I brought in a number of concerts myself to share this great music with others.
While there, I received a Gaither Video entitled Joy In The Camp for my birthday one year. It was in that video that I heard Donnie Sumner share his testimony and sing his beautiful song The Night Before Easter. I would invite Donnie to come and sing at the church and we became good friends. Only God could have worked things out so that eight years later I would sitting in Donnie's recording studio recording that same song! God is so good!
The Lord opened this new musical avenue of ministry for me in 2005 with the release of my first CD entitled There's Hope! In March of 2007 I released my second CD entitled Come To Him thanks to Donnie, a new songwriter friend by the name of Paul Morcom, Mary Lee Smith, and many others who financially supported the project. In the summer of 2007, we moved back to the Chicago area where it is my prayer that I will be able to share with people that There's Hope in Jesus Christ and encourage all to Come To Him.