Pastor Pope

Pastor Gregory James Pope was born in Sacramento, California on March 23, 1978. His father, Nathan, was an assistant Pastor at the Citrus Heights, CA congregation. In 1980, Nathan accepted a call to serve as Associate Pastor at First Evangelical of Racine, WI to serve alongside his father, Reinhart. The family moved into the parsonage, which happened to be the same house that Nathan grew up in. Greg's family continues to live in the parsonage in Racine.

Pastor Gregory Pope comes from a long line of Lutheran pastors. The lineage extends three generations beyond his late grandfather to his great, great, great grandfather, Christian Popp, a pastor in Franconia (Franken) Germany through the mid-1800's. He took part in the great immigration to America in 1848 and ended his ministry in Wrightstown, WI. Two generations later the family's name was "anglicized" to Pope.

Pastor Pope attended Northwestern Preparatory School in Watertown, WI from 1992-1995 and was a member of the first graduating class of the newly amalgamated Luther Preparatory School in 1996. From there Greg went on to Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN. He graduated in 2000. The following school year he began his studies at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. He vicared in Fort Worth, TX in 2002, and graduated from the seminary May 2004.

Pastor Pope's mother, Patrice, is a homemaker and a teaching assistant for a Lutheran elementary school. He has three younger siblings. Melanie, a recent UW-Whitewater graduate, is an accomplished artist who has placed highly in several Racine art contests and has painted a number of public murals. Nicholas, a student at UW-Parkside, is in pre-med gearing toward chiropractics. Natalie, the youngest, is attending UW-Parkside.

Pastor Pope is married to Jennifer Schaller. The wedding took place July 1st 2006. He enjoys exercise and playing guitar, though not well, yet.