Pastor Derek Sanford
Executive Pastor

What do you do at Grace? I oversee our staff and ministries of the church. I mostly spend my time on organizational and ministry development stuff. I’m also in charge of the SERVE bridge and help people to discover and unleash their spiritual gifts. And right now, I’m very consumed with spearheading our relocation efforts.

How long have you been at Grace? I’ve been at Grace since 1995.

Family Information: I’ve been married to my lovely wife Kim since 1991 and we have three really cool kids: Caleb is 7, Chase is 3, and Ayden is 6 months.

Education: I have bachelor degrees in Biblical Literature and Philosophy from Taylor University and I’ve almost completed my MA in Religion from Trinity Seminary.


Fun Stuff:
If you were an animal, what would you be (why)? A fox because I’m crazy like a fox.

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite Food: Yes

Pet Peeve(s): Christian clichés, coffee, and bad movies that could have been good

Hobbies: I love to golf, read deep stuff, play racquetball, and wrestle with my boys

If you had 24 hours to live, what three things would you do? Make a video tape for my kids of all the things that I’d like to tell them about life. That would probably take most of the 24 hours, I mean c’mon because there’s a lot to tell.

Tell us about a few influential (or favorite) books you’ve read: I can’t even narrow it down to a couple but anything by CS Lewis or Frederick Buechner.

Spiritual Stuff:
Tell us a little bit about your spiritual journey: My parents became Christians when I was a small boy and their fervor for God was a major theme in my spiritual story. My “official” journey began when I was 8 but like all journeys there have many mountains and many valleys, times of peril and times of peace. My most trying path was a couple of years in college when I stopped being convinced of the truth of Christianity. But God continued to pursue me and my mind, body, and spirit became convinced that God is real, Jesus died and came back from the dead, and every human being needs to confront that reality at some point during their time on this earth. It has been a wonderful journey so far, and I remain fully convinced of two things – 1) God is loving and faithful despite our weakness and 2) I need Him to be.

What did you do before you started working at Grace? Coached football and track, managed a movie theater, worked at another church as a youth pastor.

Why are you passionate about church and ministry? The church has been entrusted with the unbelievable mission of advancing the love and the truth of Christianity to all mankind. To be allowed to be a part of something so weighty is a tremendous privilege. I can’t think of a higher or better use of my life. I also love to see people discover and unleash their personal ministry in the church and in the world. When people begin to understand that they haven’t been put on this earth to fulfill their vocation, but to fulfill their personal ministry it is an incredibly liberating thing.

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