Chuck DeGroat

Chuck is committed to spiritual and emotional formation for the sake of mission. His experience is represented in a fluid combination of pastoral ministry and seminary training for 25 years.  He has served several church plants as a teaching pastor and has started two church-based clinical counseling centers.  Most recently, he was a teaching pastor at City Church San Francisco, where he co-founded Newbigin House of Studies, an urban and missional training center with offerings through Western Theological Seminary.

His academic specialization is in the intersection of psychology and the Bible, represented best in his book Leaving Egypt: Finding God in the Wilderness Places (Square Inch) – a narrative biblical paradigm for understanding counseling, care, mission, and formation.  His next book, The Toughest People to Love (Eerdmans), focuses on caring for the most difficult people leaders encounter.  Wholeheartedness (Eerdmans) was released in February 2016, and When Narcissism Comes to Church (IVP) came out in 2020. He is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America, a member of City Classis (the RCA’s urban, missional classis), and he holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology.

Chuck has been married to Sara for 26 years and has two daughters – Emma and Maggie.  If you don’t see him around campus meeting with students, he is more than likely spending time with his family throwing a frisbee, or traveling to new places, or finding a new extraordinary place to eat.