Getting to Know Pastor Gregg
Pastor Gregg joined Balmoral Baptist Church in February 2025, bringing with him more than 40 years of pastoral experience serving churches across Mississippi and Memphis. A native of Fulton, Mississippi, and the son of a Southern Baptist pastor, Gregg grew up surrounded by faith and service. He was both saved and called to ministry at Trinity Baptist Church, where his lifelong journey of following God’s call began.
If you’d asked young Gregg what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would’ve said a lawyer. His sixth-grade teacher even told him he’d make a great one because he could “argue about anything!” But when he was 14, God began tugging on his heart in a different direction—a call to ministry that became impossible to ignore. After trying to balance his own plans with God’s for a while, Gregg finally surrendered fully while in college, and that decision changed everything.
Before stepping into ministry, Gregg worked as a radio disc jockey, spinning Top 40 hits in Tupelo, Mississippi. He was even offered a weekend job at Memphis’s number-one radio station, but he turned it down to follow God’s call to preach. That leap of faith led to a lifetime of ministry, filled with both challenges and blessings.
One of the greatest tests of faith came in 2008, when Pastor Gregg was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a serious blood cancer. At the time, doctors gave him a five-year life expectancy—but God had other plans. After a stem cell transplant and years of prayer, Pastor Gregg is now 17 years cancer-free and still serving with passion and gratitude. He often says that God is truly a miracle-working God.
His favorite verse, Isaiah 43:18-19, reminds him:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!”
That promise shapes his ministry today. Pastor Gregg’s heart is to discover where God is working and lead Balmoral Baptist Church to join Him there—loving people, sharing Christ, and watching God do “new things” in East Memphis.
Pastor Gregg holds degrees from Blue Mountain Christian University, New Orleans Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Luther Rice Seminary, where he focused on church revitalization.
He is married to Karen, a proud Mississippi State and Southwestern Seminary graduate with a background in Christian education and children’s mental health. Together, they have two grown children. Their daughter, Beth, and her husband, Trent Harmon, live in Tupelo, Mississippi. Beth works in marketing for the Central Service Association, and Trent works in acquisitions for Toyota Boshoku. They are the proud parents of Pastor Gregg and Karen’s two precious granddaughters, who bring so much joy and serve as constant reminders of God’s goodness and grace.
Their son, Johnathan “Johnny” Thomas, lives in New Albany, Mississippi, where he serves as a youth minister and owns his own insurance company, Three Crosses Insurance.
