A native of Jamaica, Dr. Trevor Grizzle was born in a Christian home on December
25, 1947. Institutionalized Christianity has been his experience most of his life.
An undeniable life-changing encounter with Christ brought "an utter inane and vacuous
life" to an end in 1964 in England, where he was converted, completed high school,
and attended college part-time. "Waning embers of Christian zeal that burned dimly
in my heart in the earlier days erupted into a blazing passion for Christ during
my Bible College years," he remembers, "and it lit the path for my future life and
ministry."
His boyhood dream, inspired by the life of his local pastor in Jamaica, became
reality in 1968 when he received ministerial credentials from the Church of God (Cleveland,
TN). Marching orders came from his Church almost immediately, summoning him to embark
upon four years of full-time missionary service in Ghana, West Africa. He gave twenty
years to church-staff and pastoral work in England, Africa, and the USA (1968-88),
which, he says, "informs my teaching and provides the necessary balance between academic
pursuit and practical piety."
Dr. Grizzle firmly believes that God wants us to love him as much with our mind
as we do with our heart; therefore, upon leaving the mission-field, he committed
the next eleven years to full-time formal theological education. With a B.A. in
Religion (1975) from Lee University in Cleveland, TN, and an M. Div. (1978) and Ph.
D. (1984) degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas,
he assumed the position of Professor of New Testament and Greek in the Graduate School
of Theology and Missions at Oral Roberts University in 1982. "God brought me to
ORU," states Dr. Grizzle. "I thought it would be a great place to work, providing
the kind of Christian ethos and mission that I felt passionate about." He fully
subscribes to ORU's "body, mind, spirit" philosophy. Conjointly with teaching at
ORU, he served as Associate Pastor of Care Fellowship Church of God in Tulsa for
six years, and presently (in addition to teaching full-time) pastors Hope International
Ministries, a growing church which he cofounded with his wife Maureen in March 2002
He is a contributor to The Spirit-filled Life Bible, providing the outline, background, and thematic study of Colossians. In addition to many published articles and scholarly papers he has delivered at annual academic society meetings, he has written Church Aflame, a commentary on the book of Acts, published by Pathway Press, Cleveland, TN, February 2001, and a commentary on Ephesians in the Pentecostal Commentary Series, published by Deo Publishing, Dorset, UK., 2013. He is currently working at completing the second volume to the Book of Acts. In 1991 and 1998, respectively, Dr. Grizzle was voted Outstanding Faculty of the Year by both the faculty and student body of the School of Theology, and nominated ORU Scholar of the Year in 2001.
Dr. Grizzle is married to Maureen. They have three children: Andre, who graduated from ORU with a major in Multi-Media and a minor in Piano; Renee, who completed a B.A. and M.A. in Psychology at ORU and a Ph. D. in Psychology at Ball State University in Indiana; and Trevor II.