Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai'i, to an agnostic father and Buddhist mother, Corey Grinder ("Pastor C") came to faith in Christ in the Hawaiian language environment of Ka Hale Ho’ano Hou O Ke Akua during his junior year in college. He worked as a professional firefighter (1981-1990) while serving as a ministry volunteer in two churches before landing at Hope Chapel Windward (Anchor Church) first as a volunteer, then a part-time employee, and finally a full-time staff member leading singles, a bible school, and missions to seven countries (1987-1992).
 
In 1991, David Masui, the Japan Foursquare Gospel Church's president at the time, invited Pastor C to plant a Hope Chapel in the Greater Tokyo region. Pastor C learned to read, write, and speak Japanese as a bivocational pastor. He served Japan Foursquare as missions director, bylaws committee chair,
and facilitator for ministerial licensing for eighteen years, all while working as an English teacher and writing textbooks to support his family during the first ten years, and resourcing indigenous leaders in Asia with Foursquare Missions International during the last eight years.
 
Pastor C returned to Honolulu with his family in the summer of 2009 to begin a simple church network which chose to disband in the spring of 2017 to allow Pastor C to succeed Ralph Moore at Hope Chapel Honolulu (HCH). After seven years of attempting to sustain the model he inherited, Pastor C and the leadership unanimously decided to cease operations of HCH to return to a simpler form of church which promotes individual and corporate worship, discipleship, and witness without the unnecessary expense of a dedicated church building.  We have returned to a simple church network format to sustain community in the face of rising costs, but more importantly to prioritize worship, discipleship and witness at home, work and play.

A firm believer in personal disciplines and building community, Pastor C disciples people online and in-person on both sides of the Pacific while maintaining his posture as a "life-long learner" through formal and informal education. Pastor C has studied for three master's degrees and a Doctor of Missiology with an emphasis in Contextual Theology. He continues to teach and consult around and beyond the Pacific Rim through a 501(c)3 called Ho'onunui, Inc. He is blessed to be married to Lisa and to watch their two adult children grow in Christ.