Get to Know an Eastbrooker: Greg Marshall

One word to describe Greg Marshall: “enthusiastic.”

If youʼve ever watched him preach on a weekend at Eastbrook, you certainly know that to be true. Along with an energetic physicality, Marshall presents his deep love of Godʼs Word with an obvious depth of knowledge about theology—something he has pursued over many years, in varied contexts. Letʼs help make our big church feel a bit smaller as we get to know Greg.

Tell us about yourself and your connection to Eastbrook.

I have four daughters who have gone to school at Eastbrook Academy since they were in K4. My oldest is now a senior! My wife and I have been coming to the church since 2021. Through the school, we’d come to know Eastbrook Church pretty well, so it didn’t really feel like we were coming to an entirely new place, and a good number of our old neighbors go to Eastbrook, so it feels like home in many ways.

For a long time, I was on teaching teams at a different church out in Hartland. We wanted to be part of a community that felt like it had a good sense of who it was. So for a few years, we just came and enjoyed seeing people we knew, meeting people we didn’t know, and over time started getting more involved.

How did you get involved with preaching here?

I love preparing messages, studying theology, tapping into the realest and deepest part of myself to try to communicate the truth that I think others are going to appreciate. I’ve been on stages in front of people, performing or speaking, since I was 18 years old. [Pastor] Matt was aware of that, but he was being careful not to ask me while we were in transition. I didn’t want to be in front of people just yet. Long-term, it was something I wanted to do more of, and I was processing that with Matt a bit. Through those conversa- tions, eventually he invited me to speak.

Youʼre very active, very demonstrative when you preach. Where does that come from?

It’s from performing. I fell in love with hip-hop music when I was about 15. I’ve found that with singing but especially rapping, I have to move in order for my brain to connect fully in that context. It’s part of how I learn and how I process.

What got you interested in the Word?

Some friends asked me to record in a professional studio when I was about 19. After I wrote a verse, one of the guys I really looked up to said, “It’s pretty good, but we’re going to record a song that’s positive, something that glorifies God.” I so badly wanted to record that I started reading the Gospel of Matthew, and while I read I had these really powerful moments where I would look at the ceiling of my dorm room and realize I wasn’t alone. There were moments when I felt like it was speaking back to me. That was how I came to faith. That feeling of discovery when reading with curiosity about God has never left, whether I’m reading scripture or systematic theology.