Greg Cootsona has always been intrigued by the rhythms of life. From his earliest days growing up in Menlo Park, California, to his sojourn as a pastor in New York City, he has striven to better understand how life is to be lived and how we can be at our best for the work we are called to do and for those we love.
In his youth, Greg loved the rhythm of tennis and was one of the top players in his state. His family was very supportive and would even take days off from their jobs to get him to and from important tournaments. "My mother was my first PR agent," he says. "She was always happy to talk about me to others." But by the time he was 12, he had lost interest in tennis, feeling the work involved wasn't worth the outcome.
Then, Greg began to play drums and discovered the joy of music. Throughout his teen years he played in one of the best-known high school jazz and big band outfits in the country and even played the main stage at Montreux, all before turning 18. He had always liked school, but he really fell in love with learning in his junior and senior years, before entering UC Berkley and finding that "there was this terrific interplay of ideas, and I wasn't really sure what MY IDEA was. I was really interested in the big questions that had confounded humanity down through the years-Philosophy, Sociology, Literature, etc. So I chose Literature."
But somewhere in his quest to answer the big questions, he was blinded by a light so profound and so bright that it could not be ignored, and that experience changed his life forever. He was exposed to Christianity in a way that he had never before experienced and, as he had done with tennis and music, he did his due diligence. He began to investigate as fully as he knew how this life that so many intellectuals down through the ages had chosen. "I started reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and it really got under my skin," he admits. "What drew me was the person of Christ, but I also found it to be the most compelling lifestyle. It brought coherence and meaning to my life in a way that nothing else did."
After receiving his doctorate in 1994, Greg took a full time position at the prestigious Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. It was there that the rhythms of life became a bit too intense, and a brush with heart trouble and high blood pressure led him to examine his (and as it turns out, our) priorities. The result of that examination is a new book, Say Yes To No, due out on Random House in March 2009.
His mission is really a simple one and he pursues that mission with great vigor and joy whether he is teaching a class, playing the drums, or writing a book: "to enjoy the love of God and to glorify Him with the use of my time, my creative passion and gifts for the good of those around me, and ultimately for the good of all humankind."
Greg currently lives in Chico California and is the Associate Pastor of Adult Discipleship and College Ministries at Bidwell Presbyterian Church. He is married to Laura, and they have two daughters Melanie and Elizabeth.
