Pastor Joel grew up in the NYC area and has a heart for urban ministry.
He served in a variety of roles at CCBC before stepping into the role of Pastor at the end of 2013
The Rev. Dr. Joel R. Grassi serves as the Senior Pastor of Commonwealth Community Baptist Church.
He is a graduate of Pensacola Christian College (‘97, B.S.) and holds the Doctor of Theology degree from Emmanuel Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as an M.Div. and Th.M. degrees.
An experienced teacher, writer, and speaker, Pastor Joel has taught everywhere from boisterous public school classrooms to seminaries and churches in Peru, Ireland, and Japan. He loves teaching the Bible at Commonwealth.
Pastor Joel has done additional post-graduate work at Alliance Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York City.
We have the teachings of religion with speakers with many years of experience
CCBC was a vision born in the hearts of two Bronx school teachers, Marty and Valerie Silverberg in 1995. Initially they met in a store front on Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. Later they moved to Southern Boulevard and again to Westchester Avenue.
Recognizing the need for greater structure and assistance, the Silverbergs joined an Independent Baptist missionary agency known as Baptist Mid-Missions in 1996.
The Bronx was a tough area in which to plant a church because many of the residents struggle with poverty, homelessness and life dominating sins such as drug abuse, prostitution, and alcohol. God blessed their effort to reach out to hurting people and gave some wonderful successes along the way.
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Certainly one of the highlights of our trip was the great medieval Bible (JTS MS L228a) This Bible was from Germany circa 1300 A.D. It is opened to Job chapter one, where the first word of the book Ish (“man”) is dramatically written. Again, the vowel points are clearly visible as one reads from the […]
Our church field trip to view Ancient Hebrew Manuscripts afforded us an opportunity to view a wide variety of rare documents. It also provided some historical context to our studies in the form of unique books. Many of these ancient manuscripts are commentaries, prayer books, and historical documents which contain quotes and citations of the […]
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Kariuki grew up Anglican in Kenya, Eastern Africa. He knew about God, but did not quite understand His gracious salvation via our Lord Jesus Christ. It was not until the end of his high school that a friend introduced him to the doctrines of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Kariuki had noticed a jubilant confidence […]
I met with Pastor Joel. He took the Bible and explained the way of salvation more clearly to me. He answered all my questions and helped me to see that Christ had died for my sins on the cross.
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Our church is known as the Commonwealth Community Baptist Church of the Bronx. Sometimes people will refer to our church simply as “Commonwealth.”
As everyone in our church knows, this past Christmas season we completed a detailed study of I Timothy 3:16.
Your gift of financial support helps us shine the light of Christ in the Bronx, New York City.
Thank you with all our hearts for your generous giving! All of us at Commonwealth deeply appreciate your support.
