Ruling Elder Craig Kemppel is currently employed at TE Connectivity as a Senior Systems Analyst Project Manager. He and his beautiful wife, Heidi, have been married for over 30 years and have six children and three grandchildren.
Born in Akron, Ohio, and raised in a Christian home where worship and church life were emphasized, Craig came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord at the age of 8. When his father came to Christ prior to this, he developed a desire to serve the Lord, beginning with participation in a bus ministry where he took his sons every Sunday morning to pick up children who lacked a way to come to church. It was there that Craig was first introduced to serving in the body of Christ.
Throughout his life journey, Craig found himself in various forms of service. He was ordained as a Deacon at Lawndale Baptist in Greensboro, NC, and served as the Youth Director for many years, working alongside youth pastors and the entire pastoral staff. In 2004, the Lord began to press upon his heart the questions, “Why do I believe what I believe as a Christian?” and “Why do we do what we do as a church?” These nagging questions led him and his wife to explore the Reformed faith, known as the doctrines of grace, and church history. As he learned about covenant theology and its application to his home, he realized that his primary ministry was to his wife and then to his children, as the “under-shepherd” of his household. Making disciples is the duty of every parent.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 states: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
The summary of the Shema can be easily stated to all fathers: “Your family will breathe in what you breathe out in your home.” This principle is both taught and caught. It is sobering and overwhelming to recognize one’s inadequacy in parenting, but with total reliance on Christ, it is the most rewarding work to witness God’s covenant promises: that He would be a God to you and to your children’s children who love and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.
Craig was ordained as a Ruling Elder of Covenant Reformed Church and commissioned to the work of Harvest OPC in January 2024.