Our Leaders

ROD MILES | pastor

Rod is the founding Pastor of Grace Marin. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of Georgia (B.B.A, finance) and 2004 graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary (graduate degree in theology and pastoral care). Prior to attending seminary, Rod was a Senior Managing Director of Wachovia Securities, Inc in NYC and Atlanta where he spent 15 years in corporate banking and capital markets. Rod was a ruling elder at Intown Church in Atlanta and served at Orangewood Church in Orlando prior to coming to the Bay Area. Rod and his wife Gwen, who met at Wachovia, were married in September 1991 and have three boys, Reid, Kevin and Rick. Rod is active in the Marin community and is a manager of a local team in the San Anselmo Baseball Association. Little known facts: he has a six-pack-a-day Diet Coke habit and loves text messaging, going on walks, Comforts in downtown San Anselmo, talking Wall Street, and recommending obscure films.

ANDY PELANDER | assistant pastor

Andy was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, but has lived in nine cities in the past decade, including Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and San Francisco most recently. He has worked as a New York-based magazine writer (B.A., journalism), covering things like the NFL, NBA, and dot-com finance, and has waited tables in a jazz and bar-b-que club. Not long after witnessing 9/11 from the roof of his Brooklyn apartment, Andy went north to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary near Boston (graduate degree in theology and pastoral care), where he met his wife, Rachel, a counseling and world religions student previously invested in discipleship and college ministry as far away as Nigeria. Prior to Grace Marin, Andy was on staff at Christ the King in Cambridge, MA and at City Church of San Francisco. His job description at Grace Marin: "Whatever it takes, son." Andy likes to hang out with his family, cook and eat, drink dark beverages, ride mountian, road and motor bikes, talk music, and shoot photography. Areas of self-proclaimed expertise include long, drawn out do-it-yourself projects, the India pale, animal and vehicle sound effects, guacamole, and the ability to convincingly pass off made-up 'statistics' on a range of topics as fact. He lives in San Rafael with Rachel and their three children, Sam, Lily and Jonah.

TINA BAUER | director of children's ministry

Tina is originally from Arvada, Colorado, but has been a Californian since arriving to attend Concordia University in Irvine, where she earned a B.A. in psychology. In college she met her husband, Ben, and, as she likes to say, “Colorado didn’t stand a chance” for her return. Tina has worked in the field of early childhood education in Marin for over 16 years. She has a loving passion for every child entrusted to her care and enjoys meaningful, lasting relationships with the families of these children. Tina is uniquely gifted at helping young people of all ages explore and embrace the gospel of Jesus in their own language, and in ways meaningful to the season of their lives. The Bauers, with their two children, Ellie and Jonah, live in the Gerstle Park neighborhood of San Rafael. As a family, they enjoy bike rides, road trips, and time spent in the ‘100 Acre Wood’ at their cabin in Mendocino County. Tina also enjoys hiking in beautiful Marin, long summer days, hanging out on the street with her family and neighbors where it is certain that a game of baseball, handball, basketball, or football will be played, baking cookies with her children, and snuggling in front of a warm fireplace on cold, rainy afternoons. She is excited about all that God is doing in Marin and thankful for the part Grace Marin (and GraceKids!) has to play. Tina looks forward to years of relationship building in the community.

MICHELLE PARSLEY | director of church life

Michelle is our prized Marin native. She grew up near San Rafael and allegedly knows the County backward and forward. For the last decade she has worked broadly in youth ministry, with high school students at a church in Denver, with middle school students while on staff with Young Life youth ministries and with Youth Conference Ministries as the Western Conference Director. Michelle holds masters degrees in Youth and Family Ministry from Denver Seminary and Counseling from the University of Tennessee. Michelle first met the Miles family in 2004 and was so immediately drawn to the vision of Grace Marin she began as a volunteer even before we began to hold public worship. She officially joined our staff in the fall of 2006. Michelle can often be found in the kitchen expressing her passion for food or reading a cookbook, as if it were a novel. Michelle has also worked at Williams-Sonoma (where she earned a black belt in kitchen gadgetry and taught a series of cooking classes for kids) and loves hanging out with friends, family and her dogs, Sadie and Annie. She walked the San Diego marathon with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in June 2007.

TONY SBRANA | director of worship arts

Tony hails from Salinas, CA and has been playing the guitar since he saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. He is a gifted and prolific songwriter and has performed in bands and as a solo artist for several decades. Tony is an ordained minister and has degrees in music theory and composition, and has served in several churches in musical and pastoral roles, including Calvary Chapel in Santa Barbara, where he was Director of Music. He has also worked with Young Life for nearly 30 years, in locales from California to New Hampshire. Locally, Tony has worked with students through Young Life at Miramonte and Campolindo high schools in Orinda, and in schools in Alameda. Interesting personal trivia: in the mid ’80s he began doing stand-up comedy in the Bay Area, and in 1985 he won the North Bay Stand-up Comic of the Year contest. Tony is known to exercise remarkable patience on Sunday mornings when the Grace Marin pastors hurriedly ask, “are you using this music stand?” and if he has time to ‘test their mics’ before worship begins. Tony and his wife Michele live in Danville with their sons, Riley and Casey.