Watchung Avenue Presbyterian's Interim Pastor is Doug Grote. Doug was ordained 34 years ago and has served previously as Interim Pastor at Siloam Hope Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, NJ and Interim Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Metuchen, NJ.  He has also been a psychotherapist in private practice for over thirty years in Fanwood.

Doug was raised in Elizabeth and has lived in Plainfield for the past thirty years with his wife, Melinda Allen-Grote. They have five children and three grandchildren.