The Reverend Will Kroeze was born and raised in Modesto, California, a small city surrounded by rich agricultural lands in the heart of California. He was baptized on Easter, 1981 in Emanuel Lutheran Church in Modesto, which would remain his community of faith for his entire childhood and adolescence. Being nurtured and developed by a loving family and congregation as a youth were important early steps in developing his sense of call to ordained ministry. After becoming highly involved in the life of his congregation as a youth he began considering a life of ministry in the church, which continued during his college years at California Lutheran University, where he graduated with a B.A. in History in 2003.

Pastor Kroeze attended the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia where he graduated in 2008 with the Master of Divinity degree. At seminary he continued developing himself as a leader, being actively involved in the life of the seminary, including serving as co-President of his graduating class. He served as a student assistant at St. Peter's, Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, California and completed his internship at St. John's, Stamford, Connecticut where he now serves as Associate Pastor.

Pastor Kroeze's experiences and areas of interest are broad and varied. He has held a variety of jobs, including manufacturing electrical signs, selling fine china and crystal, being a "gopher" at a winery and working as a substitute teacher at the middle school level. Professionally his interests lie primarily in liturgy and music, the ecumenical movement and globalization, vocational discernment and the development of young people.