His parents moved to Graham, Texas, when he was three years old, where he started to preach by using a flat-top trunk as a pulpit.
[2] The family later moved to a farm in Jack County, Texas, where he attended a school where his father was the teacher, until he was 14.
[1] Groner became the second pastor of the Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, in 1911, where he succeeded the Reverend R. G. Bowers,[5] a position which he held until 1918, when he resigned to become executive secretary of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT).
[6] He also accepted the directorship for Texas of the Southern Baptist Convention's $75 million fundraising campaign in 1920.
[2][4] Groner used his financial skills to greatly enlarge the College of Marshall by acquiring additional property and buildings.
[4] Groner met Laura Virginia Wyatt (1878–1951) of Cleveland County, Arkansas, while they were both students at North Texas Baptist College.
Groner was a close friend of Patrick Morris Neff, president of Baylor University and Governor of Texas, for whom he named his last child.