Grote spent most of his youth in Hatboro/Horsham, Pennsylvania, where his father was the founding pastor of Horsham Bible Church.
Grote was called to be rector of St. Luke's Reformed Episcopal Church in New Providence, New Jersey, in 1978.
In 1984, Grote was elected and consecrated assistant bishop of the Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic by Leonard W. Riches, being in office from June 6, 1984, to August 1, 1991.
In 1990, with the creation of the Special Jurisdiction of North America by the General Council of the REC, Grote was called to be their missionary bishop, charged with the planting of new parishes in the central and western parts of the United States.
The merging of the Special Jurisdiction of North America with the Synod of Chicago in 1996 gave origin to the new Diocese of Mid-America.