Pastor Parris Howard

Forged in obscurity and called out of darkness, God was preparing this place long before I ever drew my first breath. As a young boy I did not yet have language for what I was carrying, only a hunger I could not explain and an instinct to lean toward the wisdom of those who had lived longer than I had. I did not yet know what God was forming in those quiet years or what He would one day call me to build. Out of much pain, much misunderstanding, and a long and turbulent road of becoming, God called me to pastor and to plant. Not for my own legacy. But for every person who desires to walk out their relationship with God the way Jesus modeled it, wholly, in spirit and in truth.

As a boy I would see visions of myself leading communion, conducting service flow, and standing before people to declare the Word of God. I would act those visions out in my bedroom, and it was there, in that small but sacred space, that God showed me the kind of leader He was fashioning me to be. I stand before you now as a man who has walked through the fire of being misunderstood, wrestled with his own religious pride, struggled to find his own identity, and learned to embrace the unfamiliar as the very place where God does His best work.

As I journeyed through various denominational contexts and educational seasons, I began to notice a consistent gap: a missing model for wholistic discipleship and pastoral care. In some ministries, the gifting and calling of the individual were celebrated while the whole person (their mental, emotional, and physical health) was quietly overlooked. In others, the knowledge of God and the anchors of doctrinal tradition were honored, but relationship with the Holy Spirit and the cultivation of His gifts were left largely unattended. In both cases something was missing. And the longer I observed, the more I sensed God's grief over sheep who were being tended partially, fed in one area while left hungry in another, never quite experiencing the fullness of the abundant life Jesus declared (John 10:10).

Therefore this ministry is built on the conviction of whole-person discipleship. My pastoral philosophy is to major in the maturity of the soul (the mind, will, and emotions) and to minor in gift and ability. I love the gifts of God deeply, and I celebrate the unique calling He places on every life, whether inside the church or beyond it. But I do not believe in equipping a person to be great at their craft while remaining unformed in their humanity.

Jesus was fully God and fully man (Phil 2:5–11), and that truth reveals that we have a model in Christ for what it looks like to be fully human, mentally, emotionally, and physically, in ways that many of us have never been taught to care for. He did not simply come to save our souls. He came to show us how to live in them (3 John 1:2).

God has given me an assignment to establish a place where people can be loved, cared for, equipped, and thrust into the very places God has called them. I liken it to a pit stop. A pit stop is not a place of defeat, it is a place of intentional pause. It is where you rest, reset, are restored, and are released back into the race with everything you need to finish. Here you will encounter not only spiritually gifted believers, but educators, mental health professionals, artists, athletes, politicians, and public servants each carrying a distinct assignment. This is a multi-ethnic community where people of different cultural expressions come together, not to erase their differences, but to offer them as gifts to one another and to God (John 17:20–21).

This is the place of the DISCIPLE: every letter a value and every value a commitment to the whole person. No matter where you are, this community is here for you. I do not want you to merely know who you are. I want you to understand why God has wired and crafted you the way He did, and what He intends to do with all of it. This is a Union that does not ask you to discard who you are. It is a Union that discovers, honors, and strengthens the uniqueness of who you are in Him.

I invite you, with everything in me, to step into this Union. Together, we become something the world cannot ignore (John 17:21).