Pastor Eric Gibran Howard

Rev. Eric Gibran Howard is the oldest son of Pastor Larry Wayne and Gwendolyn Althea Howard of the Historic Greater Friendship Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio.  He has one brother, Rev. Stephen Wayne Howard. 

As a fourth generation minister, he continues the family legacy of ministering to God’s people.  Through the years he has served in many capacities in the life of the church and in the community; some of his work has been with his home church’s male chorus and Christian Men Fellowship, the United Way, the City of Cleveland’s Workforce Development, and chaplaincy for the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Zeta Omega Chapter.

Rev. Howard began his professional career at a job placement agency and then worked as the Advanced Career Training Counselor at the Cleveland Job Corps Center from 2001-2007.  In May 2010, he graduated from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology with a Master’s of Divinity.  He also has a Master’s of Public Administration from Cleveland State University and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of Mount Union (formerly Mount Union College) of Alliance, Ohio.    

He served as a Pastoral Resident at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York, where Rev. Gary V. Simpson is Senior Pastor, from 2010-2013.  God has blessed him to preach in Asuncion, Paraguay (South America), at Yale University, and in some of the most notable pulpits throughout the United States.  He has served as the Pastor of Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church, Canton, Ohio, since November 2016.