Rev. Howard C. Earle Jr., D.Min.

Rev. Howard C. Earle Jr., D.Min. was born in Fort Worth, TX. He attended Eastern Hills High School, where he was involved in athletics, band and other campus activities. Recognized for his academic excellence, he was awarded several awards and scholarships from organizations and universities; he selected the University of Houston.

Rev. Earle's campus activity at the University of Houston consisted of membership in the Good News Gospel Choir, Program for Minority Engineering Students, National Society of Black Engineers and the Honors College. He was a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society and the Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society. Concurrently, he united with the New Faith Church under the leadership of Dr. T. R. Williams, Sr. where he was actively involved in the Young Adults Ministry. While completing his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, he accepted his call into the ministry in 1997. Upon completion of his engineering degree in 1998, he worked for 2.5 years as a structural engineer for a small company in Houston. During his engineering career, Rev. Earle also served as Minister of Young Adults at the New Faith Church.

In August of 1999 he enrolled in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and began work on his Master of Divinity. In January of 2001, he responded affirmatively to the call to serve full-time in ministry as Minister of Youth and Young Adults at the New Faith Church. He was instrumental in the leadership of New Faith Church providing ministerial leadership for all ages and assisting in preaching, teaching, supporting and helping new members to assimilate into the life and ministries of the church and other pastoral duties.

During his tenure at New Faith he earned a Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages, organized and developed foreign missions ministry for high school students and adults serving in Mexico and Jamaica and helped develop and implement a new ministry paradigm for youth, children, and young adult ministries. He was instrumental in the development of the Crossover Worship Experience, a contemporary worship service for high school students and college-aged adults.

In September of 2005, God elevated Rev. Earle to another milestone in ministry. On Thursday, September 8th, he was elected as the next Senior Pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Each Sunday since his arrival in Grand Rapids, New Hope has experienced growth and God's blessing. Pastor Earle has been able to accomplish plenty in a short span of time. Some of those accomplishments include retiring the church's debt, build ministerial staff through the appointment of a full-time executive pastor and a part-time director of youth and children's ministries, install and implement a new database system for supporting membership, partner with Grand Rapids Public Schools to offer an alternative setting for those who dropped out of school, and develop a summer day camp for students.