Founder & Senior Pastor
Parris Howard
A servant of Christ from Louisville, Kentucky, planting a church where people can be loved, formed, and sent as whole people.
His story
Parris Howard is a passionate servant of Christ from Louisville, Kentucky. He gave his life to Christ at the age of 12. From a young age he served God faithfully by using his talents in the Worship & Arts ministry at First Gethsemane Baptist Church under the pastorate of Dr. T. Vaughn Walker. After a divine encounter with the Holy Spirit, he acknowledged his call to specialized ministry and God took him on a personal journey to discover who he was in Christ. It was there that Parris discovered his Kingdom identity. Later, Parris accepted his call to preach and was licensed in 2021. Embracing his call to ministry and the significance of Kingdom identity, his ministry is marked by transformation and empowerment of those he's called to serve.
Parris has pursued his education, earning an Associate of Science in Christian Studies from Campbellsville University and a Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies from Liberty University. Currently, he is a graduate student at the Duke University Divinity School where he is a Divinity Dean's Scholar, working toward his Master of Divinity degree.
With humility and reverence for God, Parris is called to pastoral ministry with a prophetic grace in the earth. His desire is that every person he encounters would experience the love and power of God in a tangible, life-changing way.
Why The Union
Across denominational contexts, Parris kept finding the same wound: sheep tended partially. The Union is built on whole-person discipleship, majoring in the maturity of the soul, minoring in gift and ability, so that no one is formed for a craft while remaining unformed in their humanity.
“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.”
How Parris shepherds
The soul first
His pastoral philosophy is to major in the maturity of the soul (the mind, will, and emotions) and to minor in gift and ability.
The whole person
Mental, emotional, and physical health are not extras beside discipleship. They belong inside it.
Spirit and Word
Doctrine without the Spirit is incomplete. Gifting without formation is incomplete. The Union holds both.
Parris, Ashleigh, Jianni & Damani Howard
Family first
Before I am a pastor or a founder, I am a husband and a father. My family is not separate from this assignment, they are the first expression of everything this ministry is committed to building. My family will always be my first ministry. The wholeness, the love, the identity, and the communion that The Union Louisville proclaims publicly, is practiced among my family privately. They are not observers of this vision. They are participants in it, partners in it, and the reason I take it seriously every single day.
- Faith is practiced at home before it is preached from a pulpit.
- A healthy church begins with a healthy family.
- We build what we first become.
“The Union Louisville is a family, because it was born from one.”
Yet, the most important commitment in his life, after God, is his commitment to his beautiful family. He is the favored husband of Ashleigh and the blessed father of Jianni and Damani.
A Word from Our Founder
A letter from Parris
“What you hold in your hands is not simply a vision document. It is the fruit of everything that tried to stop it.”