Meet The Pastor
Pastor Greg Howard
Born in Miami, Florida, but raised in the Northeast, Greg graduated from Furman University and then spent 15 years working around the world as a professional model. After living a couple of years in Paris, France and working all around Europe, Greg moved back to NYC to be represented by the Ford Modeling agency where his photos appeared in many catalogues, magazines and advertisements. While he was on a photo shoot in South Beach, Greg’s world was upended as he found out that an old girlfriend had died of AIDS and that he was now HIV positive. He was humbled and crushed, but as he has often said, ‘that was the best thing that ever happened to him’ because he was led back to Jesus and soon committed his life to Christ at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale. Later that year, he was on a photo shoot in Munich, Germany, and while trying to set up bible studies for models, he met a beautiful, South African model named Ashleigh (HIV negative), who had the same passion for Jesus and desire to reach the modeling world for Christ. That providential meeting and the bible study they put together that followed, was the start to their journey in life and ministry together.
Greg and Ashleigh married and a year later would return to Munich and start another bible study that would eventually become Calvary Chapel Munich. They eventually moved to Miami from NYC where Greg joined the staff at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale under the leadership of Pastor Bob Coy. During his 15 years working for Calvary Fort Lauderdale, Greg held a variety of positions including the ‘whatever needed’ guy, parking setup, new believers overseer, singles pastor, youth pastor, college and young adult pastor, and finally a campus pastor.
In the summer of 2014, Greg and Ashleigh, along with a group of incredible couples and families stepped out in crazy faith and started the church plant called The Cross Church. The cross began in a small dance studio and has since moved to its current location at Highland Oaks middle school, just a mile or so down the road from where Greg was born.