Howard D. Coles II was spiritually birthed while attending the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Dr. Sidney T. Yancey. He received his call to preach the gospel when he was 18 years old under Pastor Terry D. Streeter. While at Mt. Pleasant, Pastor Howard taught the Deacon's Sunday School. Pastor Streeter encouraged "Doug", as he called him, to go to school (Washington Bible College) and to build his gift. From there he moved to the Evangel Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor Dwayne G. Parker. Pastor Parker licensed Pastor Coles to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ at the age of twenty-four. There he worked with the youth and young adult choir, the praise team and later became the minister of evangelism.

Pastor Coles has a big heart for outreach; while at Evangel, he met and married his amazing wife Vennessea Hall-Coles. Soon after, Pastor Coles was called to Christ Memorial Baptist Church as their very first youth pastor under the leadership of Pastor Clarence Johnson. Once again, Pastor Coles was used in the area of outreach. At Christ Memorial Baptist Church, Pastor Coles founded the Regeneration Foundation (non-profit organization for the support of inner-city youth and their families), implemented Youth Jam, Vacation Bible School, Youth Revivals, Slam Jam, and the nursery ministry. As God continued growing Pastor Coles, he was catechized by Bishop James L. Martin, Sr. and ordained in 2002 at Christ Memorial Baptist Church.