Rev. Dr. Kregg F. Burris is the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, Shaker Heights, Ohio, and the Founder of the Cleveland Life Institute. Before coming to Cleveland in 2015, he has served several congregations throughout the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and Ohio), specializing in congregational renewal. His leadership positions have overseen the new major construction building projects and renovations of each of the congregations where he has served.

In addition to building and facilitating, he reorganized the governing board of several congregations. He served on the Constitutional Revision Team for the state constitution of the American Baptist Churches of Indiana. While serving in West Virginia, he served on the state board of the Budget and Finance Committee. He was over the ordination governing board of the Panhandle Association of the WVBC. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Cleveland Baptist Association.

Rev. Burris has taken an active role within the communities he has served through several community programs:  afterschool, early childhood reading, food pantries, leadership development, and food distribution.  He served on the executive board of the Weirton Medical Center and the council of the Indiana University Health Center- Bedford, Indiana, Bertha’s Ministries, and the Weirton Christian Center. He has taken mission trips to Russia, India, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

He holds a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theology in Church History from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Chicago, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Boston. His doctoral study related to ministry in the era of postmodernism in the contemporary culture of the church. His doctoral thesis was on the identity of congregational life amid the worship wars within the churches of the American Baptist Churches of the USA.

In addition to his service on both local and regional boards of the American Baptist Churches of the USA, he has earned certification in conflict management, premarital and marital counseling, hospice care, leadership, and extensive workshops related to addiction intervention and depression.

Rev. Burris has been used as a consultant to the church regarding church growth and governing. He is a Cleveland Baptist Association Ministerial Council member, the Minister’s Council of the American Baptist Churches USA, and Pastor’s United in Mission of Greater Cleveland.