Our Founder
Bishop Gerald D. Sylver, M. Div
Bishop Gerald Sylver is senior pastor and founder of Freedom Temple Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The church was started in March of 1980. He is supported in this ministry by his wife, Pastor Sarah Sylver. Bishop Sylver has four daughters, one son, and six grandchildren.
Bishop Sylver attended the Raleigh public schools and graduated from Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Work. He also studied at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology in Richmond, Virginia. Bishop Sylver has earned a Masters of Divinity Degree from Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He completed his Clinical Pastoral Education at Wake Medical Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina. Along with his other ministerial duties, he has conducted didactics on “Confronting Racism” with the chaplains who serve at Wake Medical Hospital.
Bishop Sylver has been a member of several civic and religious organizations including the Raleigh Ministerial Alliance and the Interfaith Alliance of Raleigh. He was the visionary and president of Foundations for Freedom, an outreach ministry housed in the Rich Park community complex. Foundations offered tutorial services, a Rites of Passage program, computer classes, parenting classes and a number of social activities. He is the president of Freedom Community Development Corporation (FCDC), a non-profit corporation for community and economic development. He is the organizer of Safe Haven Learning Center. is is a five-star academic center with a curriculum that focuses on equipping preschoolers to become grade prepared. He also served for two years as the Interim Vice-President of the Method Civic League, a community civic organization.
In 2002, Freedom Assembly was formed which recognizes Bishop Sylver as the President and General Overseer. Freedom Assembly Fellowship is a network of churches valuing local autonomy that are joined together by relationship and mutual benefit, promoting theological and leadership training, and church development, with the hope of producing healthy leaders, churches, and ministries.
Bishop Sylver exercises his gift of teaching to enlighten members both biblically and theologically. He uses his pastoral gifts to guide and instruct in the truth that brings liberty and freedom. He uses his prophetic gifts to speak to current issues and challenges the church to be a prophetic presence in the world. It is his desire to serve the Body of Christ and enrich the lives of those he serves.