A couple Sundays ago, several of us went to visit Evangel Temple church in Meridian, where I heard young Rev. Jonathan Fulcher preach, filling in for the pastor, Rev. Mike Boles, who was away. Bro. Fulcher, full of enthusiasm, had just returned from an FCA trip to Africa. He had worked with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at East Central Community College several years, and now is Director of FCA over nine counties, with Rev. Scott Engle having taken his place at ECCC.
Jonathan Ray Fulcher was born Jan. 31, 1986, to Jeannie and Randy Fulcher, but his home was broken by divorce when he was four. He lived with his mother, who he described as “a great mother,” moving around a lot, until high school when he lived with his dad, when he felt he needed him as a male role model in his life.
He described his paternal grandparents as “the best people I’ve ever known.” His grandfather, Mr. Henry Fulcher, was manager of Meridian’s Winn Dixie for over 40 years and, after he passed away 8 years ago, people gave him credit for influencing many young men in Meridian. He would hire those no one else would hire, and he had taught Sunday School his entire life since the age of 17.
Young Jonathan graduated from Enterprise High School in 2004. He played basketball and was a member of the Beta Club and FCA. He confessed, “In high school I struggled with following the crowd too much, trying to fit in when I didn’t need to. Parties, doing things I shouldn’t.” Right after graduation, his girlfriend gave birth to his son, Satcher Kaden Fulcher, and they were married. They had a daughter, Abrianna, a couple years later but were divorced before he turned 20.
For about three years, Jonathan lived a really rough lifestyle, drinking every day, getting into drugs, even while he worked at Southern Pipe and Supply. He said his grandparents next door “really took care of me through that time.” On February 10, 2007, he married his wife Lacie Walters, and their child Alexis was born July 2, 2007. Yet, he was depressed. Raised in church, he knew right from wrong, and about a month before he was saved out of all his sin and despair, he had a wreck. His grandfather asked, “Jonathan, if you’d died in that wreck, where would you have gone?” He had no answer.
Soon after, on Nov. 27, 2007, while driving a work truck to Macon, Mississippi, with nothing good on the radio, he found a child’s cassette of the Nativity Story. He encountered the voice and the presence of God, who asked him why he was running, assured him of his continued love for him, though he had seen all of his actions. He pulled the truck to the side of the road, and crying in repentance, gave his heart to God, at which time the Lord called him into the ministry. From that point going forward, he said he knew that his life would never be the same and that he was forever changed.
Jonathan told his wife Lacie, “I’ve given my life to Jesus. He’s changed everything about me, and he’s called me into the ministry.” She had not been reared in a Christian home but, in total agreement, she became a Christian herself, saying, “I’ve been waiting for something like this my entire life!” His coworkers told him he would go back to his old ways, but he assured them, “That’s not who I am anymore!”
Satcher is now 15, and Abrianna is 13, and they live with him. After Alexis’s birth in 2007, Aubree was born Nov. 16, 2009, then Allie on Feb. 22, 2013, and Amelia came Jan. 15, 2015. They thought they were through, but the day Jonathan came home to tell Lacie that God had promised them another son, she responded by feeling the same way! Jonathan Hayes Fulcher was born March 2, 2018.
At Cathedral Assembly of God, his grandparents’ church, Pastor Jim Gordon discipled him, meeting with him two nights a week for three years. For four years, he served as youth pastor at Cathedral, studied courses from the Berean School of the Bible, an A/G school, taking classes online and in Jackson. In 2011 Jonathan, by meeting biblical criteria, became only the second or third divorced person in the state of Mississippi to be awarded credentials with the Assembly of God.
He became youth pastor at Faith Assembly of God in Quitman, in 2012, and he said, “In 2014 God started laying it on my heart to do something more.” He began going to the Enterprise school to the FCA meetings to share, which led to having 60 or 70 kids meeting on a Friday morning.
Though he had served in the position of payroll accountant of Southern Pipe for three years, the FCA Area Director asked if he wanted to work for FCA, which he did by stepping out in faith. It is truly a “faith-walk,” with every person, from the head of the national organization all the way down, having to raise funds to live on and to work his/her ministry in FCA.
The Fulchers had just built a house and had just had their sixth child. But when he spoke to Lacie about the opportunity, she said, “Do it.” Jonathan related, “She had seen that my job was killing me spiritually.” He quit his job, and on June 5, 2015, he started working for FCA full time as a missionary to ECCC in Decatur, where he served until he became the Area Director in 2017.
He had ministered over a five-county area while at ECCC, but he now oversees nine counties, which includes 33 high schools and three junior colleges. His budget is $175,000 per year, which covers everything they do, including camps, Bibles, etc. He shared with me that FCA has been in existence for 65 years, with a national office in Kansas City and 2000 staff members nationally.
In 2017, he left his position in the church at Quitman and led his family to Evangel Temple, where the population is diverse, just as the population of the youth to which he has ministered at FCA meetings. Jonathan has been, and is still, the chaplain of the ECCC football team, and oversees all the high schools in Lauderdale, Clarke and Jasper counties, while Rev. Scott Engle ministers in Newton, Scott and Smith.
To learn of the activities of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on our school campuses, a good source of current information would be this Oct. 16 Newton County Appeal, as there is a front page article there, with pictures, describing the gathering at East Central Community College and captioned “Inspiring Faith, FCA’s Fields of Faith Draws Hundreds of Local Students.” To contact the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, go to the FCA website, eastcentralmsfca.org, or contact Jonathan at jfulcher@fca.org.
Space prevents my telling you of the international ministry FCA does, training nationals to do what ministers do here in the States. It’s wonderful. Jonathan told me that many people die every day without ever hearing the gospel, then asked, “Whose fault is it?”
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282
