Is the Pastor a Hireling or is He Called by God?

As a child, Dr. Fulcher could have never fathomed that he would be called to be a Pastor. He desired to play music for Pastors and live life. While he was growing up, Dr. Fulcher witnessed how congregations treated their pastors. They did not treat them with the respect due to the office of the Pastor. Congregations treated their pastors like hirelings, to be hired and fired at the whim of the cliques within their churches, as opposed to the Pastor being Called and Chosen by God to teach God’s people. But what did the congregation know?  They had not been taught the Truth.  Most people believe that they do not need a preacher to teach them about God.  They think that they can establish a one-on-one relationship by either reading the Bible on their own or sitting out in nature somewhere and watching the world go by. That would be nice, but it’s not the way that the Bible said it should happen.

As time went by, God made manifest to Dr. Fulcher that he was called by God to preach. Dr. Fulcher proceeded to take on a little church in Level, Maryland. This was a big job put in front of him. He would be dealing with people who had nothing to go on but tradition and what they thought. It would take time to preach that out of them and show them that God Calls whom He chooses to preach the Word.

One of the things he had learned during his years as an apprentice was that people had forgotten who and what a “real” Pastor really was.  Most people had never been taught that basic understanding in the first place.  Growing up in a Pentecostal Holiness Church, Dr. Fulcher was able to witness first-hand the compromise and hypocrisy that denigrated the role of the Pastor into something that it was never intended to be. Man’s traditions had made the Word of God non-effect.

Preaching is a prerequisite in the Bible. 1Cor. 1:21 says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”  And Romans 10:14 says, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

The Bible also goes on to say in 1Peter 5:6, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”

What Dr. Fulcher had seen in his years serving under others was that most congregations did not want to humble themselves.  They considered the Pastor their servant and not them, his.  And because of that, the congregations placed themselves in a position where they could not be taught something that might upset their sensibilities.  They forgot that they were sheep.

How many people in the past, say 100 years even know what sheep are and what they do?  The modern industrialized era has removed most congregations from understanding exactly what their role in a church is.  Everyone wants to be a chief and no one wants to be an Indian.  Hundreds of years ago when people were closer to nature, most knew the role of shepherd to sheep. 

Sheep are dumb and in need of practically constant care.  If you don’t sheer them, their wool will grow so heavy that they won’t be able to stand up under the weight of their own coats.  They will not drink from moving water, they could be standing by a river and die of thirst. They do not forage for food.  They have to be led from pasture to pasture to eat.  And if they are led wrong, they will follow their leader over the edge of a cliff or the Judas goat into the slaughterhouse. 

When a congregation treats their Pastor like a hireling, the pastor cannot lead them beside the still waters as it states in Psalm 23:2 “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” because he is in fear of his job.  If he tries to teach them something they do not like, they can (and do) fire him and hire someone else who preaches what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.  That is one of the reasons that Dr. Fulcher did not initiate church membership.  He has not been hired.  He is there to teach the Word regardless of whose feelings get hurt.  The Truth is what makes you free not your feelings.

Dr. Fulcher is not afraid to teach the Word of God… and those who do not wish to learn it the way he teaches it are always able to leave when they see fit, no one is made to stay.   Dr. Fulcher saw too many congregations who did not know how they were supposed to conduct themselves.  He saw too many congregations that were not of one mind and one accord.  He saw too many congregations that thought they were the boss and thought that they knew more than the Man of God.  He saw too many congregations that were out of order and unwilling to cast off their traditions and accept the Truth.  He saw too many congregations that were out of order and unwilling to change.  In Level, Maryland, what he found was a group of people that made up the core of a congregation that was willing to be taught and more importantly, to learn.

                                                Written by Eric B. Ruark and Tanya J. Tillman

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Does a Pastor Live Multiple Lives or Just One?

To the members of a congregation, it may look like being a Pastor or Man of God they wear many hats and lead many different lives. They see him teaching the Word of God and comforting and counseling those that are in need, they also see him use the bible to show the errored ways of those who are out of line and bring them back into the fold.  Then, when he is not in church, he has his own household to run, and personal life outside the church. All these things may look like he is leading several different lives, but looks can be deceiving.  A true Man of God only has one life.  Jesus said, “(Mark 12:30) And thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all they soul, and with all they mind, and with all they strength: this is the first commandment.”  A true Man of God must put God first.  Everything else is secondary.  When a Man of God, puts God first, the entire congregation and everyone that is in the Man of God’s life benefits.

The Bible is full of references to sheep and shepherds. Psalm 23:1 states, “A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” In this era of industrialization, we have lost sight of what a shepherd did and therefore, we had lost sight of what the Pastor does.  Sheep are not the smartest animal in God’s creation.  They are followers.  If one walks off a cliff, the others will follow.  They could be dying from thirst but they will not drink from moving water.  And if they are not sheared periodically, their coats will grow so heavy that they will fall to the ground and not be able to get up.  And other animals love to eat them.  The shepherd has to protect them not only from themselves but from predators.

So when you transpose all that a shepherd must do to keep his flock safe to what a Man Of God (MOG) must do to keep his followers safe, you can see that the MOG wears only one hat.  In any church where a Pastor believes in this and takes his role of shepherd seriously as the bible states, they will be the shepherd and the congregation his sheep. This is how Pastor Fulcher runs his church. He has to lead them virtually continuously.  He has to protect them from themselves and he has to protect them from the spiritual wolves that would lead them astray and allow Satan to devour their souls. 

This takes an incredible toll on him.  To perform his job at 100%, his devotion must be complete.  In effect, he has no personal life (as one of the sheep might understand it) because he has dedicated that life to God and the duties that he must perform.  That’s not to say that he can’t enjoy a hobby or two, but if one of his flock gets in trouble or needs counseling, that hobby must be put aside so he can be about God’s work, as the bible says in Luke 2:49 “ And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business”.

And what is “God’s work”?  In Matthew 11:29, Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and come and learn of me…”  The sheep need to learn and the MOG needs to teach, which means that a true Man of God must devote hours on end to the study of the Bible in order to impart its wisdom to his flock.  While others are out doing things, boating, going to a game, or just watching a movie on TV, Pastor Fulcher literally has his nose buried in THE WORD OF GOD.  He is studying not only to show himself approved but to educate his flock so that they might be approved. 

The keyword here is dedication.  Pastor Fulcher and others like him are dedicated to the Bible and imparting what they learn through that dedication to his congregation.  That kind of dedication takes a toll on a man’s natural life while invigorating his spiritual one.  A Man of God is a Man of God 24 hours a day.  It is not something that he can turn on and off.  And this also has an effect on the people around him.

Anyone involved in a personal relationship with a Man of God must understand that they are there to help him, not to distract him.  They benefit from their close relationship with the MOG, true, but at the same time, they, too, are just sheep.  They have to be taught.  They have to be led.  They do not have the luxury of slacking off even for one moment, lest they divert the Man of God from his assigned task.  They are there to stay the Pastor’s arms in those trying times that affect every man.  They have to be his support when he comes under attack from those who do not understand his motives for doing something and are unwilling to wait for the explanation. 

Pastor Fulcher does not live a “normal” life.  He doesn’t just go to work, do his job and come home and forget it.  He is his work every hour of the day, every day of the week.  Sitting out in the congregation, applauding and amening what he says is the blessing that we, the sheep, get from his hours of preparation.  Those hours of preparation come at a cost behind the scenes, that most sitting at his feet cannot fathom.  Our blessing comes through his blood, sweat, and tears.

                                                Written by Eric B. Ruark and Tanya J. Tillman

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Splits, Cliques, Division and Congregation Perception

From the day a ministry is conceived, a lot of preparation and thought goes into how it should be run. The Pastor that wants to preach the True Word of God without tradition, will have to fight against the traditions and false doctrines that have made many traditional churches pits of hypocrisy, compromise, and make-believe worship.  The Pastor that strives to preach the Bible as it is written will have to preach out or expunge the human mindset that gives rise to splits, cliques, and divisions within a congregation. 

The human mindset that gives rise to splits, cliques and divisions within a congregation stems from the fact that the traditional way most churches are run does not mirror God’s order of things in the Bible.  I Corinthians 14:40 says, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”  But what is that order?  According to 1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God”.  A Pastor that wants to preach the Bible as it is written will be intolerant of cliques and divisions in any church he pastors. 

For a congregation to be Bible-like, it must be of one mind and one accord.  Cliques keep that from happening.  Cliques instill division, an us-against-them mentality, that eventually leads them to erroneous assumptions that they know more than their pastor.   Dr. Fulcher is a Pastor that chooses to preach the Bible as it is written, without traditional false-hoods. During the beginning of his ministry he had to show the people that it was their traditions that were out of control and false, not God. 

One of the first things Dr. Fulcher and Pastors like him have to do is preach out tradition to rebellious congregations and teach them who the Bible puts in charge of the congregation.  The Pastor is the shepherd and the congregation are the sheep and sheep do not tell the shepherd what to do, where to take them or what to feed them.  In the Bible order of things, the pastor is the one who is supposed to be in control.  And many people do not like that.  People’s egos can be so strong that they can become unwilling to accept their position as sheep to follow and not to lead.  Because of their lack of knowledge of bible order, they become the blind leading the blind and are not able to admit it or understand their error. The Bible says that people must “learn of Him”.  Those not willing to learn will be driven out by the continued preaching of the Bible.

Another problem that Pastors have to deal with behind the scenes is one of perception from the congregation and others.  Many times, things a Pastor says will be misinterpreted by those listening because they are not steeped in as much Bible knowledge as he is and they judge him by human standards and not Biblical ones.

Dr. Fulcher founded his church Truth House Ministries Inc on the teaching from Luke 4:4 which states that “And Jesus answered him saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”  For Dr. Fulcher and other Pastors like him, that means for every Bible question, there is a Bible answer.  There will be times that Dr. Fulcher and other Pastors will do or say something for a completely Biblical reason, but people listening may react based on their human understanding before that reason has been explained to them or the reason is manifested. A lot of congregations believe they know better.  They forget that the Bible also tells them in Ecc12:13 ‘Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” So they should do that before making a decision.  They forget that God’s ways are higher than man’s ways as the bible states in Isa 55:8-9, “ 8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord, 9“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” and that needs to be taught to them.

A Pastor that is teaching the bible way without tradition will teach that God is in control and God’s word is right, Dr. Fulcher is one of those Pastors. Pastors like him strive to bring dignity, honor and respect back to God’s word simply because it is God’s word.  Some people will listen and some will not.  Dr. Fulcher and Pastors like him want to be sure that those who choose to listen understand the great gift they are being given.

                                                   Written by Eric B. Ruark and Tanya J. Tillman

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