About our Pastor and Wife: Keith and Linda Hulton

Keith and Linda have been married for 25 years and have two children, Ryan and Mindy, who both live in Tennessee. Keith received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration at Penn State University and was committed to pursuing a career in the management field when God redirected his life and lifetime vocation. It was at the age of 23 that Keith accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and subsequently sensed a definite call into ministry. With that call came an automatic sense of need to attend seminary which he did. Keith attended Asbury Theological Seminary where he earned a Masters Degree in Divinity in 1980.

Prior to moving to Harrisonburg in the summer of 2001, Keith was ordained in 1980 and pastored a church for eleven years in Ann Arbor, Michigan and another in Waynesboro, Virginia for ten years. Both of those experiences were positive ones and assisted him with a calling to "plant" a church in the Harrisonburg area. Although Keith enjoys various aspects of the ministry, his heartbeat has certainly remained around the areas of evangelism, discipleship and world missions. In his spare time, you can probably catch Keith on a golf course, a tennis court or in the woods.

Linda grew up as a "preacher's kid" and attended Robert's Wesleyan College in North Chili, New York. Following a number of years in various aspects of nursing, Linda went on to complete her graduate work at the University of Virginia. Currently, Linda is a professor of nursing at James Madison University where she has been since the mid 90's. She enjoys good books, walking dogs, hiking, and kayaking the Shenandoah River.

About Worship Leader Donna Davis

I've been in church nearly all my life, many of my memories have something to do with church activities. I grew up in Southaven MS, but moved to Virginia when I was 11. I began playing the piano at 2 according to my mom, but began lessons at 7. I've been involved in church music since I was 14, when I served as church pianist. While I was baptized at 8 years old, I don't think I really became a true Christian until 1999, when I realized I needed to give up my right to myself in order to serve the One who gave His all for me. My life needed to match my words.

I graduated from James Madison University with a Music Education degree, voice major, piano minor. My husband of 23 years is Mike and we have two children: Philip Benjamin (Ben) and Zachary. We currently have no pets, but that may change in the near future. I've served as music director or worship leader in several churches around the Valley. God brought us to Faith Community Church during a very difficult period, where He has given us healing and a fresh perspective on what real life in Christ means.

My Favorites:
Bands (Christian): Third Day, David Crowder Band, Sanctus Real, Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, Decemberadio, Casting Crowns and MercyMe
Bands (secular): Lynyrd Skynyrd, Montgomery Gentry, Toby Keith, The Who and the Dave Matthews Band
Favorite genre of music: All of them except opera -- but I can listen to it if I must
Favorite color: Green
Favorite food: Mom's fried chicken, Dad's BBQ ribs
One favorite verse in the Bible (of many): "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid, nor discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)

The mission for the Worship Ministry at Faith Community Church comes from Psalm 150:

Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness. Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise Him with the harp and lyre, praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and flute, praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Miscellaneous Stuff About Who We Are

Our best or worst advertisement will be the people of Faith Community Church. Without a doubt, excitement and enthusiasm are contagious. When those who attend FCC are excited about the Lord and their church, others will be drawn not only to the Lord but into the church as well.
We love children! Although our number of children will be lesser in the beginning, we intend to make children a high priority throughout our ministry.
We are committed to excellence. That merely means that we want to give our best for God in everything we do.
God loves unity in the midst of diversity. Both are necessary and we will get a sense that we are achieving God's heart on this when we experience love in the midst of extreme diversity.
We need to be lovers of change! We never want to change merely for change sake, but to reach people with the gospel we need to be willing to change methods of ministry along the way. Remember however, our message never changes.
We want to make dress/apparel a non-issue. For us, casual is in!! We realize that the poor cannot at times "dress up" but everyone rich and poor can always "dress down". This merely says to our attendees, come as you are. If God is more interested in the heart, we want to have that be our focus also.
We want our church to be dramatically marked by love and friendliness! We want our guests to not only sense a warmth and friendliness their 1st Sunday with us, but we want them to be saying the same thing years down the road. We would love to be known most for a love that permeates every relationship of FCC.
We are committed to grow as a church and as we grow to continue to make a large church small by means of using small groups in ministry.
We will rent facilities until we get to a size that necessitates building our own facility. To us, a building is not our vision. An eventual owned building is merely a vehicle to accomplishing our vision. We want to be wise stewards along the way and make sure people are our focus and not buildings. At times it is easy for churches to get those two reversed.
We are committed to being a purpose driven church. There must be a relevant purpose behind everything we do in order to build a healthy church that honors the Lord. We must state a purpose before launching a ministry and constantly evaluate the success of that ministry to maintain maximum effectiveness. Being purpose driven keeps us on track to fulfill God's will for Faith Community Church.
Small groups in homes will be a vital aspect of our entire ministry. Each small group will typically have four components: worship, prayer, Bible study and fellowship. Our desire is for each person who makes Faith Community Church their home to be involved in a small group.
We will use variety and creativity to build a weekly worship experience that is fresh and vital to where people live. The preaching of God's Word will be Biblical and challenging, yet woven together through life application.
We want to model generosity as a local congregation.
Remaining culturally relevant in terms of technology and music is a significant aspect of communicating who we are as a church.
Understanding God leads to celebrating God.
For every God action there is a devil reaction.
We will not be dominated by rules or legalism, but by love and grace.
We want to be known as a place where people can begin again.