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 Chris Ruble

Worhsip Leader Chris Ruble and his wife Holly

Chris has been leading worship for Faith Community since November 2002. Chris is a closet guitar addict and uses that passion to direct people to the One worthy of worship. Chris is supported in ministry by his wife Holly, who is an accomplished vocalist and keyboard player. Chris has a B.A. in Relgious Studies with a minor in Music from Ferrum College.

Chris and Holly have two children: Katherine and Caleb, two dogs: Bear and Dragon and one cat: Coal

Favorite Musicians: Andrew Peterson, David Wilcox, Waterdeep
Favorite Authors: Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis
Favorite Color: Yellow
Shoe size: 12

The mission for the Worship Ministry at Faith Community Church comes directly out of Psalm 107:

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

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.