Paul McCullough
Pastor Paul and his wife, Fran, have been on the pastoral staff for almost 25 years serving in a variety of positions while assisting the leadership of four senior pastors during this time. Now reaching his retirement years, his portfolio consists in a more focused direction of reaching out to the congregation and community, serving as the Community Outreach Pastor here in the local church and as a Community Chaplain sanctioned by the Assemblies of God National Office in Springfield, Missouri, to the community at large. He serves as a volunteer chaplain with the Willmar Police Department, Kandiyohi Sheriff’s Department, Willmar Fire Department and Willmar Ambulance Services, along with a chaplaincy position with Divine Home and Hospice Care. They have two adult children, Joseph and his wife Nikki, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Maria and her husband, Jake Goodew, of Rochester, Minnesota.
Fun Fact: Pastor Paul enjoys camping out at a particular table at Walmart’s Subway and Starbucks at Willmar’s Target Store where he has the opportunity of conversing and enjoying not only the church families but others he reaches out to from our surrounding community while shopping there.
“If I was asked what the greatest thing that ever happened to me was, I would have to say that being brought up in a Christ-like home environment, in contrast to that in which my father had to experience as a child, would be at the top of my list. My father’s parents divorced while he was in grade school and he and the three other siblings were farmed out to various family and friends, separated from one another. My father dropped out of high school after the tenth grade, eventually joined up with the Army and fought in Germany until the end of the war in 1945. During this time, he met my mother while at home and they were married shortly after he returned to the States.
“It was around 1950 a gentleman shared his faith with my father while instructing him how to fly a small propped plane. My father accepted Christ and from that time forth our home then became Christ-centered in all mannerisms and faith expressions. I have asked myself the question often of what my life would have been like if God had not revealed Himself as He did to my father at that time?
“It was from that noted, contrasting experience that when I had personally reached where I felt accountable for my own spiritual life-decisions, personal choices for what I wanted my life to reflect, I too wanted Christ as my Lord and Savior. I knelt and ask God to forgive me of my sins, to come into my heart and from that day forward be the Lord of my life, honoring His name in all mannerisms as did my parents. That was over sixty years ago, and I have never regretted my decision.”