Princeton Christian Fellowship

Princeton Evangelical Fellowship (PEF), now known as Princeton Christian Fellowship (PCF) is one of the oldest campus ministries of its type, and also one of the largest student ministries at Princeton University, a non-denominational student ministry founded in 1931 by Princeton alum (1913) Dr. Donald Fullerton.

Fullerton was born July 6, 1892 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Henry S. Fullerton & Bessie B. Fullerton. His father is described as a "Wall Street Broker and country gentleman". While at Princeton, Donald served as a counselor for the Princeton Summer Camp, which served under-privileged boys Philadelphia, New York City, and locally. The camp was funded by the Philadelphian Society, a campus evangelical society founded in 1825 whose later dissolution served as impetus for the founding of the PEF/PCF. Both the PS and the subsequent PEF staunchly supported "commitment to the authority of the inerrant scripture, an emphasis on personal conversion, and that salvation is found through the atoning work of Christ alone".

He became serious in his commitment to Christ while serving with the 313th Field Artillery in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War One, where he turned his life over to Christ. After the War, he spent time as a PB missionary on the northwest frontier of what was then British India, now the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He returned to the U.S. due to illness, attempting to return in 1929 but was prevented due to a collision of the ship with a train ferry, and within two years was electing to equip others to take his place via this newfound ministry at his alma mater.

In the Fall of 1931, the mother of a Princeton student asked Dr. Fuller if he would start meeting with her son and others interested. PEF was not publicly advertised until 1937, the first undergrad president, Archibald Fletcher, wrote in the Daily Princetonian that, "The purpose of this Fellowship shall be to provide an opportunity for students at Princeton University to enjoy Christian fellowship one with another, to bear united witness to the faith of its members in the whole Bible as the inspired Word of God and to encourage other students to take, with them, a definite stand for Christ on the Campus."

In 1947, the same year that the PCF held their first alumni reunion, the fellowship hosted a showing of The God of Creation, a film created by the Moody Bible Institute. One member of the audience of two hundred was Albert Einstein, to whom was given a Gospel tract by a young Dr. Jack Whitcomb, who was personally led to Christ by Dr. Fuller, and would become a noted young earth creationist, and was instrumental in Dr. Fullerton's eventual earning an honorary doctorate from Grace Seminary. Others impacted personally by Dr. Fuller and/or PCF include:

• John Frame (b. 1939) - respected Reformed theologian
• Arthur F. Glasser (1914-2009) - noted missiologist who served with OMF from 1945-1951, and as its Home Director until 1970, also as Dean Emeritus of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. Glasser was led to Christ thru hearing Dr. Fullerton speak at a Keswick conference.
• Harry Angier Hoffner, Jr. (1934-2015) - a professor of Hittitology.
• Samuel Talbot Logan, Jr. (b. 1943) - Professor of Church History at Biblical Theological Seminary, and former president at Westminster Theological Seminary.

In the 1970's, there was a notable diversifying of ethnicity, culture and gender, and the musical fare changed from organs and hymnals to contemporary Christian music with guitars. Dr. Fullerton continued in leadership with the PEF until 1975, replaced by Wayne Wever (class of '65), Donald continued to attend prayer meetings until 1980 at the age of 88. "One of the hallmarks of Dr. Fullerton's ministry was meeting with students one-on-one, a practice that became a central part of PCF's approach to discipleship." Donald was promoted to Glory at the age of 92 in 1985, and is buried in the Princeton cemetery. His tombstone quotes Philippians 3:10: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."

For the first forty years of the PCF, the numbers averaged under thirty students, but by 1978, that number had more than doubled to over 70, and by the late 1990's, it had similarly doubled again to over 150. In 1996, Rev. Dr. Bill Boyce ('79) became the third PCF director, who continues to serve the ministry with his wife Debbie ('79). The website history indicates that recent years has seen the advent of the Graduate Princeton Christian Fellowship (GPCF), which has alumni serving on the faculty of other Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Cornell, Notre Dame, Wheaton, Baylor, etc. Other graduate alumni use the opportunity provided by their Princeton degree to gain access to countries otherwise closed to the gospel. Its members have included several Princeton University valedictorians, salutatorians, and alumni trustees among its ranks.

According to one source, its alumni includes "prominent seminary professors, scientists, denominational leaders, influential authors, as well as missionaries in more than twenty-five countries. As an independent group from a single university, the PCF has contributed more leaders to the Christian world than probably any other Christian college group." The ministry was renamed Princeton Christian Fellowship (PCF) in 2017, due to the perception that the term "evangelical" had too much of a political connotation, rather than a theological one, with Dr. Boyce stating, "there might be certain assumptions that all evangelicals are Republicans".

Sources= & Also See

• In late 2021, an archivist colleague named Stephen Justus Meek (from Kansas City) shared that Dr. Fuller had PB roots, and had played a major role in one of his research subjects turning his life over to Christ, and the founder of the PCF.
• PCF history
• PCF wiki
• Fullerton's wiki