Alumni Profiles

B.S., business management, with concentrations in money and finance and in international business management, 2005

M.A., Christian Ministry, Carolina Evangelical Divinity School, 2007

M. Div., Biblical Studies, Carolina Evangelical Divinity School, 2008

Pastor, Prosperity Friends Meeting (Quaker church)

Robbins, N.C.

To watch a video with Michael, click here.

 “They socked me in the teeth, my first year at Guilford College,” says Michael Fulp. At a very fit 6’4”, he is obviously using a figure of speech — he’s not someone you’d likely try to smack. “I can’t tell you how different life was for me my freshman year,” he says. He seriously considered transferring elsewhere … at first. Then you couldn’t drag him away.

“I grew up in a very small, rural setting. When I was a boy, my grandfather and father used to sit under a tree for hours, joined by other adults [and me], and they would discuss everything in the world. But each one took his turn speaking. The others listened and waited their turn. So I thought that was the way discussions took place. When I got to Guilford, there were big trees all right, but the other students, usually much more liberal than I was, jumped right in and held forth, drowning out my arguments.”

He says that he learned to stand his ground, and the others learned to follow the rule of each having his own time, without interruption. “Actually,” he admits, “I needed to go to Guilford. I needed the culture shock. And it was my experiences with those people — more liberal than I am, more knowledgeable of the world — that have made me the person I am today.”

 “Guilford is a place where they show you how to stand up for your beliefs, especially if those beliefs are different from those around you. And if you stay true to your beliefs, your peers will respect you. You learn to argue your points (either based on faith or logic or both), to back up your points and to pick the right time to make your arguments. It’s a great lesson.”

Michael had begun preaching at the age of 16. As it turned out, he was able to continue that service and practice those concepts throughout his years at Guilford College. By the time he was a sophomore at Guilford, he was named the first-ever pastoral intern at Poplar Ridge Friends Meeting in Trinity, N.C., where, he says, he learned as much as he did during all of his time in divinity school. After his junior year he served as associate pastor at Harmony Grove Friends Meeting in Yadkinville, N.C., and the following year he was associate pastor at Back Creek Friends Meeting, close to Asheboro, N.C.

Michael graduated from Guilford College on a Saturday in May 2005, and on Monday he was offered a possible pastorship at the Prosperity Friends Meeting in Robbins, N.C., where he now serves as full pastor.

His future will probably include a Doctor of Ministry degree, either in preaching or in strategic church leadership. “I’ll probably seek to earn the doctorate from Carolina Evangelical Divinity School, where I earned the master’s degrees. It’s very academic in character, with classes where you can’t hide. Of course, that’s just the way Guilford College is, so I feel comfortable in that kind of setting.”

He says that his Guilford experiences made it easy for him to do the writing and reading that graduate studies call for … and that Guilford College also provided this major, unexpected, advantage: “There’s nothing worse than trying to conquer the world without knowing who you really are. If you go to Guilford, the process might not be easy, but you will discover who you are.”