The Princeton Christian Fellowship (PCF), formerly the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship (PEF), is a

nondenominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. Overview The term has been used in the context of various faiths including Jainism, Baháʼí Fait ...

Christian ministry at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

whose purpose is "to help undergraduate and graduate students ... grow as believers and followers of Jesus Christ ... ndto let the rest of the University community know the full message of Christianity so that others can come to believe and have faith in Jesus Christ." Founded in 1931 by Dr. Donald B. Fullerton, a member of the Princeton University Class of 1913, the PCF is one of the oldest campus ministries of its type, predating the founding of Cru and Intervarsity by a decade or more. PCF is one of the largest student organizations at Princeton University, and is currently led by th
Rev. Chris Sallade
a member of the Princeton Class of 1994.

Early history

From 1825 until its demise amid controversy in 1930 the Philadelphian Society was the center of

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

religious life on campus. This left a lack of organized evangelical ministry at Princeton and the next year a friend of Donald Fullerton called him worried over the hard time his son was having spiritually as a student. Dr. Fullerton had previously served as a

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

on the northwest frontier of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, the border regions of modern-day

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, but was forced off the mission field by ill health. He made an attempt to return to the mission field in 1929, sailing out on the RMS ''Mauretania''. He prayed that God would turn the ship around if it was not His will that he return to the mission field. While still in New York harbor the Mauretania collided with a

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a tugb ...

forcing a return to dock and signaling to Dr. Fullerton that his days of overseas service were at an end. Princeton Evangelical Fellowship

This enabled Dr. Fullerton to respond to the request of his friend by starting to hold Bible classes on the campus, which replaced the defunct Philadelphian Society and which he would continue for fifty years. These informal Bible classes grew into a formal organization in 1937, with PCF's first undergraduate president, A.G. Fletcher Jr. a member of the Princeton Class of 1938, announcing:

A group of us have felt for a number of years the need on this Campus of a society with a
fundamental Fundamental may refer to: * Foundation of reality * Fundamental frequency, as in music or phonetics, often referred to as simply a "fundamental" * Fundamentalism, the belief in, and usually the strict adherence to, the simple or "fundamental" idea ...
Christian position ... efeel that the fine Christian tradition on which Princeton was founded is not entirely dead today and that there are still many undergraduates in the University whose senses are awake to the higher, eternal values in life, and who would welcome an opportunity to strengthen and reaffirm these convictions in a collective way through congenial fellowship with others holding similar views ... We wish to emphasize that the P. E. F. was not formed in opposition to any of the religious organizations already existing on the Campus. Our intention has never been to oppose, but rather to supplement these other programs by supplying elements which we feel have been neglected.

A notable early member of PCF was Jack Whitcomb, led to faith as a freshman by Dr. Fullerton and a leading

young earth creationist Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespr ...

. In 1947, the same year the PCF held its first alumni reunion, the fellowship hosted a showing o
The God of Creation
a film created by the Moody Institute. One member of the audience of two hundred was

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

to whom the young Dr. Whitcomb handed a

Gospel tract A tract is a literary work and, in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, a tract referred to a brief pamphlet used for religious and poli ...

. Another notable PCF alumnus from its early decades is the noted Reformed

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

John Frame a member of the Princeton Class of 1960. He said of his time in the fellowship that:

Fullerton and PEF cared deeply about people, spending hours in mutual prayer, exhortation, counseling, gospel witness ... And they made me a much better follower of Jesus. I will never regret being part of this semi-Arminian,
dispensationalist Dispensationalism is a system that was formalized in its entirety by John Nelson Darby. Dispensationalism maintains that history is divided into multiple ages or "dispensations" in which God acts with humanity in different ways. Dispensationali ...
,
separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
, tee-totaling, semi-victorious life, pietistic, biblicistic group called PEF. And the greatest part of that experience was the godly example of Donald B. Fullerton. He was not a perfect man, but I am yet today an imitator of his, since he imitated Jesus.

Growth and Change

The fellowship has grown steadily over time, with under 30 members in 1959, up to 70 by the 1978, and 150 by the late 90s. It now includes a dedicated graduate student ministry, th
Graduate Princeton Christian Fellowship
PCF's members have included several Princeton University valedictorians, salutatorians, and two young alumni trustees among recipients of many other university awards. According to one source PCF's alumni include "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." PCF has a long tradition of baptizing students on Easter Sunday morning in conjunction with other campus ministries and under the authority of Stone Hill Church of Princeton. The fellowship also has long associations with members of the Princeton faculty, most notably the work o
Dr. James Rankin
in mentoring students and playing piano and keyboard with the fellowship's

worship team Contemporary worship is a form of Christian worship that emerged within Western evangelical Protestantism in the 20th century. It was originally confined to the charismatic movement, but is now found in a wide range of churches, including many w ...

. Over its more than eighty years of existence the PCF has seen many changes. The

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

books of earlier years gave way to guitars and

contemporary worship music Contemporary worship music (CWM), also known as praise and worship music, is a defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past 60 years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are fr ...

. Suits and ties have given way to shorts and flip-flops, and the introduction of

coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

to Princeton in 1969 ended the days when the fellowship was exclusively male. Despite the many changes over the decades PCF continues to be cited by students and alumni as a principal life influence.
Dr. Justin Hastings
of the Princeton Class of 2001 wrote at the end of his senior year:

The Princeton Evangelical Fellowship was the reason I came to Princeton ... Now, four years later, PEF is most assuredly the best thing to happen to me at Princeton ... PEF has prepared me morally and spiritually for life after Princeton, much more so than any class I've taken here over the past four years.

In the fall of 2017 the ministry changed its name to Princeton Christian Fellowship, due to the perception that the term 'evangelical' had too much of a political connotation rather than a theological one, with Boyce stating "There might be certain assumptions that all evangelicals are Republicans".

Notable alumni

* John C. Whitcomb * Harry A. Hoffner * John Frame * Samuel T. Logan

References

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External links

Princeton Christian FellowshipPrinceton Christian Fellowship Facebook PageRemembering Donald B. Fullerton
by John Frame.
Bill Boyce, Director of the Princeton Christian Fellowship
Princeton University Christian organizations established in 1931 Evangelical parachurch organizations Evangelical organizations established in the 20th century Student religious organizations in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Princeton, New Jersey Fellowships Student societies in the United States