Pastor Ryan Fullerton was born in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, and grew up all over Western Canada. Throughout his
teen years he looked to political causes to make him feel righteous and drugs
and sex to make him feel happy. Thankfully, by the time he was 21 he found his
righteousness was a joke and his happiness had turned sour. Then, through the
simple and intelligent witness of his step-mom he came to trust Jesus Christ
late in the evening just before Good Friday in 1995.
Following that Ryan began to grow,
to tell people about Jesus, and to study his Bible. Shortly after his
conversion he studied for a year at Prairie Bible College, in Three Hills
Alberta, and then for two years at Tyndale College in Toronto, Ontario. In
Toronto, Ryan had two life shaping experiences. First, he got to work in a
downtown urban Church under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Beck. Second,
he was invited to be in a 'study group' by the godliest and the prettiest
girl in the college. A week after graduation the lovely Christy Joy Teal became
Christy Joy Fullerton. The next eight years have been a whirlwind including
drilling for oil, pastoring a Church in a town of 311, finding out he was
naturally a bad husband, God giving miraculous and happy grace in his marriage,
having four children (Jordana, Luke, James, and Christopher), starting
Seminary, stopping Seminary, and becoming (somewhere in there) the Pastor of
Immanuel Baptist Church.
Since 2002 Ryan has been the Pastor
of Immanuel. In that time God has blessed him with many trials, incredible
Co-Pastors, and an amazingly loving Church. On top of all this he has had the
privilege of seeing Immanuel Baptist Church take some small steps towards
bringing the heartbeat of the Cross to the Streets of our city and the ends of
the earth. Right now at Immanuel, Ryan has the primary responsible for
preaching the Word of God Sunday Mornings, equipping others to preach God's
Word on Wednesday Nights, shaping the Sunday Morning 'Discipleship Classes',
and leading the public services. He is also beginning to spearhead evangelism,
and to cultivate and articulate the vision of the Church.