Dallas District
Rev. Russell O. Fuller, Sr., is native of Doyline, Louisiana. Elder. Fuller attended the Louisiana Public Schools and graduated from Doyline High School in 1970. He continued his education by attending Southern University-Shreveport-Bossier Campus from 1970-1973, majoring in Business and Computer Science. Rev. Fuller has also received a bachelor’s Degree in business management science from the University of Phoenix, Dallas Campus in 2009. In 1997, he received a Certification in Theology from the International Theological Center in Atlanta, Ga.
Thank you for the opportunity to interview you. We would like to give everyone the opportunity
to know a little more about you.
Can you tell us about your calling into ministry? I was called really in 1990 and probably did not respond until 1991. So, you ran from your calling? I was really called almost 20 years before then and ran from my calling. I did various job with the church with the Lay ministry, the Usher board. I was doing all these other things that I thought maybe would suffice for the ministry. It seemed like it just didn’t (work). Then in 1991, January the 20th, the Lord said that’s it, you going to have to go into organized ministry. It was at a point where I felt like I didn’t have a choice. During 11:00 service at Elizabeth Chapel I ran down to the front. The preacher had no idea why I was there because at the time I was a trustee chair. I am sure he was wondering why his trustee had run down to the front. I told him that I had been called to preach. He was not surprised he had already kind of said that so he was not surprised at all. Did you start your training from then on? Yes, it all happened fast after that day. I preached my first sermon in January and by April the presiding elder sent me to Stephenville to pastor. It was a challenge but It was a good one.
I learned a lot during those two years and it turned out to be a great blessing for me.
To the annual conference or reporting meeting. That is a giant responsibility. The third is keeping a balance between the local church and the Bishop’s office. Making sure, that everybody is represented in a fare and equal way. That is where that justice becomes a kind of weighted but you have to keep a balance. You are the mediator between the local Church and the bishop and the general church. So, you have to keep and maintain a relationship That’s open between those two. So that the bishop will know what is going on, how the local
Church is functioning and the condition of the church. At the same time the local church will get
Their needs presented at the bishop level. To me that is the core responsibility to make sure the
Local church message gets to the bishop level. Tell us about your leadership philosophy and how it influences the culture of the Pastors under your care and the CME church? I like to empower pastors to make good decisions to be able to pastor their churches at the local level. I give them leeway and authority that they already have to make good decisions at their level. That way a level of trust has to be maintained between the pastor and the presiding elder that the elder will carry the same message back to the annual conference.
Rev. Fuller has been serving as an alternate member of the Judicial Council since 2010 General Conference. In 2018, Rev. Fuller was elected a member of the Judicial Council by the General Conference that was held in Birmingham, Alabama.
Rev. Fuller has been married to Sharon A. Walker Fuller for the last 37 years. They have 5 children and 14 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
