NO GREATER FAITH continued NO GREATER FAITH continued
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Enrolling in Dallas Seminary in Texas, Rich
with his family by his side became involved in
marriage and family ministry. After a church
plant in Dallas, the family moved to Maryland
and helped with the restoration of a church for
twelve years. A united force, the Culp family
followed the call of faithful service through
the ups and downs of life.
With thirty years of ministry, thirty years
of marriage and four children, the Culp
family landed at Christ Community Church
in Pinehurst seven years ago with boots on
the ground ready to begin the next chapter of
their lives. While serving at CCC, one of the
most rewarding parts of the ministry became
providing soul care to military families while
building into their leadership capacity.
“Compassion with a particular strategy,”
became Rich’s operational pull. He explains,
“I love the church. I love the gathering of
followers of Christ. I love equipping them,
disciplining them, challenging them,
encouraging them, exhorting them—this is my
great love! Encouraging military families to
get back into the fight and be the leaders God
designed them to be became the concerted
mission entitled Centurion Project.”
“When you look at the Centurion in the
Scripture, he is the only guy who turned the
head of Christ. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘I
have not seen this kind of faith anywhere in all
of Israel.’ Promoted through the ranks of the
most violent army on earth, when we first meet
the Centurion, he is taking care of his servant,
who in that day, was basically disposable
property. With a heart of compassion, the
Centurion was a friend of the Jews. Think
about that! As a Roman Centurion, with Rome
being the hated enemy of the Jewish people,
this guy was able to cross the divide and
befriend the Jew.”
In essence, the Centurion Project is raising
up modern day Centurions. Rich explains,
“We minister to men and women who are
consummate professionals able to cross the
divide between races and ethnicities with
compassion. We want to raise up an army of
Semper Fidelis Centurions.”
Established in 2019, under the direction
of founder and catalyst Mr. Rich Culp, the
Centurion Project seeks to conquer the
strategy through networking the churches
around Fort Bragg. With a goal to enlist one
hundred churches, the Centurion Project,
while battling the constraints of COVID, has
already partnered with thirteen churches
who have caught the vision. Rich informs,
“Centurion Project exists to network and
empower churches to support and equip
military leaders and their mission and the
Great Commission.”
Fort Bragg is strategic! Hosting 55,000
soldiers, Fort Bragg is the largest military
installation on the planet and dubbed the,
“Center of the Military Universe.” With
thousands of churches around Fort Braggyes,
thousands—Rich exclaims, “Some of the
churches have military ministries, some have
counseling centers, but none of them were
working together...until now! More than the
quantity is the quality of the relationships
experienced between the churches that we
lean into in order to equip military leaders. To
be the church, not just a bunch of individual
churches, but ‘the church’ around Fort Bragg
is the ultimate goal!”
Supplying thirty years of pastoral
experience and a team of pastors to come
along side of the churches, Rich is a fullyfunded
free agent with Centurion Project,
thanks to the generous donations of backup.
Along with the support comes the quarterly
training events called Summits which gather
pastors, military leaders, chaplains, and
soldiers to discuss important strategic topics
and best ministry practices.
Held on May 15th, 2020, the first
Summit was hosted virtually due to COVID.
Nonetheless, the team pressed forward to
discuss the pertinent issues of Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder and of ministering to the
Muslim world. The second Summit was held in
September wherein the reinforcements talked
about resiliency and preventive spiritual soul
care for military life. Also discussed was the
partnership between chaplains, churches,
and retired military personnel. Scheduled
for February 2021, the third Summit plans
to discuss the intricacies of battle readiness
and finances. Prepared to deliver the fourth
Summit in May of 2021, the meeting will cover
marriage in the military.
Ministering to military leaders of all
branches and ranks, the Centurion Project
serves those who serve our United States
of America. Because America has been in
its longest war ever, the souls of the men
and women, in tandem with the integrity
and health of families, are being affected.
Ambushed by PTSD, alcoholism, infidelity
and sadly domestic violence, our military
leaders face endless attacks on every side. As
churches network together, the unified goal is
to get in front of the struggles and offer help.
Other casualties include the difficulties of
deployment in both going away and coming
home. Trying to reenter family life, with
COVID, is a shock to the system! “I talk to these
guys coming back from Afghanistan,” Rich
shares. “One week they are in Afghanistan,
and the next week, they are homeschooling
their children. This difficult transition is
called Re-integration. Mom has been running
the show for six months with systems and
routines in place, and then Dad, who’s been
commanding troops for the past six months
comes home, enters a different ecosystem and
tries to take over. It’s a nightmare! When you
have two different leaders with two different
missions coming together, it’s challenging!
Once the family figures it out, then he’s
deployed again.”
Navigating how to minister to the
adrenaline junkies who aren’t merely type-A
people but rather triple-A people requires
calculated understanding. “Truly it’s easier for
these military leaders to live in combat than it
is to live at home. They’re more comfortable in
combat than they are on the couch,” informs Rich.
Finding direction in Christ, the greatest
leader who has ever walked the earth, the
Centurion Project draws leadership principles
that are transferable into any organization,
particularly the military. As large as the
challenges, so too the character reigns even
stronger! Rich testifies, “These men and
women are some of America’s best! They are
at the very apex of physical abilities. They have
language training. They understand what it
means to live a sacrificial life. It’s ‘God and
Country’ for many of them. Just imagine the
impact of a unified force living a sacrificial
life!” Rich slows, “Again, Jesus looked at the
Centurion and said, ‘There’s no greater faith
than that’!”
While ministering to an army of epic
proportions, truly it takes an army of resources
to fuel the cause. Currently building a team
of pastors possessing at least twenty years
of experience each, an organization called
EveryEthne anchors the administrative team.
Rich explains, “The military is an ethne—a
people group with their own language, their
own set of values, mission and worldview.
EverEthne partners with me to reinforce the
military people group.”
While Rich provides coaching and
consulting with a focus in church health, the
network of churches provides discipleship
to leverage the experiences of our military
leaders. Rich explains, “In our mission field,
the message does not change, but rather it
is contextualized. In other words, if a pastor
understands his audience, and a large
majority of his audience are military leaders,
then his verbiage and illustrations will create
a context that encourages military families to
grow both their faith and their mission.”
Entreating civilians to rally around the
cause with prayer, the Centurion Project
encourages local churches join the vision and
network together. Of note, retirees remain
a strategic leadership development expert,
aka the special forces of Centurion Project.
As operations grow, so too the need for more
donations and, in turn, more staff.
With back ups in place for soul care, Rich’s
reinforcements include a life coach and a team
of eighteen people who pray every week. With
a prayer circle committed to the Centurion
Project, the campaign stays on target.
Being involved with Centurion Project has
provided Rich with a greater appreciation for
what God is doing all over the world through
military families. In looking back over the
chapters recording the journey from military
to ministry and back again, Rich stands in awe.
From a broken home in childhood, Rich now
ministers to families in need. From military
service to now ministry, Rich stands battle
ready. Remembering family challenges and
professional discouragements when the Culp
family was circling the drain, Rich shares,
“That’s a long circle! But God is faithful, and
we learned so much!”
The campaigns along the way have armed
Rich with a heart of compassion for military
families who are making the ultimate sacrifice
and for warriors who are performing the
unspeakable. “Military leaders carry a lot of
brokenness and pain,” tells Rich, “and I am
able to encourage and equip them with a
strategic heart of compassion.”
While striving for no greater faith than
this, the Centurion Project is fulfilling its
goal to network the churches to empower
military leaders. Seeking to move of “God
and Country” from a motto to a mission, Rich
encourages, “Let’s make it not only something
we say, but also something we do. Hooah!”☐
Call: 910-585-0569
Web:centurionproject.net
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Rich at a Centurion Project Summit.
p.34 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. No. 141
/Web:centurionproject.net