 Pastor Paul J. Graban is an unusual man. While many of his contemporaries have long been retired, at 84 years young, he is still working full time as the Senior Pastor of the Fountain of Life Center and Headmaster of Life Center Academy in Florence Township.
Born January 5, 1924, Graban committed his life to Jesus Christ at the age of fourteen. After graduating from Bible College, he was ordained in 1954 as an Assemblies of God minister with the New York – New Jersey District. He traveled as an evangelist for eighteen years with his wife, Evelyn, also an ordained minister. Graban presently holds a Master’s Degree in Theology.
During the years Graban traveled as an evangelist, he would pitch his tent and was instrumental in pioneering numerous new Assemblies of God churches. As his wife accompanied him on the evangelistic field, she served as his dynamic song leader and was a great helpmate in the establishment of those new works for God. Two sons were born during that time, Paul Jr. and Ronald David.
 In October 1966, Graban came to pastor a struggling church with a few families, then called the Burlington Assembly of God in Burlington, NJ. Under his leadership, the small church experienced phenomenal growth. In 1974 they purchased 106 acres in the middle of the cornfields of Florence Township and changed their name to the Fountain of Life Center, as it is still known today. Hundreds of hippies, drug addicts and hurting people came through the church doors during that time and found healing and hope for their futures.
 On these grounds, Life Center Academy opened in 1975 with Pastor Graban as Headmaster and Rev Evelyn Graban serving as principal until her death in 1991. From 39 students that first year, the Christian non-denominational school now has a student body of over 400, competing with the area’s top prep schools in academics and sports. Approximately 95% of Life Center Academy’s graduating seniors pursue higher education. Little Angel Preschool was also established during those years of school growth.
As Headmaster, Graban’s philosophy of helping others is evident with the programs he has created. In addition to scholarship opportunities for disadvantaged local children to receive an outstanding Judeo-Christian private school education, he offers educational scholarships to athletes from other nations. In recent years, over two dozen athletes have come from third-world countries with little hope for a future without the opportunities available to them at Life Center Academy.
 Another facet of Life Center Academy implemented by Headmaster Graban were mission trips to underdeveloped countries for the graduating seniors each year. Instead of frolicking on the beaches of Florida, the students’ lives are changed by these humanitarian trips. In these poor countries, they build schools and churches, bring medical supplies, and visit orphanages.
The Fountain of Life Center church continued to grow under Graban’s wise expertise and leadership. In 1991, a magnificent, state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar sanctuary and conference center, with a seating capacity of 2500 was dedicated. The dedication speaker for the debt-free facility was then Governor of Missouri, and former Attorney General, John Ashcroft.
A visionary, Graban was able to acquire a 5000-watt radio station, WIFI 1460 A.M., which broadcasts throughout the Delaware Valley. He founded a community of homes called Fountain Gardens in Florence Township. Jubilee House, a spacious maternity home for women in crisis pregnancies, was established on forty acres of wooded ground purchased near the church and is debt free also.
The Northeast Memorial for the Unborn was erected on the grounds of the Fountain of Life Center and serves as a community outreach for men and women to obtain healing from the traumatic and emotional pain of abortions, still-births and miscarriages.
The influence of Graban’s leadership is far-reaching, with speakers known worldwide coming to the Fountain of Life Center. Missionaries have gone out to serve in foreign countries after having grown up in the church. In May 2003, Graban and four associates traveled to the Communist country of Cuba to dedicate an Assemblies of God Church established there with the financial aid of the Fountain of Life Center. Also, Graban’s flock largely financed the first Teen Challenge drug addiction recovery facility in Peru.
Locally, a food bank, an addiction recovery program, over 80 monthly visitors to prisons and weekly bus outreaches to disadvantaged young people living in numerous Burlington and Mercer county areas, all offer a help up and not just a hand out.
Still not wanting to sit still in his older years, Graban led his constituency in the establishment of a new Life Center. A
groundbreaking ceremony was held on October 10th, 2004 and the building was completed, debt free, in the winter of 2008. Our brand new 116,000 square foot sports/fitness complex and event center houses an indoor soccer court, three basketball courts, a fitness center, banquet facilities, meeting rooms, and much more.
The 110,000 square foot building will house an indoor soccer court, three basketball courts, exercise rooms for senior citizens, a cafeteria, meeting rooms and much more. Graban has gone on record stating that the Life Center will also be debt free upon dedication day.
While accomplishing all this, Graban has been an original member of the prestigious Assemblies of God Financial Services Group in Springfield, Missouri. He is one of only two pastors to be so honored from among 32,000 Assemblies of God pastors. Still recognizing his valued contribution at age 80, the Assemblies of God appointed him to help oversee the multi-million dollar real estate investments for the Financial Services Group.
Graban and his deceased wife Evelyn have also been recognized as impacting the Assemblies of God Pentecostal heritage by their inclusion in the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Hall of Honor in Springfield, Missouri. In 1998, the facility of Valley Forge Christian College bestowed him an honorary membership in the Sigma Chi Phi honor society of the Assemblies of God colleges and universities. He is a published writer and receives requests to speak worldwide.
The Fountain of Life Center is a melting pot of people from various cultures, races, socioeconomic backgrounds and multitudes of life styles. Thousands of lives have been changed for the better, because of the servant life of this one man, Paul J. Graban. He is truly a man of integrity with a sheperd’s heart of love and compassion for the hurting, the homeless and the helpless. His life’s motto has been taken from the Bible: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” Matthew 5:16
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