Throughout the building there were people sanding, sweeping, hammering, pulling, carrying, scrubbing, giving, and serving. Of all the things done on Saturday, one of my favorites was the “hospitality team” which was made up of people who served coffee and greeted the pantry guests. Normally we are too short handed with willing and able volunteers to go much beyond the minimum in our hospitality for those who attend our pantry services throughout the week.

I was asked how the connection was first made between The Kings College and New York Gospel Mission, so here it is. Last July I was at home, working for the summer with my parents, in various aspects of work and ministry. One morning I woke up and checked my phone and saw something on the home page of my phone through one of those apps that gathers your social media into one endless supply of things and people you’ve added, followed, liked, and subscribed to. In that news feed, there was an article from The Gospel Coalition about Christian higher education in urban contexts. The article spoke of the transitions and turns at several different schools that all had recently brought on new presidents. If memory serves, the feel of the article was to bring to mind the work that Al Mohler did at Southern Seminary to turn it around from being a flagship school for theological liberalism into one of the largest theologically conservative seminaries in the world. One of the schools listed in the article was The King’s College.

Now on this summer morning, I was still reading this article on my phone, while lying in bed, but I promptly googled The Kings College and read every page on the website. I read their statement of faith. I read their president’s bio. I read that their founder was a man named Percy Crawford, a friend of Bob Jones University, a man who sided with the fundamentalists but preferred not to fight. I read of the school’s decline in enrolment before eventually closing, but then being reopened in NYC. I watched videos of Al Mohler congratulating Greg Thornbury on his new presidency. All I knew was that the statement of faith at this school read like a historic statement of faith, that stood soundly for orthodoxy, while preparing students to go into the world to be salt and light in fields such as business and politics. I filled out the contact us form and briefly explained the ministry here at NYGM. A few days later I got a response back from the school’s Chief Academic Officer, where he gave me his phone number and asked me to call him. I took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to call him, having no idea what I would say when he answered, especially given the fact that I was not yet at the ministry I was calling to represent. After several minutes of conversation we hit the awkward moment where he asked what I wanted, and I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t really have anything in mind, at least nothing had crystalized yet into a clear request. He then broke the perceived tension by suggesting he get me in contact with their Dean of Students, and then we could see about getting students to come over and help us out from time to time.

Several days passed and I heard from the Dean of Students who expressed interest in directing students our way. He also mentioned that the school was wanting to start a new community focus, in directing students to get involved in serving with local ministries and non-profits. He said that he would have the City Engagement Coordinator contact me. Now somewhere along this timeline there was a month gap, where an email got dropped, and then I moved up to New York. Somewhere along in September Lucy contacted me, and we scheduled a time for her to come and see a food pantry service here. On the basis of that meeting we began to move forward with getting teams of students to come help us with various service projects, and then a little later on she mentioned the campus wide service day that they were planning on January. She said that they had a few locations in mind, but if we could handle their whole group, they would love to put everyone to work in the same location. Somehow through all of this discussion, I missed the fact that they were going to be focusing the service day on one ministry, and that ministry was this ministry.

When I finally realized what they were planning I was amazed, well, floored. See, I did my Bachelors and Masters degrees at Bob Jones University where every student is strongly encouraged to get involved with a weekly outreach that is above and beyond the enormous sacrifice of warming a spot on a church pew each Sunday. Throughout college I was involved in several different kinds of student led outreaches ranging from Children’s Bible clubs, all the way across the age spectrum to preaching at a nursing home for elderly faculty members. Now Bob Jones University is considerably larger than The King’s College, 3,000 v. 500, but knowing that this is a new initiative for King’s, and they are doing their “first annual day of service” and have chosen us for a venue where hundreds of students will come through and get their hands dirty, serving with us for a day was an incredible thought. It’s a great joy to find that King’s shares the same burden to not only care for the physical needs of the community, but to do it in a way that centers on the gospel of Jesus Christ, as found in the historic Christian faith.

As the day approached, I began to get concerned that the group would be too large for us to keep them all busy, but there was no looking back by the time we got too close to limit the numbers! In the end we realized we could have easily extended the work day several more hours, and kept two more shifts busy, putting things back in order for the services the coming week. I think that as a staff, it’s safe to say that we would love to do it again, and could certainly put a massive group to work again. Yes, even in the near future! Some of the larger projects were unable to be completed, and will have to wait till another work team comes.

On behalf of the staff here at NYGM, let me give a resounding thank you to The King’s College. This service day was vital to moving forward with our mission and vision for the future of the gospel ministry here at 350 West 26^th street, New York, New York.