Dr. Friedhelm Radandt has a doctorate in German Literature from the University of Chicago. He has been the president of The King’s College, New York, since 1985.
The King’s College, formerly a suburban Christian college, has opened its doors in the Empire State Building. The Manhattan campus is now the College’s main campus, accredited by New York State’s Board of Regents.
A few highlights round out this picture: 80% of the faculty have doctorates. The average SAT score is 1100. The college competes for students with such institutions as New York University, Penn State University, and City College, not with Christian colleges. Seventy-five percent of our students are traditional, full-time freshman. The College represents the face of New York City, culturally the most diverse place on the globe. Dr. Tony Carnes writes, “More than 56% of the City’s population are foreign born or the children of foreign born.”
Most Christian colleges are rural or suburban, and overwhelmingly Caucasian. They are also residential. King’s with its urban campus is primarily non-residential. The racial breakdown of King’s first class is: African American 37%; Latino 2%; Asian 11%; Caucasian 20%; mixed 3%; Jewish 7%. The staff and students together speak a dozen languages. The need for a high quality Christian Liberal Arts College in a city that boasts of over 100 colleges and universities was urgent.
Dr. Robert Carle writes, “New York City is inescapable. The fashions we follow; the media we watch; the fiction we read; the stocks we invest in; and the music we listen to are shaped in profound ways within a few square miles of the Empire State Building.” Five blocks east of the Empire State Building is the United Nations. Five miles south is the world’s most prestigious financial market (Wall Street). Two blocks west is Broadway. A few blocks north are the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the Gugggenheim, and other showcases for the visual arts. A few miles north is Harlem, the historic center of Black American culture. Time magazine has called New York “the most important city in the history of the world.”
The implications of King’s relocation for the Great Commission are dramatic. A Christian university devoted to excellence will make a difference for the cause of Christ everywhere in the world. “I have long concluded,” Dr. Raymond Bakke writes, “that New York City is the information capital of the world and can function as a world-class research and development unit for the church of Jesus Christ in a world that is now overwhelmingly urban.”
Research data on the evangelical churches in New York City show enormous growth numerically and reflect a shift to greater Bible-centeredness. This kind of renewal makes the need for educating leaders a matter of great importance. Most of New York’s future Christian leaders are being educated in secular institutions with an anti-Christian bias. Those who leave New York to attend Christian colleges tend not to return to the City.
It may appear that Christians in New York sat down and planned these developments, but not so. God took us by surprise, using circumstances beyond our wildest imaginings to bring about His will. In 1994 a check for $100,000 arrived from the Ken Wessner Foundation to open a teaching center in the City. A local steering committee, consisting of church and business leaders, conducted an extensive market research study. Unexpectedly, Don Kim of the local steering committee was appointed managing director of the Empire State building. He discovered the vacant college “campus” in this landmark building. When Stan Oakes of Campus Crusade for Christ approached me about “doing something together,” it was clear that God was establishing The King’s College, under Campus Crusade ownership, in the center of the capital of the world.
Speaking the Language of Babylon: A Paradigm for an Urban Christian College 4.4