By Marv Knox
Benji Suprice recognizes parallels between his ministry and the arc of spiritual growth in college students he mentors.
Their trajectories begin with God’s claim upon their lives. They’re formed by experiences that deepen understanding. And they curve toward blessing others by loving God and serving people in the next phase of their lives.
The main difference is Suprice’s story started years ago, and the students’ stories are just beginning.
Suprice, 29, is an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship minister on four college campuses in the New London, Conn., area. He’s also a member of Church of the City in New London, where he formerly served as youth pastor.
The arc of Suprice’s life makes him a likely model for Called in Context, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s emphasis on helping churches find ministers in unlikely locations, such as among their own members.
That’s what happened to Suprice in the fall of 2021. Seeking a pastor for children and youth, the congregation found that person right among them, already serving and nurturing its teenagers as a volunteer.
But Suprice’s path to ministry started much earlier.
“I grew up in a Haitian Baptist church in Boston,” he reported. “I started preaching there when I was 13. In many ways, that church launched me into ministry.”
Years later, he attended Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where he met a classmate named Grace Martino. They graduated in 2018, when Martino moved to Decatur, Ga., to join the CBF staff and he moved to Charlottesville, Va., where he worked for a think tank studying culture.
By 2020, they were dating long-distance, when the pandemic made remote working possible. She continued with CBF, but relocated to live near family in New London, where she grew up.
That triggered a chain reaction: She moved to New London in March. He proposed marriage—and she accepted—in May. Then he trekked to New London in August. “I moved to Connecticut for love, not work,” he conceded with a chuckle. Suprice quickly realized he not only loved his fiancée, but he also loved her congregation.
“Grace grew up in Church of the City where her dad was pastor, and so she has some legacy here,” he said. “But when we moved here, we thought, ‘Just because Grace grew up here doesn’t mean we have to be tied here.’ … But when we looked at getting to be part of the life of the community here, we realized, ‘Oh, this is home.’”
“I’ve never been in a church whose mission is so clear,” he added. “The church’s motto is ‘We are a church in the city for the city.’ We are a multi-ethnic church in downtown New London. But we don’t want to be stuck in these four walls. We want to think deeply about what it means for the gospel to invite us into our neighborhood and community.”
The church blends Hispanics, Haitians, whites and others, reflecting the demographics of its city. It operates a community meals program, serves unhoused people, advocates for and supports immigrants, and launches nonprofits to meet a variety of needs. A core annual ministry, the Good Neighbors Project, sends church members across the city to labor in the community.
“It’s a church that cares deeply about the city and about justice work,” Suprice said. “Church of the City preaches the word of God, but we also realize we are called to care deeply about the lived experience of the people in our community.”
Suprice resonates with Church of the City’s mission. And he volunteered in the fall of 2020 to help rebuild the church’s youth ministry, which had been devastated by the pandemic.
But, of course, he still had to make a living. “I started off buying things off Facebook Marketplace, refurbishing them and selling them,” he said. “Then I also worked at New London High School as a tutor for Haitian students.”
A bit later, he saw an online ad by InterVarsity, seeking a campus minister at Connecticut College, located about three minutes from where he lived.
“I loved the idea of helping people connect their lives with faith, particularly in the college process,” he said, explaining why he took the job. “At a time of engaging their minds, college students need to understand they do not have to negate the other parts of themselves God has created and wants to speak to.”
“Campus ministry is not about replacing the church, but about learning to partner with the church,” he added. “At the time, I started looking for how to build bridges between Church of the City and campus ministry.”
Suprice felt supremely motivated to build those bridges because of Church of the City’s winsomeness. And his responsibilities within the church multiplied in the fall of 2021. Shortly after Jesús García became the church’s new lead pastor, he tapped Suprice to be pastor to children and youth.
“I believe in building the church from the ground up, and that starts with a vibrant children’s and youth ministry,” noted García, who started as youth pastor in another church where he grew up and later served that congregation as lead pastor 19 years. “When I arrived at Church of the City, I understood we need to send a clear message: ‘Children and youth must be a priority,’” he said. “Benji emerged as the perfect candidate for the children’s and youth pastor. I already heard about his remarkable work as a lay leader with the youth. I sensed a genuine pastoral calling in him and felt he was the right person to champion this vital ministry.”
García cited three profound benefits of calling pastors from within the church: They already know the church’s “culture, values and people.” Their calling affirms “God continues to call and equip individuals from within.” And it “provides a tangible role model for others in the church who may be discerning their own callings.”
As Suprice joined the church staff, he maintained his campus ministry with InterVarsity.
“It was a unique twist on a ‘bivocational’ calling, with both jobs in ministry,” he said. “I was a bivocational minister, but I was working two extremely compatible jobs. “And I was blown away by the amazing young people—in the church and in the campus context—I came in contact with and learned from. They are phenomenal and a gift to this community.”
Over time, Suprice realized he should grow as a minister by getting more education. So, he enrolled at Yale University Divinity School, where he is earning a Master of Divinity degree.
But he could not simultaneously be the husband he wants to be, a minister holding two jobs and a committed student. He decided his best course was to step down as youth pastor at Church of the City and focus on his family, education and ministry to college students.
Suprice received an outpouring of grace from the church. The congregation affirmed this important step in his calling. Part of being “for the city” meant blessing him to grow, as well as to keep blessing others.
Suprice’s decision became “a moment to celebrate the God who continues to call and develop individuals,” García said. “God is a god of provision, and I was confident God would provide for Benji, just as he would for us as a church.”
Suprice’s journey “serves as an inspiring example to the church that callings are to be celebrated, not stifled, Garcia added. “We shouldn’t close doors, because this work belongs to the Lord. Benji’s pursuit of his M.Div. is a testament to his growth and our commitment to supporting his continued development in God’s calling.”
That step has anchored Suprice’s perspective on ministry and the church.
“The anchoring has reminded me that, yes, I’m a pastor,” Suprice said. “I love and feel called to the local church. … But I’ll always find space for college students, either on campus or in church.”
In other words, the trajectory of his ministry always will remain connected both to church and to students.
The arc of Suprice’s ministry illustrates how congregations can find the next generation of church leaders already sitting in their pews, stressed Colin Kroll and Brian Foreman, CBF staff members who developed and promote the Called in Context initiative.
“Called in Context can empower congregations to name, notice and nurture ministerial calling in ways that extend beyond creating a job for someone,” explained Kroll, CBF’s young adults ministry manager. “Don’t you love how Church of the City called Benji out to serve its students and also released him to minister more broadly in the community?”