Patrick Henry College student Kat Kidder ended up at Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) almost by accident. When she was a freshman in 2018, she missed her ride to her church one Sunday and headed to nearby Ketoctin instead. “That was the first time I’d ever gone to a church completely by myself,” she said. “I walked in and really almost immediately felt at home.”

She remembers meeting Rick Weitz, an elder, who welcomed her and introduced her to two other Patrick Henry students who could give her rides to church. After the service, a family invited her and other students to a meal. After that Sunday, she stayed at Ketoctin—and is still a member six years later. “I have noticed throughout my time here that there is a real desire to get students involved in the church,” Kidder said.

Statistically, Gen Z students are less religiously affiliated than previous generations. Ketoctin, however, has found abundant opportunities to disciple young Christian leaders. The church is just a few minutes away from Patrick Henry College (PHC), a conservative Christian college with an enrollment of four hundred. Ketoctin’s location drove their ministry.

“It’s who God puts in front of you,” Ketoctin elder Bob Trombadore said. “We just responded to what God provided. God provided an increasing body of students.”

Ketoctin families host young adult fellowship meals on Sunday afternoons. According to Trombadore, attendance two years ago was fifteen to twenty. Today, it’s around forty. “A lot of [our outreach] is a ministry of hospitality to Patrick Henry students and their families,” Trombadore said. He and his wife, Mary, regularly host the fellowship meals and open their home to families who are visiting their students at the college. “We’ve tried to function as a kind of a home away from home.”

The Trombadores often say students can come over any time. Patrick Henry student Rachel Tolbert organized a study evening for PHC girls at the Trombadores’ during finals week last spring. “It was great. . . . we talked to them for over an hour. They provided snacks and food, and we studied,” Tolbert remembered.

“There’s something really important and valuable about being invited into someone’s home,” said Elizabeth Russell, a PHC alum who is originally from Texas and stayed at Ketoctin after graduating. “Especially for students far away from home, like I was.”

James Elliot grew up at Ketoctin. He said the church’s student ministry is not one person’s project or program—instead, it is “ingrained in the culture of the church.” Elliot didn’t realize the full importance of the ministry to students until he became a PHC student himself. He enjoys the fellowship meals, which he described as “a very intentional setting.”

Now that Elliot has graduated from college and has an apartment, one of his goals is to use his apartment to show hospitality. “Ketoctin was a huge influence on my desire to do that,” he said.

Part of the Mission

Many PHC students similarly use their gifts to serve the church. Some play instruments for accompaniment in worship, others teach children’s Sunday school, help the deacons with setup and teardown, and have organized an evening “family worship” gathering at the Trombadores. “There’s a lot of involvement pretty much at every level,” Bob Trombadore said.

Kidder said that when she began to serve by playing music, “I really started to feel . . . like I was actually part of the mission of the church.” She appreciates that Ketoctin takes a different approach from the typical pizza and games used to attract college students. “I’ve never felt like they were trying to attract us just to build their numbers . . . [but from] a desire to serve students and build them up for the work of the kingdom.”

“It’s not like we have a super flashy college ministry,” PHC student Isaac Torcellini said. “It’s that we’re going to faithfully . . . stay close to the means of grace that God has provided.”

“It’s centered around homes and families just opening their doors to you,” Russell said. “Rather than creating some program or events . . . it just kind of happens organically around the table, which I think is really awesome.”

Blessing Other Churches

This abundant and yet ordinary hospitality, preaching, and mentoring is not primarily directed toward building up one local church. “If you only think of your own congregation as building the church, you’re missing the point,” Trombadore said. “Being able to minister to college students for an important time in their lives is a great opportunity to minister for the future of the greater church. You’re planting seeds or watering young plants that will go off and become big oak trees somewhere.”

One of those seeds that grew to a tree elsewhere is OP pastor Zachary Simmons. “Ketoctin was, if not the most influential, certainly near the top of the greatest influences in my life during my college years,” Simmons said. He attended Ketoctin from 2007 to 2013, during and immediately after his time as a student at Patrick Henry. He was mentored by the church’s then-pastor, Charles Biggs. Simmons is now pastor of Resurrection OPC in State College, Pennsylvania. The impact of Ketoctin’s hospitality toward students encouraged Simmons to start a young adult fellowship at Resurrection.

“Ketoctin has had a tremendous impact on the OPC through its discipleship of the students who’ve come there,” Simmons said.

The author is a member of Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian Church and a student at Patrick Henry College. New Horizons, December 2024.