Albert Benjamin, A pioneer with a missional heart for God started a ministry in 1881, to the many new immigrants and the neglected masses of New York City. Simpson began informal training classes in 1882 in order to reach "the neglected peoples of the world with the neglected resources of the church." By 1883 a formal program was in place and ministers and missionaries were being trained in a multi-cultural context.
Later in 1890 he wrote this in a book he authored , A Larger Christian Life,
Simpson discussed his vision for the church: "He is showing us the plan for a Christian church that is much more than an association of congenial friends to listen once a week to an intellectual discourse and musical entertainment and carry on by proxy a mechanism of Christian work; but rather a church that can be at once the mother and home of every form of help and blessing which Jesus came to give to lost and suffering men, the birthplace and the home of souls, the fountain of healing and cleansing, the sheltering home for the orphan and distressed, the school for the culture and training of God's children, the armory where they are equipped for the battle of the Lord and the army which fights those battles in His name. Such a center of population in this sad and sinful world!" (A.B. Simpson, A Larger Christian Life. p. 153)
May God grant us boldness to match our imagination like he did with Albert Simpson.
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