Derek Thomas said plans for the three-story, 32,000-square-foot building, formerly a SCE&G customer service center, have not been finalized. A church committee is putting together a formal plan. However, the building probably will include a student library, meeting spaces and a coffee shop.

First Presbyterian Church is the latest downtown Columbia congregation to reach out with a new facility to the city center’s growing population of students. [Editor’s note: First Presbyterian Church is affiliated with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP).]

First Presbyterian paid $4.1 million to buy the former SCE&G building – with its signature mosaic tile murals – on Marion Street, across the street from the church.

David Henderson to lead First Presbyterian’s new college ministry program | PROVIDED PHOTOGRAPH

The church has hired David Henderson, an ex-University of South Carolina campus ministry worker, to lead its collegiate outreach program, First Presbyterian senior minister, the Rev. Derek Thomas, said Friday.

The program to attract college students is to be ready by the start of the fall school year, Thomas said. Henderson worked in USC’s campus ministry program from 2004 through 2010, when he took a similar job at Vanderbilt University.

Thomas said plans for the three-story, 32,000-square-foot building, formerly a SCE&G customer service center, have not been finalized. A church committee is putting together a formal plan. However, the building probably will include a student library, meeting spaces and a coffee shop.

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