WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Christival 2026 guest speaker Ajay Thomas, founder of the Seven Mile Road Church Campus in Philadelphia, Pa., spoke about something that represents his life, being all in for God; not lukewarm. 

The purpose of Christival is for students to have more time to worship the Lord as a student body apart from daily chapel. It’s an annual event at PBA that includes worship from a guest band and a sermon from a guest speaker. Christival is one of the longest conference style traditions at PBA, being over 40 years old. 

Throughout the three days of Christival from Sept. 14 to Sept. 16, Pastor Thomas spoke about different Bible characters such as Solomon, Peter and others regarding their encounters with God. On the last day of Christival Pastor Thomas spoke on the Bible character Peter. Throughout this message Pastor Thomas repeated the phrase “To be lukewarm is to be useless.”

Pastor Thomas and his wife Shainu Thomas’ lives show what it looks like to be all in for God through their expanding ministry within church planting and reaching their community. 

Thomas and Shainu planted Seven Mile Road Church in 2008 after Thomas studied at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and developed a vision to advance the gospel through church planting. That vision was centered on serving surrounding communities. 

Seven Road Church partnered with communities in their area such as North Hills Education and Recreation Program; GROW, a Northeast Philadelphia ministry; and Caring for Friends, a food-security organization that partners with the church to pack and deliver food to neighbors in Northeast Philadelphia. 

Thomas and Shainu were sent by the Seven Mile Road Church in Boston, Mass. to St. Mark’s German Evangelical Reformed Church in Philadelphia that had a 134-year-old congregation. The church had received property bids for $5.2 million, but they declined. This allowed Thomas to take over the property where he founded Seven Mile Road Church. 

“We inherited a six-acre property,” said Thomas. “God has really blessed us.” 

Thomas and Shainu’s original vision was centered on the Indian community because of the lack of churches with an Indian culture until they felt called to share the gospel more broadly. 

“We felt a need among our peers,” Shainu said. “The gospel is for everybody.” 

In 2015, Thomas co-founded The Advance Initiative with Sam Chacko and several other South Asian ministry leaders who also had a passion for church planting. The initiative’s mission is to plant gospel-centered multiethnic churches by or among Indians. 

Now that mission has brought Thomas beyond church planting and onto college campuses, like PBA where he sees college as a “trajectory-setting season” in students’ lives.

“To be with you all in that moment and to have you encourage yourselves to think about God – that feels significant,”  said Thomas.

By Briley Reisman