A Noble Endeavor

As soon as I walked into The King’s Kitchen, a restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina, I knew I was someplace special. The décor was simple and elegant, and the air was filled with the mouth-watering smell of what restaurateur/owner Jim Noble likes to call “new local southern cuisine.” 

But what’s really special about The King’s Kitchen didn’t become apparent until our waitress arrived to not just take our order, but to explain the vision of this remarkable establishment! She told us that The King’s Kitchen is a not-for-profit restaurant, a place with a passion to care for the poor and empower the difficult to employ – including ex-prisoners –while providing an excellent experience for diners. 

Jim Noble and his wife Karen, who started out serving homeless Charlotteans from their string of restaurants but decided it “wasn’t enough,” founded The King’s Kitchen to provide life skills and Christian discipleship training to the homeless, ex-prisoners, and other jobseekers on the margins. 

I came away from my dining experience with a deep appreciation for the Nobles’ endeavors. They want to serve the down-and-out – as well as their patrons – with care and excellence, because they know that all of them matter to God. And they believe that when all these realize just how much they do matter to God, the whole community will be transformed. 

At Prison Fellowship, we have a similar vision – to equip the Church to care for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families with such excellence, that we will all stand in awe of God’s great love and plans for us, and then begin to be transformed by that awareness. Now that’s what I call a noble endeavor – one we can all seek our teeth into!