He was educated at Chigwell County Primary School (1958–65); Buckhurst Hill County High School, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Hertford College, Oxford (1973–77, BA/MA, Law, one year, Theology, 3 years); Ridley Hall, Cambridge (1978–80 Ordination training); Selwyn College, Cambridge, (1979–80, DipTh in New Testament post graduate studies); and Utrecht University (1998–2002 PhD by extension).

He was appointed an Honorary Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral in Kerugoya, Kenya, in October 1991, at his farewell graduation ceremony, and the Kings family returned to Britain in November 1991.

He served as the founding Director of the Henry Martyn Library, for the study of mission and world Christianity, at Westminster College, which was formally opened by Kenneth Cragg on 22 January 1996.

He was awarded the PhD in March 2002 and it was published as Christianity Connected: Hindus, Muslims and the World in the Letters of Max Warren and Roger Hooker (Boekencentrum, 2002) and was republished by ISPCK in India in 2017, with a foreword by Jayakiran Sebastian.

On 28 September 2000, Kings was inducted as vicar of St Mary's Islington, an historic Evangelical church in the Diocese of London, and served for 9 years.

Kings chaired the historic Salisbury-Sudan link and visited South Sudan three times, writing a series of Guardian articles about the country.

This involved resigning from the see of Sherborne and was an innovative post created by the partnership of the Archbishop, the Church Mission Society and Durham University.

[7] In October 2016 he lectured at the Pontifical Urban University, Rome, on ‘Evangelical-Roman Dialogue on Mission, 1977–1984.’ Kings and his wife lived in Bermondsey and he had a research desk at Lambeth Palace Library.

In 1991, Benson Ndaka carved the six mahogany door panels, and one relief sculpture of African Christian Theology, for the library of St Andrew's College, Kabare.

In 2003, Jonathan Clarke sculpted ‘Christ Blessing the Children’, a lectern for St Mary Islington, and in 2009 ‘Sign’ for Queen Elizabeth School, Wimborne, Dorset.