The Plan Unveiled

Dear Friend,

I began this blog a while ago to get myself in the habit of keeping this going. I began this with the purpose of keeping my friends who are scattered around the country up-to-date with what is happening with my ministry over the summer. Today I had a very important meeting and nailed down a lot. This is the rough plan for the next three months.

This summer, to give a bit of background, I will be working at the First United Methodist Church in Warren, OH. This is not my home church; in fact, I had never been there or met the pastor until Christmas break when a friend told me that Pastor Rick was interested in bringing me on. So I met with him, and within two hours, we both felt that God wanted me at FUMC.

The plan for this summer is to work with the youth of the church. Youth Group, which normally meets on Sunday nights, does not meet during the summer; this is common practice around here. Because I need a springboard for the rest of my ministry, on June 8th I will start teaching a class for Jr. and Sr. High tentatively titled "The Life That is Christian." I will not take any credit for a lot of the material because it was created by Mike Merry and Junior Ziegler for the youth ministries at DesPlaines Bible Church,

Using this class as a springboard, I will try to get a small group for the 9th-12th grade guys going. It will by no means be large; the youth group right now is about 10 or less students. If God sends two or three guys, that will be ideal and meet my expectations. I have yet to decide where to go with the small group, but I do plan to use a variant of a Life Transformation Group found in Neil Cole's Cultivating a Life for God.

During this time, I hope to get to a point where I can casually hang out with the students. Go to a movie. Grab some dinner. Play video games at their house. My goal here is not to be a good Bible teacher, but to be a good friend and maybe even a mentor. A longer-term thought is starting an improv acting group and doing a dinner for the church with a few skits, maybe a student's testimony, etc.

I will also be meeting with the Sr. Pastor for a mentoring time of some sort, and going with him to a meeting of pastors on Tuesday mornings at the area mission. About 20 pastors gather to pray for revival, and I am really looking forward to this time.

On the side, I will be working at an insurance office, as an "office manager." I take this term to be a politically correct and masculine term for "secretary."

While there is a lot of gray, I think that God will work out details later. My main focus is developing my curriculum, which will definitely be a fluid process as I get to know the students better in the next few weeks.

Another important part of this blog is so I can share prayer requests. Here are some now:

1) That God would show me what He wants the students to hear and learn in the Sunday School class, as well as small group times, etc. Pray that He would guide my decision making process in this and give me the passages to use.

2) Pray that the students would be open to me. I really would like to build meaningful relationships this summer. I understand that this doesn't happen quickly, but I hope to get a chance to dig into life with these students. Pray also, more importantly, that they would be open to the Spirit's work in their lives presently as well as in the future.

3) Pray for a Timothy. I am really hoping to find and older guy and really get the chance to specifically pour into him. Pray that God would show me who this student is supposed to be, as well as how to best live life with him.

4) Time management and discipline. In addition to doing ministry and having a job, I will be taking a correspondence course over the summer as well as trying to do a whole lot of reading. Not to mention spending time with family and friends. AND my mom will be getting married on July 13th. The business is smacking me in the face.

5) A good friend and I have been writing back and forth about religion. When he comes home, I am interested to see the direction these conversations go. Pray that God would open his heart and mind, as well as give me the right attitude and words to speak with him. Pray for God to bring him home.

Thank you for your prayers and support this summer. Please keep reading as I will try to update with frequency.

In Abba's Embrace,

Kyle
Zeph. 3:17