Start spreading the news! Meet Kyle Herring

When +Kyle Herring boarded the Amtrak train with his peers from the Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM) at UGA for a spring break mission trip in March of 2012 he had no idea how much this trip would change the direction of his life. Kyle had never ridden a train nor been to the Big Apple before, so this trip to NYC was fraught with adventure! For me it was one of those wonderful occasions as a collegiate minister when I knew God was at work in Kyle's life in an almost miraculous way. Each day was revelatory to Kyle. The summer before Kyle heard a sermon at First Baptist Watkinsville, where he attended while at school, where the speaker talked about the great need for more Christians with an evangelistic heart to move to New York city. He began to pray for the city, thinking that he would be a prayer warrior and nothing more. When he heard about the spring break trip with BCM he was amazed that he would actually be able to go and prayer walk the city and perhaps, be able to help to make a difference in person. Meanwhile, Kyle began to hear more and more about church planting efforts and needs. The idea began to tug at his heart. He knew nothing about church planting. He was a musician, leading our worship band at BCM, majoring in finance at UGA, looking for a career in the business world.

He boarded the north bound train full of excitement. Each day brought about new ideas of how, perhaps, God might want him to move to New York after graduation. Perhaps to work on Wall Street? He had met some folks who said they could help him get an internship. Then he met some church planters. Somehow they heard of Kyle's two new interests - church planting and NYC - and they began to talk with him about possibilities for the future. The team Kyle was placed on for the week visited Queens - Astoria more specifically. Kyle fell in love with the people, the town, and more specifically with two church planters who were there to start Connection Church.

Kyle had only shared what was going on with him with a few folks, and few knew all of the details. As a result, after each new development, he and I would share knowing looks and smile. Eventually it became quite funny. It was as if this whole trip was just for him. It became fun watching to see what would happen next! Kyle boarded the train back to Atlanta believing that in a few short months he would probably be moving to NYC, at least for a few months.

That was almost a year ago. Kyle is now living in NYC, leading music at the Connection Church in Astoria, helping reach the city for Jesus. He is also helping to start campus ministry at a small college near the church. But that's not the end of it. As a finance major Kyle is putting his education to use helping with bookkeeping for the Baptist Association where he lives. He was just accepted as a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that has an extension branch in the association building.

I love catching up with Kyle via cell phone. Usually he calls after grabbing a cup of coffee and heading down to walk along the Hudson River just down from the associational office. It's cool to see how God is putting the pieces together of Kyle's life; intersecting Kyle with the needs of NYC - with a young church that needed a musician to help with worship, with a campus with no existing Christian group, with a need for expertise in finance, and with someone else to drink coffee and love on the people in the largest city in our nation. I can't wait for the next part of his story!

If you are in NYC, check out Connection Church!

You can listen to and buy music from Kyle's album on Reverbnation or iTunes. You can also follow him on Twitter (@herringkyle) and Facebook. Most of all, pray for Kyle and the work that he is doing each day!