I’m CSPC Women’s Ministry Associate Kerry Myers, and this is how I’m living deeply.

“I made the decision to follow Christ when I was 16, but still floundered a lot. Yes, I had a Bible, but didn’t really know what to do with it, I didn’t know how to pray out loud, and that was just scratching the surface of my spiritual immaturity. I needed help! The help came during my college years at Texas Tech, where I became friends with some girls involved in Campus Crusade for Christ –now Cru- and they just poured into me. Through them, I became part of a Bible study for the first time. But what was even more instrumental was the Bible study leader, a woman named Stella, investing in me one on one. I would meet with her once a week, and that was where things got even deeper because of her intentional questions. She just pressed into the hard places. For example, I was dating a non-believer at the time- she pressed into that. Nobody had asked me point-blank questions like that before and then genuinely cared about me enough to point me in the right direction, to even say, ‘These are some destructive habits you have.’ It changed my life because somebody took the time to care. Some years later, God brought another friend named Chrisy into my life. She has walked through some very difficult times with me – times when I would’ve been tempted to give up- and pointed me back to Christ. She still pursues me today and challenges me in my walk with God. Everyone needs a Stella or Chrisy in their life. Everyone needs someone to believe in them, to call out goodness, and to show them the way of Jesus. So ever since college –about 30 years ago in Lubbock, Texas- it’s been part of the fabric of who I am to have that eye for another person and invest in somebody. That was where the Lord started planting that seed of just how important it is for women to be involved in each others’ lives and for the older to teach the younger. My first step in living that out practically was to go on staff with Cru.

I met my first husband, who also worked for Cru, during staff training. We were placed at UT-Chattanooga for five years and then here at UT for a year. Then we left Cru for different careers, but I never stopped pursuing discipleship opportunities with other women. I’d been introduced to a model for doing that at Cru, and just kept reproducing it. Eventually I became part of the admin staff at another local church- did a lot in women’s ministry there, a lot with the college group. It got to the point in 2010 where my husband and I were about to step into a leadership role at our church, leading a missional ministry on the UT campus, which I was thrilled about- that had been my prayer. But during the training process, some issues in our marriage came to light that ruled us out from that ministry opportunity. We worked on our marriage, but it ended up in divorce. So it was the death of a marriage, but also, for me, very much the death of a dream in ministry- a ministry I felt God had called me to. Suddenly I felt disqualified from ministry in a lot of ways. I took some time off for a couple years and didn’t really pursue ministering to women for a while. (That was wise. Our sons were young and needed my deep investment during the transition.) But I eventually remarried, and it was through this relationship that God drew me back. Craig championed my heart for investing in women. He attended CSPC and was involved with Young Life (YL), so I became a part of both. Emily Huck, a CSPC member also on staff with YL, caught wind of my heart for discipleship. So she contacted me, and I agreed to meet with girls one on one. I started meeting weekly with one or two, and it just kept growing. By my eighth year, I was meeting one on one with six girls. But the YL team had heard from dozens more who were interested- more than I could take on. Emily asked if I had other friends who might be interested in serving as mentors, so I found a couple women who were willing. But soon after they started, they were contacting me, asking, ‘How do we do this?’ So that was when the Lord started moving me to ask: How can I raise up more women to go out and disciple these girls?

I knew of Steph Schneider through YL connections and mutual friends, but didn’t know her well A couple years ago, not long after Steph became CSPC’s director of women’s ministries, she reached out to ask if we could have coffee. So we did, and spent a lot of that conversation talking about my heart for discipleship. A week later, I got an email from her asking if I would consider coming on staff to serve in an admin capacity for the women’s ministry. Immediately in my spirit, I was like, ‘No thanks.’ My heart is for discipleship. I thought I should at least pray about it, though, and I contacted her to ask a few questions. She assured me, ‘I know your heart for discipleship, and I have a plan for that.’ Maybe this was where the Lord was leading me after all. I just had to trust that if I took the position, discipleship would somehow be a piece of my job. I’m glad I did! Almost a year after accepting the position, we decided to launch a Cultivate Mentoring pilot program for interested women. The response was amazing. We had maybe 60 chairs set up at the kickoff  meeting, but there weren’t enough seats! We ended up with 101 women in this pilot program: 18 groups, 36 mentors, 65 mentees. Each group of six (two mentors, four mentees) meets as a small group once a month. And every month, each mentor also meets individually, one on one, with two of the mentees. We kicked off late summer, and to see what God has done in those groups is inspiring. I just met with one mentee who was telling me her excitement at what the Lord had done- how her mentor has poured into her and loved her well, walked her through things, and pointed her to Scripture. It’s exciting to hear what she and other mentees are getting: someone a few steps or more ahead of them leading them to Christ. And now this particular mentee has a heart to reach others and share this with somebody. That’s what makes Cultivate Mentoring different: It’s women who are receiving something, then passing the baton. They’re not just holding this gift that they have- they want to share it with someone. It warms my heart because it’s evidence the program is doing what it was intended to do.

God has really been using my involvement in Cultivate Mentoring to stretch me. I can still have the idea in the back of my mind that I’m disqualified or don’t have what it takes. For instance, I’m not a great upfront speaker – I don’t think that’s my gift- but Steph has really challenged me to lead our two collectives, where all the mentors and mentees came together for a time of encouragement and equipping. And the Lord is growing me in that area of leading a team, getting up in front of women. I always say I’m put on this earth to make other people feel better about themselves, so someone could say, ‘If she can do it, anybody can do it.’ (Steph sees things I don’t see about myself and has been so good to call them out and believe in me!)  I really feel like God is also showing me how to articulate what discipleship is. Simply put, a disciple is a learner. Cultivate is simply the soil where women can grow in their knowledge of who God is and His call on their lives. Finally, I think He’s growing me in trust. If I am trusting the Lord -that He was moving me to train women to do this because I can’t do it on this scale by myself- then I need to follow Him in that and trust Him to do the work. As God grows me in all these ways, I’m seeing the rekindling of a dream I once thought had died. The dream isn’t necessarily that Cultivate Mentoring grows exponentially as a program, but that the impact grows exponentially out into the world. If people continue to catch the vision, we could reach Knoxville for Christ- every woman could be pursued. That’s the dream, the vision: to have each woman in a soil where she can grow, and to see that life change passed along and multiplied. One passage that’s served as an inspiration for Cultivate Mentoring is Isaiah 61:1-3. As we help the blind to see, the broken hearted to heal, etc., the vision is that we would be called oaks of righteousness. What a beautiful picture for Cultivate: of being this oak that has sturdy roots so it’s not just staying within itself, but branching out and reproducing.”

NOTE- To register for Cultivate Mentoring, you can email Kerry at kerrymyers@cspc.net.