By Max Undeland
NOTE: Welcome back to our blog! As with previous years, you will be hearing from the members of this year's Capital Fellows class each week. They will be sharing some of what they are learning and other experiences along their way in the program. Our hope is that this blog amuses, inspires, and encourages you along your way. -- John W. Kyle, Director of the Capital Fellows Program
Welcome to Season Sweet Sixteen of Capital Fellows! I hope we aren’t the ones to “jump the shark.” I have the honor and pressure of ringing in the Fellows new year with this blog. (As I write this, members of Capital Fellows Season Fifteen are spamming our group text with us baby fellows included. I’m really feeling the love.)
First, I want to bring us back to the foot of the cross. Stop what you are doing and say this prayer with me: “He took my place. No amount of success or failure will lead me away from His work on Calvary. I am saved, justified, and redeemed because of Him. Nothing will take me away from the love of Christ.” I have needed to remind myself of this while I start a new chapter of my life.
As Capital Fellows, we had the most amazing and daunting opportunity: to build a community out of nothing but a bunch of random 20-somethings in a room with the “Box of Awkward.” Truly though, I have never experienced this kind of intentional community that began at the Kickoff Retreat. I said to John Kyle on the first night, “Is this real? I’ve hoped that Christian community could look like this.” That it could look like total strangers being vulnerable enough to share the deep struggles of their lives; that community could be forgetting a name on the first day, then turning into knowing how Christ redeemed that beautiful soul that stood before me, the next.
Whether you feel it as we bright eyed and bushy tailed season Sixteen-ers do or not, we face a crossroads everyday of our lives. We are called to set our minds on the things of heaven in the face of the almost-irresistible pull of the world. Even with the best of intentions at the beginning of an exciting new chapter, we are doomed to fail if we try to do this alone. We are fully dependent on Christ’s spirit in us to pull us through. More than that, to lead us to everlasting life.
As we begin a new season of Capital Fellows and of our lives, I speak for all of Season Sixteen when I say that we are grateful. We are grateful for the prayers and support of our families, friends, and our new community that has been forged. Ultimately though, we are debtors to the One who promises to never let us go. No matter what happens in these next nine months and beyond, down the straight and narrow path of life, He designed it after all.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. -- Romans 8:37-39
Pictures from the Week
How does Season 16 feel about all of this reading?
We're called the Capital Fellows for a reason!
Stephen "totally photobombed" the girls' selfie
Max and Stephen bonding on the National Mall!
Know a Potential Capital Fellow?
Even though Capital Fellows Season Sixteen has just begun, we are actively building Season Seventeen! If you know a college senior or recent graduate that would benefit from this program, please let them know about our upcoming informational webinars. About Capital Fellows. Capital Fellows is an advanced leadership and discipleship program for recent college graduates. Through graduate courses, a paid internship, one-on-one mentoring and many leadership and community service opportunities, fellows develop and apply their gifts in real-world situations while learning to integrate a Christian worldview into all areas of life. Capital Fellows is a unique opportunity to live and work in the Washington DC area and to be an active member of a supportive community that seeks to serve the city with the love of Christ. It is also a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in the workplace while deeply exploring God’s design for us as workers and contributors to human flourishing.
Pray for the Capital Fellows
Thank you for praying for the Capital Fellows each week!
Please pray that the new fellows would continue settling into their jobs and with their host families. Their seminary classes will be starting this week along with Life and Leadership, an important time with some of our pastoral staff. Please pray for the fellows as the find a healthy cadence in each of the elements of the program.
Want to pray for the Capital Fellows in an ongoing way? Download this handy prayer guide for your phone or tablet.
About The Fellows Initiative
Capital Fellows is part of a network of similar programs across the country. This network is called The Fellows Initiative. There are 34 Fellows programs in TFI, roughly 3,000 alumni living around the world, and more Fellows programs on the way.
If you know a church in the US or Canada that would benefit from joining TFI by launching a new Fellows program. Please contact TFI by visiting their website.
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