We are almost filled up on spots for women for the 2018-2019 year, and we are looking for more men to experience the Charlotte Fellows program! To focus in on our male applicants, we asked three men connected with the Fellows program how they have been transformed by the Gospel in their work. Enjoy!
When we see our lives and capabilities as gifts, we are freed to give them back and serve. The Fellows Program helped me see this and just how much the Gospel enables me to care and work for my community. To do this, I have to recognize the gifts that I have to offer and then understand the community’s needs.
Having now spent time in the secular workforce, I’ve found that it's all too easy to get swept away by the money-making power of the marketplace and instead pursue my own dreams and ambitions. Keeping the Gospel at the forefront of my mind allows me to remember Christ’s grace when sinful longings arise and gives me the desire to look outside myself, the desire to serve others where God places me.
Bobby MacNaughton
Land Acquisition and Development at LGI Homes
Charlotte Fellow ‘15
When I moved to Charlotte from New York in January 2017, I felt called and challenged by the Lord to start my own investment and small business advisory firm. Everyone, including my family and closest friends, had a lot of questions about my business plan, potential advisory clients, and future investments. I had very few answers, but I knew God had given me specific gifts to connect with others, analyze a wide range of investments, and advise leaders on ways to grow their businesses. I just had to step out and trust Him.
The biggest area of growth for me was learning to trust Him fully in the results and outcomes of my time and work. This happened particularly when a number of perceived good investment opportunities did not pan out. In many cases, He is teaching me the value of patience, surrender, and joy in Him versus the temporary satisfaction of finding a deal or closing one. Other times, He saves me from bad deals or partnerships. God’s word gives me peace in this work journey as it says in Ephesians 2: “We are God’s handiwork." God has a plan for our work that he has prepared in advance for us to do.
Matt Hultquist
Founder of Hillandale Advisors, Charlotte
Member at Hope Community Church
Through the Fellows program, I interned at Brookstone Schools as their IT support. After the program ended, my boss offered me to come on full-time as the first afterschool manager and build out their afterschool programming from the ground up. It has been one of the hardest tasks that I have faced. The job had so much visibility and potential for public error. I had never realized how I had centered my life around hiding my faults and presenting a good face. There was no place to hide. Either I had to carry the weight of burying my failures or come clean with my mistakes and move past them. “Walk face forward into your failure” was the phrase that kept resonating in my head.
The Gospel had already taught me that I needed to come clean with Christ each day and let His grace renew me. My job has become a practice ground to go through those steps in real life and see that grace “happen to me" in the flesh. After a couple years of admitting fault, asking for forgiveness, and receiving grace in the workplace, this practice now flows backwards into my relationship with Christ and allows me to experience His grace in a way that seems far more real.
Eric Maust
Afterschool Manager at Brookstone Schools
Charlotte Fellow ‘16
Are you a young professional looking to reconnect your work with your faith? You can find out next steps for the Charlotte Fellows program by reaching out to our director, Connice Dyar, at connicedyar@mac.com.
You can also reach out to Matt Hultquist at matt@hillandaleadvisors.com or Eric Maust eric.maust@brookstoneschools.org.