Local Focus by Kevin Underwood

“What? We are going on a mission trip to where?!”

I remember those exact thoughts when I learned that our Fellows class was headed to my home state for a week-long mission trip. In fact, I probably laughed out loud. However, when our feet hit the ground in Chattanooga and I saw where we would spend the next several days, my opinion changed.

I knew that we didn’t have to go a third-world country across the globe to do a “missions trip”, but Chattanooga made it tangible. I never knew that I could be so oblivious to circumstances so close to home. This trip opened my eyes and filled with memories that I will never forget. We helped fix a house and move one of the ministry’s neighbors. We volunteered at a local afterschool program, put on a skit, and played a lot of basketball. And we worshipped with community members and heard their testimonies.

I lived overseas for over a year after college, and I am passionate about missions abroad. However, I believe now that we must be focused locally to impact our own communities. We do not have to look outside our own home, neighborhood, workplace, church, or schools to see the desperate need for Christ. My time in Chattanooga as a Fellow will always impact how I see my faith integrating with my daily life. 

Too Beautiful to Be an Accident by Marie Fata

Marie Fata is a new Charlotte Fellow alumnus, finishing the program just last month. Enjoy her reflections on the year from the speech she gave at the graduation ceremony.

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Of all the words I could use to describe the Fellows Program, “easy” is not one of them. Some of us ran across the finish line, while the rest of us army crawled our way to the end. Nevertheless, the 2017-2018 Charlotte Fellows graduated. While we are at the crossroads of planting roots and venturing into adulthood, we cannot overlook those who made a way for us this year, and more importantly, who showed us how to start well.

To our parents: thank you for supporting us through this year. Especially thank you for accepting our tears and frustrations as a currency of our communication on some days. When that happens, what we really mean is “thank you and I love you.”

To our host parents: you exposed to us a level of hospitality that we never knew existed. You volunteered a year of your life to take in a complete stranger and adopt them into your family. You provided a place where we could come and rest our hearts and minds at the end of a long day and offered a listening ear and practical life advice when we need it. You invited us into your daily lives, allowing us to see the mess and the beauty of family. Thank you.

To our workplace internships: I had the pleasure of being an intern at Brookstone Schools this year, the place where we all volunteered every Monday morning. Speaking for all of us, we were greatly impacted by our places of work. You not only poured into us professionally, but took to get to know our personal lives as well.  Many of us were lucky enough not only to advance new skills, but also to be led by instrumental people. Thank you for your time and effort in helping us grow as we set out for the next place the Lord calls us.

To our mentors: thank you for greeting us with so much love and compassion on a weekly basis. I would argue that we all need a rock to lean on in a new world. I think we should consider ourselves lucky if we can identify at least one person who helps balance our world. Post-graduate life is a noticeably friendlier adventure when someone surrounds you in prayer and voluntarily steps into the trenches of life with you. My mentor, Erin McClain, was that rock in a new world for me. She showed me how to see the best of myself in the midst of this marred life and celebrate it. How incredible is it that we were given people this year who don’t shy away from our pain or shrink from our emotions? Instead, they pull up a chair and offer hope for us when we are unsure about the future.

To our Director, Connice: I am not sure we could say thank you enough to make up for all you did for us this year. From driving us up and down the southeast side of the country for many hours in a tight space, to handling our multiple personalities and dance parties on a daily basis, we are forever grateful. Being an all-girls group this year, there is no way we were easy. And though I write that to be funny, it’s true. We are a weird group of girls, but you always cared for us with grace, patience, and love. Thank you for opening up your household to us weekly, allowing us to feel like we are at home when we are there. This was a transitional year for all of us, but you and Bob made it easier. You acted as a second mother to all of us and took us in like your own. You put in an immense effort into helping us start well by taking time out of every week to prepare and organize for our success when we leave the program. Your insight and guidance throughout the year was nothing short of helpful, leaving us with truth that will carry on long after this time.

Finally, the Fellows: I’m better for knowing each of you, and I will tell you why. At the beginning of our Fellows program, a man named Richard came to speak to us at roundtable. He talked about the miracles that Jesus performed in his life and the ways that the Lord provided for him. One of his stories recalled an instance where he prayed for financial help in a troubling time for him and his family. The next morning, he was greeted with money on his doorstep – the exact amount of money that was needed to lift him and his family of their financial burden. To be honest, I had a difficult time accepting Rich’s story because I never saw God execute His miracles that way for me. It reminded me of a book I read this past summer.

The book was about what it looked like to “meet Jesus”. I remember finding the book captivating because I loved hearing other people’s testimony of their beautiful encounters with our Heavenly Father. Yet, through reading that book, I developed a fear that God was holding out on me. I doubted if He was even present in my wandering heart.

But then I came to Charlotte. And I quickly realized that if I wanted to “meet Jesus,” then I had to get closer to the people He created. I am pretty sure His plan for us all along is to meet His people and feel like we met Him. In this regard, I met God almost every day. Charlotte Fellows, you are the answered prayer that showed up on my doorstep.

This year unveiled a lot of things. We climbed to the mountaintops and walked through the valleys; we commended each other; we embraced this season together. As difficult as times were throughout the year, we have received much more in return.

The days were long, but the year felt short. Now we’re here. We reached the end. With the love, support, and encouragement given to us through the Charlotte Fellows program, we did it. Before entering the program, I wondered if I made a mistake choosing to pack up my bags and move 11 hours away from my quaint Michigan home, all of which felt safe, familiar, and comfortable. But here on the other side, I realize that accidents don’t happen as beautiful as this.

Does the Gospel Matter at Work?

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!

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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

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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

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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

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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.

A New Year, An Old Truth

Growing up, I watched cartoons every Saturday morning. My favorite was The Jetsons. With a flying car and a robot to do everything, it seemed like they had the good life on demand. At the time, 2018 was a lifetime away, and yet, here we are with more robots than we realize and our needs met at the touch of a button.

From The Jetsons to the twenty-first century, our lives and professions have advanced at an alarming rate. Yet one aspect of our daily lives remains unchanged. We may be living in “the future”, but our human nature has remained unchanged. We are still broken and searching, in need of that one thing that makes our lives free, purposeful, and more abundant―relationships.

And the ultimate relationship we were made for is the one with our Creator God.

All the artificial intelligence, the most brilliant computers, and our advanced knowledge will never discover another way to know God or experience grace than through a relationship with Jesus. The words of the apostle John are still true: "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life.” (I Jn 5:12)

“We must cling to the truth when the world around us screams loudly in our ears.”

As we go into the second half of our Fellows year, we will be tempted to believe the lie that life can be found in the perfect job, the best relationship, or that instagramable apartment―not in the Creator God. We must cling to the truth when the world around us screams loudly in our ears. Jesus did the same when he was tempted in the desert in the Gospel of Matthew. (Mt 4:1-17)

Using God’s truth to navigate this world is not very “Jetson-like". It’s not robotic, or computer generated, or in video form. It doesn’t follow a checklist. It comes to us in the form of a relationship with Jesus, the Living Word. So if you want to know how to pray for the Fellows and myself in the upcoming months, pray God’s Word over us. Pray God’s Word for us.

We have several full months ahead of us. Pray with us as we walk into the second half of our program:

1. We have our Highlands Ability Battery weekend coming up in early February. Pray for insight into each Fellow’s individual gifts and passions.

2. We head to Chattanooga to volunteer with Hope for the Inner City at end of February.

3. The Fellows continue with professional development seminars, Roundtable discussions with members of the community, and investments in their church placement.

4. The Board and I are interviewing and putting together next year’s class. It’s going to be a busy Spring!

Want to learn more about the Fellows program in Charlotte or get involved? Reach out! I’d love to grab coffee and chat.

Thank you to all of you who pray and support us in so many ways. We are very thankful! As Paul David Tripp says, “We have not been left to secure our own future because God is grace has secured an end to our story more glorious than we can grasp.”

In Grace,

Connice