After taking a year off to retool the curriculum and think more about how to effectively engage in urban ministry, the Newbigin Fellowship is back. The Newbigin Fellowship is a nine-month program that seeks to provide a theological, spiritual, personal, and relational framework for the wise integration of faith, work, and life. We talk about these concepts regularly at City Church, but participating in the Newbigin Fellowship is a unique way to engage in the intellectual, social, and spiritual needs of the church in an urban setting like San Francisco. You can to read more about the program and apply here—the application deadline is July 15. We talked with Chuck DeGroat, co-founder of the Newbigin Fellowship, about what is new in the Newbigin Fellowship and why this is a great year to apply.
What is the backstory of the Newbigin Fellowship? When and how was it founded?
Scot Sherman and I launched the Newbigin Fellowship in the Fall of 2009. In a transitory city like San Francisco where people are busy, we wondered if a nine-month, immersive, and formational program would attract folks. It did! We had to turn people away. I think this is because urbanites are hungry for deep, thoughtful engagement with their peers and a more clear sense of their vocation in the world. Amidst our loneliness and isolation, the Fellowship draws together thoughtful women and men who long for connection, dialogue, and discernment. We also wanted an experience that shaped women and men to do justice and love mercy in the city, but from a place of groundedness in the great Story and their own soul. I think that our 2.0 curriculum, as I’ve been calling it, will do that in an even more powerful way.
What does the new curriculum for Newbigin Fellows look like? In particular, what changes have you made to the curriculum and what do you hope those changes will accomplish?
When we started the Fellows program, we recognized that good feedback would be essential to growing and improving the program. Perhaps the biggest shift based on the cumulative feedback is an engagement with a much broader spectrum of voices (particularly women and people of color). And so, while the program still aims to be a formative experience in which biblical, theological, cultural, and relational concerns are engaged, my hope is that the new curriculum will represent a much more full spectrum of wise voices. I also hope that our Fellows see in a more clear way in this curriculum that who God is is ultimately revealed in Jesus. Jesus tells us all we need to know about God’s character and commitment to everyone.
How is the Newbigin Fellowship training Christians to better participate in the contemporary urban environments they find themselves in?
I think the Fellowship is particularly suited for urban Christians. In the city, we experience as a sense of fragmentation, loneliness, diversity, and even despair among some. The Fellowship (think Lord of the Rings for a moment) provides a band of sisters and brothers who are on a journey together for the sake of renewing the city. For many outside urban environments, the city is a place that is bad or dirty or crime-ridden or anti-Christian. But the Fellows gain a vision for the city—which, by the way, is the center of the renewed creation!—for its beauty, its influence, its crucial part in God’s Story. Our Fellows wake up to realities of systemic injustice and racism and they gain theological categories for engaging them. They begin asking questions about the purpose of the church (beyond merely being a place to hear a good message and see some friends each week). They gain a clearer sense of their own particular call. I remember one of our Fellows asking great questions about a marketing campaign that seemed to exploit young women at a prominent clothing store where she worked in leadership. The program gave her categories, conviction, and connection to a supportive community who encouraged her to engage the hard conversations.
What is a Newbigin Fellow better-equipped to do after her time as a fellow?
Our Fellows are shaped to live more wisely, relate more lovingly, and participate in God’s mission more effectively. They emerge with new theological and biblical categories which shape their thinking. They emerge with a much clearer sense of their own connection to God and others, and many find that the Fellows program set them on a trajectory for healthier relationships and greater honesty. They get the “bigness” of God’s Story and their place in it, and that gives them a real sense of belonging and purpose in God’s “making all things new” mission to the world. It’s really quite beautiful to see the transformation that has happened in their lives.