Who Are 'The Fellows?'

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I have snuck in. So yes, I'm Mike Gatton, currently the director for the Piedmont Fellows. And so we've got Naomi, Leah, Ben, and Justin here with us. And it's a group of recent college graduates who have relocated here to the Triad area to work, to worship, to serve, and to learn intentionally over a 10-month period to help set them up to serve and honor Christ for the rest of their life and career. And at the end of the 10-month period, the very last place you bring them is the Truth Network.

So I don't know if that's good or bad. It's like, well, can't get any worse than down there. But we're so glad you're here. And you know, it's interesting, honestly, I wouldn't have let you guys anywhere near this place, you know, 20 years ago when we were first starting because I'm thinking, hey, who needs the next generation?

Man, they're just annoying and they think they know everything. Now, I wish you guys would come back every day because there's a need, isn't there, Mike? You're still young yourself, but there's a need for us to get these folks equipped and empowered and encouraged and discipled because they really are world changers, huh? Absolutely.

Yeah. I mean, everybody's going to be a leader. It's just, what kind of leader are you going to be? And so we want to put other Christ followers who love the Lord, who have experience and wisdom in their lives so that they can witness it, model it after them. So we got Naomi, Leah, Ben, Jocelyn, and we've got a bunch of our Truth team in here as well that are part of this great thing.

Caitlin, our social media superstar. We've got Kobe, our awesome Truth Warrior intern, Dave Compton, one of our veteran Truth Network friends and DJs, managers. He does it all. He preaches, he sings, great man of God. We've got one of our Truth Radio partners who just walked out the room to fill an order for Bibles, D. White, Gullion, Gullion's Christian Supply. Mike, what is the nature of all these meetings? I mean, one night they might be in the living room of a missionary having Bible study. The next night they might be at a bank talking to a Christian banker about how they have devotions every morning. What about the diversity of these people we're facing? Then each of you is going to tell us about your favorite fellows experience.

We're going to put you on the spot. So I want them first to know that they were designed and made to work. That is how God has created us, and there's dignity in all of work. There's not just one special segment that is glorifying to the Lord, that it's all honoring to the Lord. And so for them to see different folks in different areas, and we'll talk about vocation and calling, not just where you work, but the calling and how you serve, how you lead your home, the way that you learn, all these things are where you're placed, where you're called. And so to show them as many people who are honoring the Lord in as many different spaces so that they can say, you know what, I could see myself doing that one day. I want to be like this person. So that's really what we're after.

That's tremendous. The ministry is called the Fellows. It's almost like a semi-GAAP year program that takes college graduates, young people on their way into their career thinking, hey, wait a second, maybe I could hang around and get mentored a little bit. And while we're figuring out what to do, let's jump into some real life kingdom work and actually get paid to do a job, but then go and hang out at places like the Truth Network and learn and meet and see and tour and sponge it all in. So let's start with Naomi. Naomi, what's been your favorite part about your time here with the Fellows? And I'm going to hand you the mic and then we can just kind of go around. And if you get kind of stage right or something, or you don't have something that pops into your heart or mind, keep passing the mic.

Okay, here we go. Hi, so I'm Naomi and two things come to mind when I think about what I've gotten out of the Fellows program. The first is the importance of being in a Christian community and living alongside other believers and not relying on yourself for everything and realizing that God created us for community. And that's something that I've experienced in this program, being in the church, Friendly Hills Church, and then having a host family and a mentor and all of those kinds of things. The second has to do with work. So the program focuses a lot on living out your faith in your work. And as a biochemistry major, I of course thought I was going to be a doctor.

And I've changed my mind since then. And so one thing that I've really learned from this program is that you can do God's kingdom work anywhere and in any kind of job in any kind of capacity. There's a line from a hymn I was telling someone the other day keeps coming to mind and it is content to fill a little space if God be glorified. And so that's just something that has been on my mind and heart a lot this year in the Fellows program.

So I'm Leah. Something that I've really been learning throughout the Fellows program is that the mentoring piece is huge, really. If you're not living in community with other Christian believers, then it's, like Naomi said, hard to get that advice when you need it.

Even like, so coming out of college, a lot of people lose their faith just because they don't have a solid Christian home church that they are around all the time. So really having the program to give you that in into a church, they have you help out with service in the church, give you a mentor and host family, all of those kind of, I don't know, give you that built-in mentoring opportunity where you can be mentored, but then also you can mentor other younger people as well. So that's been really an important piece that I've learned from the program and definitely hope to continue even after graduation. Hello, my name is Justin and my two favorite part of the program is definitely one of them is speakers and the mentorship that the program has provided. So the speaker, because of the Truth Network has provided us pizza and the tour and show us about all the great equipment and stuff they've used, it's definitely my top best speaker in this program. Let's give that a hand. All right.

Yeah. But definitely not only the Truth Network speaker, but also speakers from all the way back in August where they've shared their testimony, they've shared their stories, their life experiences, their spiritual journey as well, Walking with Christ, and they share all this tons of information and tips and tricks from the industry that they've been in. There are some speakers who are from the network industry, from the technological sector, from manufacturing industry, so many more that Mike, the director, has brilliantly introduced them to us. And the second part is the mentorship. So currently my mentor is a financial software programmer where he develops apps for risk analysis purposes. And he has shared to me how to A, build the programs and also how he has met Christ in his journey and how he has elaborated and teach me some of his lessons that he's encountered. And actually, Justin has actually found an opportunity in the workplace, in the marketplace to be a marketplace minister and to work and earn a good wage and be a witness for Christ through the Fellows program in this process.

So what an encouragement. We've got some other people in the room like our special Truth Warrior intern, Colby, who had a great question earlier. Colby, I want to put you on the spot and maybe you can ask this question and whoever raises their hand will take the answer. Okay. So your Fellows appointment is coming to an end relatively soon. So where are y'all going next? What is your next?

Maybe that's a job location or anything like that. So really what's your next? Yes. So I am planning on going to grad school for either clinical psychology or counseling psychology. In the meantime, I will be moving back home to Oregon and just working for a year to get more work experience before I start a grad school program. So after the program, I'll be working the same job. My company has offered me a full time position as an e-commerce specialist.

They are currently working towards my visa so I can stay in America longer. Yes. So this is Truth Talk. I'm Stu with a half a mouth full of pizza here. A couple of our other team members here. Dave Compton, you've been in radio a long time.

One of the few people that may have been in radio a little longer than me, but that depends on if you count those years that I was still in my mom's tummy going to radio stations with her and dad. Dave, what's it like to see these young people in here? Part of the Fellows program that we're interviewing today. Learning about the Lord and really, really intentionally thinking about the Lord.

And I'm going to be talking about the Lord and really, really intentionally thinking about reaching the world for Christ. Well, I'm sitting here in total awe, Stu, because I've been encouraged just by being around these young professionals, young Christian professionals. I mean, they have the right insight to where they're going. They've got goals and they've got a plan. They've also got the Lord Christ in their heart.

That's going to just take them further down the road with their profession. So, I'm encouraged today. Anyone else want to share anything about this? Okay, Dwight Goin, Christian bookstore owner, entrepreneur, loves Jesus, has eight kids with amazing names.

He's been on our show before, Sponsored Truth Network. Dwight, your thoughts, your word on this. You're equipping a lot of parents with homeschool material. Thousands of people come to your stores for homeschool material, but what are your thoughts? That's a big part of our mission is trying to equip young people for the life that's coming, for whatever career they're going to go into. It's a different focus than what the Fellows Program has, but it is a great encouragement to see these young people that are open in their testimony for the Lord and are about to move into the workplace and into ministry and into trying to shine that light, like Brother Dave says, into this world that's a whole lot of darkness and needs some light shined into it.

So, it's been an encouragement to me today as well. And our mission at Truth Network is, we're going to talk about that in a second after we say goodbye to all our awesome listeners listening to Truth Talk. I'm Stu Everson interviewing the Fellows, young people that are here being equipped in a 10-month program. They graduate soon to change the world for Christ through ministry, through workplace, through missions, however God's gifted them.

We have a violinist in here. We have some trilingual people in here from the other side of the pond, and that's our challenge for you. We're blessing them with some books on missions because we really want to think about the 2.5 billion people on planet earth who've never heard about Jesus.

We're all getting older here. Guys like me, we need the young people to be passionate about reaching them, so we want to serve and pour into you guys as much as we can, like Mike has been doing and Ned and all the folks that are part of this Fellows Program. What's the takeaway? How do you want to leave our listeners with a challenge and also give us the website of the ministry? So we're actually a part of a national network called the Fellows Initiative, and so there's about 30 programs across the country, so thefellowsinitiative.org.

I would encourage you to visit there, and there's other amazing work like what we're doing across the country. One takeaway is that God has designed you in his own image as a creator to work, and there's dignity in everything that you do, and so I would say whatever it is that you find yourself doing, do it unto the Lord, and that in and of itself is a ministry. There's still certainly a need that we need to verbally proclaim the gospel, but don't diminish everything that the Lord set before you.

What a great way to proclaim the gospel then as a biochemist or as a medical assistant or someone working in administration or someone doing whatever God's gifted you to do, finance and econ and IT and code writing, so what a blessing. Thank you all for being here. I guess we could say the Fellows on three as loud as we can, like as a little cheer to say goodbye to all our listeners, okay?

One, two, three, here we go. The Fellows. All right, get involved. Be a mentor to someone. Be an encouragement.

You see a young person out there. Love on them. Buy them a piece of pizza. Buy them a milkshake. Hang out with them. Quit trying to fix people. Just be their friend, and let's introduce them to the ultimate fixer. His name is Jesus Christ. God bless you. This is the Truth Network.