We will seek to create regular spiritual rhythms as a community and as individuals to help each fellow flourish. This will be tailored to each group, but will include…

• Prayer/Meditation and Presence - We will seek regular individual and community interaction with the divine.

• Thoughtful Study - We will explore our cultures and our world through the faithful lens of the bible*.

• Humble Collaboration - Each participant will be sharing their experiences and learned wisdom to create a pattern of learning from others. This will be reinforced through healthy church and community interaction as we learn to be part of the body.

* Belief in Jesus is not required, but his life and teachings are the primary foundations of our practices and explorations. We welcome all who seek truth and (knowing our foundations) are willing to learn and share their learnings with us. For all real truth must be God’s truth if God exists.

We design the fellowship to foster deep relationships among those involved in the program. Through shared experiences, deep conversations, and intentional life-on-life connection we all learn what it means to have meaningful, lasting community.

This is done through sharing…

• a project to help the local community.

• Meals that we prepare or are prepared for us.

• the joys and sorrows of our lives (current and past).

• Encouraging words for one another alongside hard truths.

• Ideas and hopes for the future.

• The needs we have and the gifts we bring.

Our hope is that you leave the fellows year with a faithful and supportive network upon which a life of flourishing can be built.

Often the hardest person to love is ourselves. In our fellowships we long for each participant to see themselves as God sees them…in love. Not the conditional, easy, self serving love of our cultures and media, but the unconditional, truthful, and generous love of God. Spirituality leads us there. Psychology leads us there. Sociology leads us there. Our hearts lead us there. So let’s go there. Inside our fellowships participants will do this by being invited into community explorations into…

• Mental health topics such as our relationships with time, fear and anxiety, boundaries, etc.

• Cultural topics such as our relationships to technology, our own bodies, our culture of origin, etc.

• Relational topics such as conflict management, forgiveness, non-violent communication, etc.

• Vocational topics such as collaborative and cross silo problem solving, design thinking and collaborative design processes, mentoring, and integrating a wholistic or redemptive work ethic, etc.

Our only requirement is that you bring your questions or your project where you need a breakthrough. It can be related to your…

• Vocation (examples: I am starting my own business or I am feeling burnt out at my current job)

• Spiritual Practices (examples: I am not sure I believe in this or I want to learn more about prayer)

• Relationships (examples: I want to learn to be a better leader or I struggle with feeling included).

• Personal Growth (examples: I struggle with Imposter Syndrome or I cannot say “No”)

Bring this with you and then open yourself to the Divine and others and together we will watch God work. It will not be easy, but it will be good. We are broken and beautiful creatures surrounded by divine love and care.

Collaborating together with humans and the divine is a beautiful dance. Sometimes we dance in the dark and it is hard, but we are not alone. In that darkness we truly learn our dance steps, how to communicate with our fellow dancers, and to lean into the music. Then when the light comes, the beauty is truly seen.

Fellowships will participate in the following…

Monthly Rhythms

Meetings with Rivendell Team to customize your experience, Interviews with local and global discussion leaders, mentorship meetings, curated trips around NZ.

Weekly Rhythms

Community Meals (Fellows only meals and meals with families from the church), Explorations (Spiritural, Health and Wellbeing, Cultural discussions, etc), Service Projects (Church, Community)

Daily Rhythms

Prayer (Individual and Community), Silence/Reflection, Presence with God and Others, Work on individual projects.