An Unexpected Journey: My Experience with the CSLI Fellows

CSLI Fellows’ Programme came to me unexpectedly and serendipitously, without my actively looking for it. Discipleship was a concept I had been exploring in various ways over the previous few years. Having this exploration taken forward in a structured and considered Programme provided me with a good place to be. The varied format of the programme with large lectures, smaller groups, triads and individual mentoring was helpful in learning, understanding and incorporating each month’s topic. Here, is a specific word of thanks to the other members of my triad and mentor for their patience, support and guidance. Looking back, the Fellows’ Programme has been good in too many ways to elaborate on here! So, a list will have to suffice - new ideas to be grappled with; familiar ideas to be confirmed or re-fashioned; reading materials, I sense carefully curated, some from writers well known to me and some not; and interacting with other Christians (Fellows, mentors, Inklings and speakers). From a wider view, having input from the USA was good. From a parochial view, it was good to hear speakers from Northern Ireland more than ‘hold their own’! On a number of occasions throughout the year, events in my life have presented themselves and, in doing so, have given richness to the content of the Programme and have helped nudge my learning from the theoretical in the direction of the practical. I’m sure, in a way that I would struggle to explain to my satisfaction, this relates to the prayers of my mentor, prayer partners and the faithful group of Board members and mentors who gathered regularly to pray for the Programme and Fellows. Thank you to them all. To conclude, a final thanks to all of who have conceived and developed the CSLI Fellows Programme through the years, and especially to Royce and Susan for bringing it to Belfast, and to Stuart and the Board for carrying that forward.