Enjoying Diverse Community
In the 2025-26 Fellows cohort, participants hailed from ten different churches throughout the Holland-Zeeland-Grand Rapids region. For Fellow Andrew S., that diversity was one of the best aspects of the cohort community. “You can really build some cool relationships and get to know people from different traditions, different careers, and backgrounds,” he says. “Almost everybody is someone I would want to spend time with outside of Fellows, and just keep picking their brain on some issues, or talking to them about the Lord, or whatever,” Andrew adds. “There was just a lot of really insightful and intentional, deep thinkers in the group.”
Reflecting on the profound divisions present today in the U.S., Andrew says the Fellows cohort was a “breath of fresh air.” He says the cohort modeled a healthy, honest, unity-amidst-diversity that deeply encouraged him:
“There’s ideologically diverse spaces within Christianity. And we need to find ways that acknowledge shared goals and shared foundations, without pretending that differences aren’t there. There’s tensions and there should be tensions. But I have more hope in the possibility of coming together than I used to… With the inVocation [program], there are people in a variety of churches, from more progressive-leaning to more conservative-leaning. But there’s so much shared, and it’s not the differences that are emphasized, but the similarities. It’s not, ‘Oh, we have these differences, let’s work through them.’ It’s, ‘Oh, we have these similarities, let’s just all bring our different perspectives to the table, and then work from there.’
He adds, “It’s not ‘Kumbaya, everything’s the same.’ It’s not oversimplification, but it’s also not over-delineation. And I think that’s a really positive rather than negative way to engage with difference.”
“You can really build some cool relationships and get to know people from different traditions, different careers, and backgrounds…I have more hope in the possibility of coming together than I used to.”
While Andrew says he loved all the Saturday sessions, he singled out a recent session with leaders from Arrabon for special mention. Arrabon is a Christian ministry that equips Christ-followers to pursue healing and reconciliation in their communities.
“Pretty much ever since 2020 [when George Floyd was killed], I’ve seen so much division over issues of difference and race, so much hurt and misunderstanding and pain that I just can’t shake,” he laments. He has wondered whether there is a way forward—and says Arrabon’s work gives him hope. “They put words and infrastructure to an impulse that I’d been feeling, but wasn’t necessarily confident about,” he explains. “And they gave me a little bit of confidence that reconciliation is actually possible, and [that] it’s happening, and it can happen. It’s really fragile and it’s a difficult space to inhabit because of the tensions. But it’s also possible, and people believe in it, and are seeking it.”
“That was really beautiful to me.”
