This is an interview with five of our Greensboro Fellows alumni who chose to stick around after their program. We’re so glad to have them and all the other alumni here!

Where are you from, what are some of your interests, and how did you get to the Fellows program?

Hannah: I am from Potomac, Maryland, which is right outside DC. I was homeschooled all the way through high school, and then actually transferred twice during college. So I spent a year up in Canada doing this liberal arts program, and then spent a year in Phoenix at ASU in their nursing program, and then transferred to Covenant College down in Georgia where I majored in philosophy. I enjoy being creative—I’m always finding new creative outlets like water coloring, wood carving, or making bread. I also enjoy being outside and doing yoga. I had heard of the Fellows Program vaguely because I grew up going to the Falls Church (where the Fellows started) but had never thought of it during college as something I could do until a few directors visited Covenant for recruiting and a friend dragged me along for an informational dinner. It just clicked, “Why wouldn't I want to do this? This is great.” I was kind of looking around for what to do next and didn't have a clear plan, so it just felt like a really nice next thing to do.

Zack: I moved from Georgia to Greensboro for the Fellows Program in 2018. I like being outside, hiking, playing soccer (or any sport really), and taking naps with my cat. I went to Berry College and got a bachelor’s degree in marketing but currently I am pursuing a master’s degree in counseling at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. You can probably tell by the degree differences that things have changed quite a bit since I graduated college and the Fellows Program has been a big part of that change. It was a combination of things that drew me to the Fellows Program but what really stood out to me was the focus on spiritual development and Greensboro’s location.

Tressa: I am from Freeport, IL, and spent most of my childhood there, except for the one year that we lived in Asheville, NC when I was in third grade. I enjoy being outside, especially in the mountains, paddle boarding on a lake, or at the beach. Playing board games is one of my favorite ways to spend time with people and I have learned how to play so many new games in the last several years, both here in Greensboro and with my family when we are all together. One of my favorite ways to mark the seasons is by noticing which flowers are in bloom and I have enjoyed seeing the seasons in this way since I have been in Greensboro. I was a Young Life leader in college at Augustana and found out about the Fellows program through a post on the YL Leader Blog and was so intrigued by the idea and all of the different facets that made it feel like a very holistic approach to growth and development for young adults after college.

Andrew: I'm from Kannapolis, North Carolina, about an hour south-west of Greensboro. Growing up, we had a pastor at my church named Joe Crawford, who actually is from Greensboro. He came to Christ through Greensboro YoungLife, and his YoungLife leader was a man named Mike Fowler. Joe became the pastor at my church in 2000. He helped start YoungLife in Kannapolis and he hired Drew Hill. So I met Drew 20 years ago. Then I went to school at UNC Greensboro and met Jeff Whitworth. He and his wife Becca were my YoungLife trainers, and I first heard about Church of the Redeemer from them. And then I started leading YoungLife College alongside Mike Fowler. Fast forward—Mike Fowler also happened to be the real estate agent that sold the New Garden property to Redeemer. So I was a YoungLife College leader alongside Mike, and then Alan Hawkins started helping out that semester. So that's how I met Alan. When Drew Hill moved to Greensboro my sophomore year of college and I got to reunite with him. While I was in college, I came to Redeemer a few times to do sound stuff. Then when it came time for my senior year, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do after college, and multiple people that I knew that were connected to Redeemer encouraged me to apply to the Fellows program. So I was a part of the 2013-2014 class, which was the second year of the program.

Madison: I grew up in Plano, Texas. I went to Wheaton College, and I double majored in Christian Formation & Ministry and Communication. I graduated in 2018 from college, and I worked for a large, multi ethnic, non-denominational church in Washington, DC for a year. And then the Lord slowed me down and gave me a year to rest and be restored in some ways I didn't know I needed. I was feeling kind of burnt out, tired, and cynical, and trying to figure out what direction my life was going to go. I was back home in Texas in what I call my “sabbatical year” and I was attending a small Anglican Church. One night at church small group, a retired priest in the group asked me what I'd like to do. I started telling him about my interests in spiritual formation—potentially finding the intersection of spiritual formation and community gardening, and how I’m passionate about seeing healing in people's lives. I think that a garden provides so much imagery of how the Lord interacts with us— whether that's planting a seed, or nurturing us, or stripping us of things that aren't healthy for us, or bearing fruit. And so, I had told this man about this and two days later, he came to Church of the Redeemer, saw the Farm at New Garden Park, and said, “I think that this is what Madison says she wants to do.” So he connected me with the staff, and the Fellows was the most natural step for me to take to get to be a part of the community, and to be a part of the farm specifically. So I was really most attracted to getting to participate on the farm and be in a church that seemed to be really on mission about a lot of important things that I care about. Some of my favorite pastimes are drinking tea, doing puzzles, and reading poetry.

What was your Fellows year like? What were your favorite things about your Fellows year?

Madison: My fellows year was during the COVID pandemic. So I think that it was different than in years past in how much we were able to interact with the wider community of Greensboro, and of Church of the Redeemer. So I would say my Fellows year felt kind of concentrated on the same 15 people that were in my life. The schedule itself was fairly full, and it may have felt especially so as I was coming off of a pretty quiet year. I really enjoyed laughing with the Fellows. Our Monday night dinners were fun--just getting to be silly with one another, catch up, and be in a community that really cared for one another. And there were 10 of us, so that's quite a large number. You can't really do individual care for each person in the group. But as a whole, we really were for one another, and that was a really sweet thing to be a part of. There were many occasions to be the body of Christ to one another—whether that was weeping with one another, asking forgiveness of one another, or celebrating one another. We really got to taste what it was like to consider one another above yourself and we tried to live out what we're commanded to live out about loving one another in Scripture. Another one of my favorite parts of the year was working with Lena at the farm. She’s been a mentor, big sister, and friend— someone that has cared about my journey, listened and asked good questions, and wanted to find ways to champion me and my giftings at the farm.

Hannah: As I was just looking through old pictures, I was struck by the fact that it was overall just a year that I had so much fun—which can sound trivial, but I really don’t think it is because that's only something that happens when you feel safe and really connected with the people around you. It stimulates that kind of spontaneity and enjoyment. Honestly, we really played together. So that stood out because it’s a striking thing that in the first year out of college—in the bigger world, functioning as an adult—that that would be such a strong experience. It's really sweet and such a gift.

What was your knowledge-base/experience-level with Anglicanism before Redeemer?

Andrew: I had been to Redeemer a few times, but prior to that, I didn’t really know much. I came from a Presbyterian background, so I kind of knew about liturgy. There were some things that I was familiar with and some that I wasn't. Prior to the Fellows program, the only thing I knew about the Book of Common Prayer was that it was super important in the history of England. I was a history major, so I only knew the historical aspects of the Book of Common Prayer—I never actually opened it up and prayed it until I was here.

Madison: I started attending an Anglican church my last year and a half of college and really loved what I found there. My church background is many different denominations, from Catholic, to Methodist, to Baptist, to non-denominational. My college was reformed-leaning, and at the same time I really came to love and desire the presence of the Holy Spirit and picked up some of the charismatic stream. So finding an Anglican church was like finding a place where all of my mixed tradition and styles of worship could be embraced and understood. And I think it has been a place where I have learned about charity to others in the body of Christ, because there's so many people that end up in the Anglican church that come from different backgrounds and denominations. I appreciate the reverence for Christ, as well as an openness to the Holy Spirit each service--there’s a beautiful meeting point of the charismatic stream and the liturgical stream in some Anglican churches. I also really appreciate a focus on justice and concern for people on the margins. So I’ve really enjoyed the breadth of the Anglican expression.

Zack: King Henry separated the church so he could get divorced, right? That was kind of the breadth of my knowledge about Anglicanism before Redeemer. And to be honest, I wasn’t all together sure about what I was getting into because I trusted that the GSO Fellows Program was where I was being called, so I just went with it. I remember one of the first things we did as Fellows was meet with the church staff and they explained for the non-denom folks like me what liturgy is. It was great and is great. I still have a lot to learn, I still wonder about which one of the 30,000+ denominations is God’s favorite—I am being facetious by the way. But I have really enjoyed Anglicanism’s focus on church history and its appreciation of Catholicism and Orthodoxy. It seems that Anglicanism doesn’t shy away from the consequences of the Reformation and has respect for tradition beyond “American” tradition. Also, I really like the bodily rhythm of liturgy, the focus on practices, and the way the Book of Common Prayer can help you, especially when you don’t know what to say.

What was your experience with Redeemer like during your Fellows year?

Tressa: I learned to appreciate the liturgy even though it was pretty new to me; someone had described it saying "liturgy allows us to participate communally and to carry each other even on the days that we feel like we can't say it ourselves"; I have seen that from both sides, where I need to be carried forward by others, and where I can carry others forward when they are struggling, and that is so beautiful! During my Fellows year I volunteered on the presentation team, running the slides on Sunday mornings for church which gave me even more opportunity to get to know the liturgy inside and out and how it changes with the seasons.

Andrew: I volunteered with the sound team, and that was when we moved from having services at Bur Mill Park to Western Guilford high school. They had all the Fellows be involved in that transition process. So that year was a lot of learning the mechanics of a worship service—what it’s like from scratch. You’d walk into the room at the high school, start setting everything up, and then take everything back down the minute that the service was over. Then I also really learned to love the people as well as the BCP and got to fellowship and break bread with a lot of members and families at Redeemer, and all of the clergy members (there were two at the time).

Zack: During my Fellows year, Redeemer felt like a couple of things to me. First, it felt like fertile soil. Second, it felt like an authentic, yet imperfect, picture of what church is and can be. I was impressed and at times intimidated by all the awesome people doing awesome things. I don’t mean that I was scared, I mean that it humbled me. And I am sure that is not because humans are so awesome on their own but what I could see were people really living into the lives that God had given them. It felt like one solid picture of the body of Christ. I’ve seen people disagree with each other and have actual conflict, survive it, hug it out at times, and display what human interaction can look like within the body. That’s huge for me. From living a bit in Georgia, I’ve seen a of lot nice, neat, polite, face-to-face human interactions with subsequent private curses. Redeemer felt like an honest look at what humans can do as co-creators partnering with God, and it showed me a bit of how God’s grace can work within the broken body of believers.

What was it about Redeemer that made you want to stick around?

Andrew: The people, the Anglican tradition which I really came to fall in love with, the liturgy, the solid preaching, and Alan’s leadership. Then eventually the Farm and vision around the New Garden property, which was still just a hypothetical concept when I was in the Fellows program.

Tressa: I felt at home and like I could put down roots and continue to grow and ask questions and still belong. I love the breadth and the depth of the Anglican church and particularly how Redeemer embraces that. I loved the conviction with which people held their beliefs, and at the same time how much grace there was in the invitation to consider for myself what was presented and to come to it on my own.

What have you learned about community while being a part of Redeemer?

Tressa: Community takes work. There are environmental elements that can be prepared (such as the Fellows program), but it comes down to each individual committing to the community and to forgiveness and reconciliation. As Dietrich Bonhoffer says in Life Together, “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” That's a humbling thought and takes work to live out well, but I have seen it hold true. There is richness in communal living and I have seen how valuable and critical it is for me to live in relationship with people of all generations: living with a family with three kids, participating in community groups where I was the only single person with several married couples, all with children (of all ages), serving as a volunteer and now Catechist in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. I have found joy in the opportunity to listen to and learn from people of all ages and walks of life. I have also cherished the friendships that came out of my time as a Fellow, along with the new friendships formed over the last several years with other young adults moving to Greensboro and calling it home.

What was it about the general/wider Greensboro community that made you want to stick around?

Andrew: I went to college at UNCG starting in 2009. So that was 12 years ago. I just really fell in love with the city, with how it was growing, with the amount of green space, with how much downtown has changed and has went from not that great a place to a really cool place to hang out at. In 2009 it felt like Natty Greene’s was really one of the only places to go downtown, so it’s really been neat to see the revitalization and reformation that was happening in the city.

Madison: Again, COVID has kept me from experiencing the fullness of Greensboro. But I've really enjoyed the green spaces and the beauty of Greensboro, and I'm hoping to get to know more of the city and the people here. Greensboro is such an interesting place, and it's kind of hard to put it in a box. There are people from all different backgrounds and political beliefs, and I think I want to know more of what it’s like beyond Redeemer.

What's your favorite memory at Redeemer (can be more deep, or more goofy)?

Andrew: I think it would be when we presented the first fruits from the Farm during the offering at Sunday service. It really took us back to Genesis. Lena presented the first fruits and Alan prayed over them and offered them to God. And I think that was really when it hit home for everybody that the farm was first: real, and second: that it was to glorify and praise God.

Madison: Slow Wednesdays with Lena where we’d read poetry and pray together. Planting dahlias with Bryce and DeeDee. Celebrating birthdays with the Fellows. Washing carrots with Marsha and Nancy, doing a farm work day with the Fellows, or having lunch with Abbi and Jared during a Sabbath Day event. My favorite memories at Redeemer are getting to know the people in the many different ways that we all interact.

Hannah:  The harvest festival. I remember serving out this incredible meat that Ben Lewis barbecued. I’m at the end of the line helping to serve it and basically the whole congregation is filing through to get all this amazing food. Then we sat at the picnic tables that were all lined up and so you look down all the way and see everybody sitting at the same table together. That was pretty cool.

Are there any specific ways the Lord has met you at Redeemer/during your time in GSO which you'd want to share?

Tressa: Coming into my Fellows year in 2016, I had never been baptized for a number of different reasons, but in my introduction to Anglicanism through Church of the Redeemer I had a lot of conversations about baptism and its importance, inspired by the Nicene Creed, the invitation to the table for eucharist, and conversations around infant baptism. But unlike any conversations about baptism that I had before, the people that I talked to had deeply held convictions about the necessity of baptism and the precedent set by Jesus himself and throughout the years in the Christian tradition, while at the same time they did not question my faith or shame me for not already being baptized, as I had experienced before, but invited me to look deeper and ask more questions, out of curiosity rather than obligation or guilt. That was the context in which I felt free to submit to the call to "believe and be baptized," and where I recognized that God was saying that baptism is not something that we do of our own strength or willpower but something that is done to us and for us by his grace anyway. It didn't matter that I didn't have a dramatic life-changing story like some of my friends who were baptized in high school. And I realized that there isn't an expiration date from the time that you "ask Jesus into your heart", as I had done at such a young age, to the time that you are baptized for it to "really count;" for me, baptism was a sign of God's faithfulness to me for my whole life up to that point, and a reminder that he will continue to be faithful to me and has marked and sealed me as his own for the rest of my life and eternity as well. So I was baptized in the middle of my Fellows year and it was such a sweet celebration of God's faithfulness in my life!

Zack: For me, the Lord has met me through a combination of things and people. Particularly through my studies and my relationships with Dodd and Benjamin. The Fellows year is a great year of growth, the year after is, well, a bit harder. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a time of putting into practice what you spent the past nine months doing. Having a clear direction to pursue helps on the nights where you need reorientation, hence my studies have reminded me of this direction. I cannot imagine going through the past couple of years without reaching out to Dodd or Benjamin when I’ve needed to. Sometimes it’s for serious things, sometimes I just need to hear a goofy story or wrestle with an impossible question. It’s all a gift.

What are you up to now around Redeemer/Greensboro?

Hannah: I work at New Garden Landscaping, which is kind of fun that it's connected to Redeemer, because they're the people that the church property was bought from. So I get to work outside a lot and make things pretty, which I really enjoy. And Jason Myers and I have been making ice cream every week for the last several months, and it's amazing. We have like a micro-community right here with our families on our street, which has been really fun, especially during COVID.

Andrew: I am currently serving on the sound team at Redeemer, and I also assist with the farm when I am able to and have been involved with the free farmers market. 

Zack: Right now, I am focusing on school at Gordon-Conwell, work at Berry College (remote), and taking care of my cat Søren. I try to get out to play soccer as much as I can or at least take a hike somewhere with Adam Donohoe.

Tressa: I live with the Walls in the Westerwood neighborhood with wonderful neighbors (Van Wyks, Lineberrys, Drakes, and a recent addition of the Millers). I enjoy going on walks around the neighborhood, trail runs around Lake Brandt, and hiking when I get the chance! A couple years ago I completed Catechesis of the Good Shepherd level I formation training and at Redeemer I serve in our level II atrium with our 6-9 year olds. I look forward to going to level II formation training when there’s an opportunity. I’m coming up on 5 years with Triad Tech Services in September and we just merged with another company to form The Longleaf Network, which has been a great opportunity and a lot of work.  

Madison: I’ve stayed on staff at the farm as the Volunteer Coordinator. My days are currently spent working in the gardens, planning farm events, and just generally surrounded by an abundance of tomatoes. I recently moved into a townhome with a couple of friends and I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and enjoying time with people from our community. I’m also excited to be meeting more people from Redeemer! I’m taking part in a growth series class with Deacon Ashley & enjoying the many varied gifts of life!

We’re so thankful for all of the Fellows we’ve had here at Redeemer and pray that the Lord blesses them no matter if they’re near or far!