Year-Long Fellowship

Application due August 14th

January 27-30, 2027

Pahara Institute at Lone Rock
Bailey, Colorado 

May 11-14, 2027

Trinity Retreat Center
West Cornwall, Connecticut 

November 1-4, 2027

Trinity Retreat Center
West Cornwall, Connecticut

The RLP Fellowship is a year-long journey of spiritual formation for 20–24 Christian leaders serving in education and adjacent social-impact sectors. Through three immersive retreats, ongoing small groups, and shared spiritual practices, Fellows learn what it means to surrender more fully to God and lead more faithfully in the institutions they have been called to serve. The fellowship unfolds across three retreats, each building on the last:

  • Encounter – We begin by creating space for a profound encounter with God, ourselves, and one another. Many Fellows describe this retreat as a place of healing, freedom, and renewed intimacy with Christ.

  • Formation – We explore the spiritual disciplines and practices that shape lasting Christian character—learning to build rhythms of prayer, Sabbath, discernment, Scripture, community, and surrender into everyday leadership.

  • Integration – Together we discern what it means to lead "faith forward," integrating everything God has been doing throughout the year into our lives and leadership.

The fellowship is built around small groups of 4-5 Fellows who journey together throughout the year. These groups meet during each retreat and continue gathering virtually between retreats, creating the trust, accountability, and friendship where lasting formation often takes root.

Every retreat combines ancient Christian practices with thoughtful facilitation to create the conditions for deep spiritual formation. While each retreat is unique, Fellows experience rhythms such as:

  • Prayer: Prayer is woven throughout every retreat—individually, in small groups, and as a community—creating space to listen for God's voice and intercede for one another.

  • Testimony: Fellows courageously share how God is at work in their lives, inviting honesty, vulnerability, and hope.

  • Worship: We worship together, asking the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts and deepen our love for Christ.

  • Socratic Reading Discussion: Rather than teaching from a stage, we wrestle together with carefully selected readings that invite deeper reflection and conversation.

  • Reflection Stations: Guided spaces for silence, solitude, embodied prayer, and personal reflection help Fellows encounter God beyond words alone.

  • Discernment – Individual and communal discernment practices help Fellows carry real leadership questions into prayer and community, and leave with clearer next steps.

  • Sacred Rituals: Throughout the retreats we incorporate ancient Christian practices and meaningful rituals that engage the heart, mind, and body.

  • Small Groups: Trusted communities where Fellows process what God is doing, pray for one another, and build friendships that often last well beyond the fellowship.

  • Shared Meals: Breaking bread together becomes another place of formation, where conversations continue and community deepens.

Who is RLP for?

 RLP is for leaders who:

  • hold significant leadership responsibility in education or an adjacent field — schools, school-supporting organizations, philanthropy, youth development, youth mental health, etc.;

  • are followers of Jesus with an earnest desire to grow, whether their spiritual practices are long-established or just taking root;

  • are seeking to more deeply integrate their faith into their leadership, and sense that this is a meaningful season for reflection, healing, and formation;

  • come ready to learn from others, open to the faith, politics, and lived experiences of people different from themselves;

  • bring humility, vulnerability, and self-awareness to community, and can remain present in discomfort and disagreement;

  • want to build lasting relationships and bridge divides across lines of difference, grounded in a shared love of Christ; and

  • are able to commit to full participation in the program over the course of the year.

This Fellowship is not a fit for those seeking a room where everyone shares the same doctrinal beliefs, or for those who hope to persuade others toward their own way of believing or practicing their faith.

Please read through our Community Commitments to ensure this is a community you feel comfortable engaging in. 

Cost

The standard cost for the full year-long fellowship is $8,500 plus personal travel, which can be paid upfront or in monthly installments over the course of the year. If your employer offers professional development dollars for leaders in your organization, we strongly encourage applicants to seek support from their employers. This not only defrays costs but also increases institutional visibility of this important work. We can support you in requesting funding for RLP as an investment in your development with drafted language, forms, and more that have been used successfully by prior participants.

While this price reflects the true cost of the model, we believe that Christ-centered transformation belongs to everyone and are committed to reducing financial barriers to participation. If the full cost isn’t in reach right now, we’re able to offer two discounted rates of $4,250 and $2,500 — made possible by the generosity of our donor community. We trust you to choose honestly: paying what you're able helps fund a seat for another leader who can't.

Lastly, if cost would otherwise keep you out altogether, we can offer a limited number of additional scholarships, which are available by application.

Apply Now

FAQ’s

  • We ask that all selected leaders seriously commit to attending all 3 retreats. RLP is designed to be an immersive experience of transformation in community, and each member of the community is an essential part of this process. In addition to the retreats, we will have virtual small group sessions once a month, and a few hours of pre-reading before each retreat.

  • The retreats will be facilitated and moderated by members of the RLP community including trained moderators Traci Dove, Tina Fernandez, and Bill Kurtz.  Irvin Scott will be our pastoral lead.  Jeff Nelson and Mindy Flach (alongside many others) will support with retreat design.

  • The January 2027 retreat will be hosted at The Pahara Institute at Lone Rock about an hour outside of Denver in the Colorado mountains. 

    The May 2027 and November 2027 retreats will be hosted at Trinity Retreat Center in Connecticut.

    Ground transportation to both retreat venues from the nearest airport (DIA for Lone Rock and Bradley International Airport/ Newark for Trinity) will be provided as will a three-night single occupancy room with excellent meals.  

  • Participants are selected based on a willingness to participate in the messy work of building the beloved community with other Christians across difference and an earnest desire to give God the reins of our lives and leadership on behalf of others.  Great care is put into creating a cohort that reflects the diversity of the Body of Christ that is made up of leaders who hold significant responsibility in this important moment in our nation and world.

  • We are hoping to announce additional retreat dates for 2028 and beyond towards the end of 2027. If we reach capacity for this cohort, and you’d like to be put on a waiting list in case of cancellations, or on the waiting list for future cohorts, that option will be made available to you.