VB Fellows Podcast

In our final interview with the 2021-2022 class, we heard from Janae Powell, Lucas Honebrink, and Meredith Welsh as they shared their reflections about their post-college expectations and how their perspectives have changed. 

Hosted by Christina Webb. 

Directors Jay McCabe and Sarah Schultz sat down to share their thoughts about Summer activities, the program's four-week session on Spiritual Gifts, and insight into preparing for the incoming class of fellows. 

Thanks for listening!

Fellows Taylor, Kyra, Claire, and Emma share a bit about their college experience and what it's been like transitioning into an entirely new season of life.

Another excellent discussion hosted by our own Communications Manager, Christina Webb.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Fellows Parker, Nathan, and Katrina share their thoughts on the future, dream jobs, and the overlapping of calling and occupation. 

Thanks to Christina Webb, our Communications Manager, for hosting this discussion!

Almost a year ago, I wrote and recorded a piece in response to the now-infamous January 6 Capitol Riot. This is that piece. I still think it rings true.  It's not a political take.  Instead it has to do with a looming cultural problem that the January 6 riot (as well as the other riots in 2020) brought to the foreground--one that transcends Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal. That problem is the way the internet is reshaping our lives. 

We used to live in a physical space and get certain things on the internet. Now we live on the internet and get certain things done in a physical space. In other words, the internet is de-incarnating our existence. It gives real life to fantasies, but no real way to embody those fantasies. So our modern lives are increasingly being lived in disembodied ways. And when we do actually try to embody our internet fantasies--as in the storming of the capitol--it’s just weird. And bad. And unsustainable. It uncovers a kind of dark dream-world politics that was never meant for the light of actual day. 

The storming of the capitol was less a political coup and more an internet meme come to life. And yes, it was actually violent and rage-filled. But some of the same people who fought so hard to get in the door were simply posing for selfies in their strange costumes once they got in.

That's the weirdest part of the whole thing. The storming of the capitol didn't do anything in the traditional political sense. What we witnessed instead was the virtual world spilling out into (and colliding with) the very real, physical symbol of traditional politics. And it was...stupid and ineffective and meaningless and laughable and sad. But it's not enough simply to point fingers at Chewbacca-bikini-guy and his sordid friends. Not enough simply to "condemn" the mob and wash our hands of the thing from the safety of our iPhone screens. Because we were cut from the same cloth. We were all born again in the womb of the internet.

Imagine a drone pilot who plays so many other video games in between his actual job that he can’t tell the difference between bombing fake people and bombing real people. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. Because his job, his entertainment, his identity is found in the virtual control chair and nowhere else.

To some degree, we are all that drone pilot. Or at least slowly moving in that direction. And yet, there is no going back to a pre-internet era. So what is the Christian response to the particular technological age we find ourselves in? Where do we go from here?

Thanks for listening to the VB Fellows Podcast. VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. Our next deadline for applicants for next year’s class is this coming up on January 15. So if you know anyone who is interested, please let them know! 

What does the North Pole have to do with Bethlehem? Why do I have a reindeer and an angel in my front yard right now? Why does the radio play “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” and “Away In A Manger” back to back? What is the meaning of the magic of our secular Christmas? Why do children everywhere find it hard to sleep on Christmas Eve? What are they anticipating? The coming of Santa or the coming of Jesus? The answer is...yes.

In this (weird) episode, we do a deep dive into the unexpected parallels between the movie Elf and the story of the birth of Jesus in Luke's Gospel. In short, both are stories of blindness to what's right in front of you...and of how that blindness is healed. In Luke, the blindness has two distinct expressions: Rome (Buddy's Father) and Israel (Gimbels). Caesar is counting every person in the world, but he misses the one true king. Likewise, Buddy’s father is counting every dollar, but can't recognize his own son. Meanwhile, Israel has no room in the inn for its own Messiah. Likewise, Gimbel's “North Pole” has no room for an actual elf. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness cannot comprehend it.

Join us as Ross makes the case for Santa as a kind of John the Baptist of our modern Christmas (if you are willing to accept it). Special thanks to Jonathan Pageau for helping me think through many of the symbolic patterns of the Bible mentioned in this episode. Definitely check out his channel, The Symbolic World.

VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. Our next deadline for applicants for next year’s class is January 15.

What is salvation? How can we know God? In this episode, we discuss the weakness of explanations without participation--the difference between truth and reality--and the power of story to bridge the gap. As C. S. Lewis puts it in his essay "Myth Became Fact":

“Human intellect is incurably abstract. Yet the only realities we experience are concrete- this pain, this pleasure, this dog, this man. While we are loving the man, bearing the pain, enjoying the pleasure, we are not intellectually apprehending Pleasure, Pain or Personality. [...] This is our dilemma—either to taste and not to know or to know and not to taste—or, more strictly, to lack one kind of knowledge because we are in an experience or to lack another kind because we are outside it. As thinkers we are cut off from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, loving, hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality,the less we can think. You cannot study pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humor while roaring with laughter. But when else can you really know these things? ‘If only my toothache would stop, I could write another chapter about pain.’ But once it stops, what do I know about pain? Of this tragic dilemma, myth is the partial solution.”

Before listening to this episode, you might want to check out the previous episode, "The Light Princess," if you haven't already. You can also read the story here.

VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. We are currently accepting applications for the next class.

Nothing like a good story.

In fairy tales, what is the nature of a curse and how is it broken? Is a curse placed upon someone against their will or is it willingly embraced from within? In order to be free, does the change have to come from within or must deliverance come from outside? In Christian terms, did our redemption happen "on the cross" or does it happen "in our hearts" when we repent and believe?

We hope you enjoy this story by George MacDonald, adapted and read by our own Ross Byrd.  Special thanks to Will Rodriguez for the beautiful music.

This episode was originally aired on the Mere Sanity podcast. You can read the story here.

VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. Our next deadline for applicants is today, Monday, November 15. If you know anyone interested, please let them know! The application is short and sweet, and there is no fee required.

What do we mean by "identity?" What does it mean when Christians say we should "find our identity in Christ?" In the Bible, identity is multi-faceted. Though, in the modern world, we tend to define our identity according to what we think, feel, and believe, in the Bible we find that our identities are also shaped by what we consistently do. Oftentimes it’s our habitual patterns—our rituals (though we might not call them that—or even notice them at all!)—which reveal a deeper reality that is making us into who we are. This ritual/habitual level, if you have eyes to see it, can become a window in to the deepest level of your soul: into what really makes you you: what you long for, what you need, and what you worship. In this lecture, we call these three levels of self, CREEDS, DEEDS, and NEEDS.

For Further Reflection:

James K. A. Smith's "Redeeming Ritual"

C. S. Lewis's Mediations on the Psalms, Chapter 9, "A Word About Praising"

Thanks for listening to the VB Fellows Podcast. VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. Our next application deadline is this Monday, November 15. If you know anyone who is interested, please let them know! They can find out more at VBFellows.com.

God does not (usually) zap. 

Why do prayers go unanswered and lives untransformed? If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why is there still so much suffering in the world? Why doesn't he just zap all the wrong things right? How does salvation work? If we are saved, set free, and made new in Christ, why do we often feel so unsaved, enslaved, and confused? The Bible is the story of the patient marrying of heaven and earth, of trust and trustworthiness.

00:00-4:38 -- Our Un-straightforward God

4:39-13:03 -- The Temptation of Christ

13:03-28:29 -- Q & A on The Purpose of Suffering

28:30-34:05 -- Jesus vs. Nietzsche on Suffering

34:06-45:00 -- Trust & Trustworthiness

45:20-57:40 -- Religions of Heaven vs. Religions of Earth

57:40-1:06:13 -- The Marriage of Heaven & Earth

1:06:28-1:17:50 -- If God Does Not Zap, How Does He Save?

VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. We're now taking applications for next year's class.