The CL Thomas Fellowship

After a period of dormancy my non-profit, Playing Grownup, is alive again. Unfortunately, it took the unexpected death of my father to re-energize me into the work and service of equipping students and young professionals for life after college. Today, we officially announced the CL Thomas Fellowship program in honor of my late father.

CL Thomas, known as “Pop” to his family, lived a life full of adventure. From motorcycles to horseback riding, he enjoyed the beauty of the outdoors. The first word that comes to mind when I think of Pop and is “provider.” The vision of this fellowship program is to inspire and equip young men to provide for others. We will accomplish this vision through group mentoring sessions, book readings, scripture memorization, and lunch and learn meetings with business leaders.

I will host the monthly mentoring sessions at my house where we will discuss how we can provide for others in our spheres of influence. Over a 10-month period, we will review the themes of faith, finances, and our relationships through a variety of books and memory verses. In addition to the monthly mentoring sessions, we will also schedule lunch and learn sessions with respected business leaders to discover how they have provided for others and what advice they would give to their 25-year-old self.

We are actively recruiting 6–8 men in their 20s who are based in the Raleigh-Durham area to be part of the inaugural CL Thomas Fellowship class. It’s free, with the only out of pocket expenses being book purchases. The fellowship program will provide all mentoring sessions, lunch and learns, and a weekend retreat at no financial cost to the participants. However, this fellowship program will require a significant investment of your time and a commitment to attend the scheduled meetings. If you are hungry for personal growth, this is for you.

The mentoring group starts in October and applicants are encouraged to express their interest as soon as possible as space is limited. You can request an application and learn more by going to www.playinggrownup.org/mentoring.

I am excited to begin this new mentoring group at Playing Grownup and I wanted to say a quick thanks to a couple people and organizations that have inspired and supported me to get to this place today. First, thank you to StoryDriven, the Emmy award wining video production company who produced the CL Thomas overview video. I am so pleased with the results, it brought joyful tears during the review process. Thank you to the team at CrossComm where I served in leadership who have supported me in this new venture. Thank you to all my mentors from Leadership Edge, Radical Mentoring, the Reset Agency and my pastoral team at Kings Park.

Pop never waited until the next day. He always provided today. We hope the CL Thomas Fellowship encourages more people to do the same.

With excitement,

Justin