On average, it’s about five hours per week, plus your required daily devotional time of 15+ minutes per day.

Cohorts meet at an agreed-upon place in the Greater Boston area. Sometimes this is in a participant’s or facilitator’s home, sometimes at a church.

We may experiment in the 2026-2027 year with a virtual group if there is enough demand for those who cannot make weekly trips into the city (monthly workshop as well as semesterly retreats still require in-person presence).

Once a month, instead of the weekly meeting, we have a “Teaching Saturday.” All of the cohorts meet together and these are events open to the public. You are encouraged to bring friends and family.

“Spiritual Formation Weekends” mark the beginning, middle and end of the program. These take place on the campus of Gordon College, Wenham, MA.

We hope to see cohorts formed outside Greater Boston soon. Please feel free to apply, and/or get us in touch with your local organization or pastor to promote a cohort forming in your specific community.

In-person participation and relationships are central to the program.

But this is a program for working people, with rich personal lives, so we understand that you may need to miss some meetings. We ask that you miss meetings only for important personal matters. (You define “important.”)

You may want to attend another cohort meeting, from time to time, if that helps.

In the end, you should weigh the demands of your schedule and decide what honors your commitment to Boston Fellows.

Fellows come from a diversity of Christian backgrounds, and in fact, one need not be a professing Christian to go through the program.

Our teaching perspective is from the standpoint of historic, orthodox Christianity. You don’t have to agree with us, as long as you can engage respectfully. Respectful disagreement can sharpen everyone’s understanding.

The last eight classes have varied in size from 13 to 23 Fellows.

We aim to divide the class into cohorts of 7-10 people, plus 1-2 facilitators.

After we receive your application, we schedule an interview of 30-45 minutes to get to know you better and to give you the chance to ask questions.

We check with your references.

We give you a decision in about two weeks, and offer you a place in the program.

You review a written description of the program, accept, and make a nonrefundable deposit of $150 toward your tuition.

We want to get to know you! Friendships are an important part of the program.

Knowing you also helps us serve you better.

List a spiritual reference, such as a pastor, teacher, mentor, friend, small-group leader.

List a professional reference, such as a co-worker or boss—present or former.

We ask three short questions, following an educational description of the program:

1. Given that very brief description of the program, do you see any reason why the program would not be a good fit for [Applicant]?

2. Again, given the brief description I gave, what do you think might be the biggest challenges of this program for [Applicant]?

3. What else would you care to add that would help us make sure [Applicant] has a good program year?

We can give you the full schedule and assignments of the previous two semesters, on request.

They follow our “Work, Study, Pray, In-Community” emphasis: Practical examples, biblical/theological foundations, spiritual formation, relationships.

Examples of past books/readings/Authors include Augustine, Renovation of the Heart, Your Money Counts, and more.

All adults 21 and over are welcome.

Most Fellows are in their 20s and 30s, some in their 40s.

But we have had excellent experiences with a few Fellows older still, including people in top leadership positions.

We can put you in touch with alumni of the program.

We’re happy to chat with you about any questions you may have.

You can see what alumni have said about their experiences in writing. (Start here.)

We love that. It’s a particularly good experience for partners, siblings, or close friends to work through the many big questions we address, to be on the same page.

We can offer a reduction in tuition if the cost presents a challenge for your household.

We don’t have meetings/events during the following:

Thanksgiving weekend, Thursday through Sunday

Christmas through New Year

Easter weekend (But we encourage you to attend Holy Week services, and even to visit one another’s churches for services you don’t have at your home church.)

No.