You weren’t made to build alone.
Vocare Launch is your cohort.

Beyond your basic contact info (name, email, phone, mailing address for swag + materials, geographic region, and a LinkedIn profile or resume), you'll be asked to submit:

• A personal statement of faith — meaningful, but under one page. Cover your beliefs, how they shape your life and work today, and how you engage in Christian community now.
• A statement of interest in Vocare Launch — why you want to join, what impact you're hoping for, and how you'll stay engaged with your cohort and Vocare afterward.
• A reference’s name and email. You’re responsible for sending them the reference form and following up if it’s not submitted by the deadline.
• Affirmations that you can attend every retreat and meetup listed on the cohort schedule, that you understand the $250 program fee, and that you've read all the expectations on this page.

Standard applicants not admitted to Spring 2027 may be placed on our waitlist. We anticipate extending waitlist invitations on or before December 7, with a decision requested by December 15; the cohort will be finalized no later than December 18 to prepare for the January retreat.

If you'd rather skip the wait, you can pay a non-refundable deposit to secure a spot in our Fall 2027 cohort (August–December 2027) instead. We'll follow up in early June 2027 to confirm your participation before general applications open.

Teaching + discussion weeks:

• 6:00–7:00 — connect and eat
• 7:00 — 45 minutes of teaching with Paul Taylor, FWT Co-Founder and our Vocare Program Director
• 7:45 — break and discussion
• 8:15 — a local pastor (including FWT partner pastors Ben Pilgreen, Dave Lomas, Dani Kilgore, and more) and a tech leader from their church, in conversation on the week's theme
• 9:00 — wrap up in the Mission, with plenty of restaurants nearby to keep the conversation going

Coaching + praxis weeks:

• 6:00–7:00 — connect and eat
• 7:00–8:30 — "hot seat" coaching: bring a real challenge and get 15 minutes of coaching from your facilitator and pod
• 8:30–9:00 — large-group share-back of key takeaways, prayer requests, or asks for connection and support

Biweekly gatherings are near Downtown San Francisco at Experience Church in the Mission neighborhood — a short walk from 16th Street Mission MUNI/BART, and easy to reach by rideshare or autonomous vehicle. There's no onsite parking, and parking in the neighborhood is genuinely tough, so if you're driving, we recommend reserving a guaranteed spot in advance through SpotHero or a similar service.

Both Vocare Revive and Vocare Catalyze follow the same shape: arrive by 6:00pm Thursday for a welcome reception and 7:00pm dinner (with optional hangout time after). Friday starts early at 8:30am with a team-building activity, a morning session, open time and lunch, and two afternoon sessions before a closing session — wrapping by 6:00pm so you're back for your weekend.

We host both retreats at Casa Madrona in Sausalito, about a 30-minute drive or ferry ride from San Francisco. It's close enough to join even after a full day of work Thursday, but far enough to feel like a genuine retreat — with beautiful views, curated group activities, and space to walk and reconnect with nature and each other. Madrona is two blocks from the Sausalito Ferry Terminal and a short drive over the Golden Gate Bridge from SF's westside neighborhoods.

Very. We believe the two dozen people you go through this cohort with can become some of your closest friends, confidants, and advocates for decades — but that kind of relationship doesn't form without real consistency over the 5-month season. As part of your application, you'll attest that you can hold a firm do-not-schedule block on Monday evenings during cohort weeks, and that your PTO for both retreats is not movable.

We know tech is intense and things come up. If an emergency means you'd miss the opening Catalyze retreat, we'll ask you to defer to a future cohort — deferral is taken seriously, since it shrinks the cohort and affects the program's sustainability, so we ask everyone to fully commit at enrollment. If you miss a single meetup during the program, just loop in your pod facilitator and cohort, and make an extra effort to stay connected so you're not out of touch for a full month.

Between sessions, we expect you to be active in our Slack community at least a couple of times a week, and we strongly encourage connecting with your pod outside of formal gatherings — a walk over lunch, a midweek prayer huddle, or hosting a picnic for your cohort.

Our alumni commitment is to stay engaged in prayer, relationship, and financial support. We hope you'll keep praying for Vocare, connect us to your church and community, and stay in relationship with the cohort — attending Vocare Forum events, staying active in our Slack, and helping organize alumni meetups, even if life takes you elsewhere geographically or professionally.

Financially, rather than charge a high fee upfront, we ask alumni to make a donation of $1,000 (or a meaningful amount if that's out of reach) at the end of the program, plus a suggested annual donation of $1,000 going forward — fully tax-deductible, since it's a donation rather than a membership fee. If you have a windfall event (an exit, meaningful secondary sale, a big promotion, a new job), we'd be honored to receive a one-time gift in whatever way feels aligned with the program's impact on you.

Longer-term, Vocare needs to raise roughly $700,000 a year to run two cohorts, eight large-group events, and support the broader Faith, Work + Tech ecosystem. We believe small, faithful gifts from alumni over the next decade can sustain this program for generations.

Beyond the core requirements above: we view "career" broadly, including work, grad school, gap years, and ministry service, and we look for cohorts moving through similar life stages together. We view "tech" broadly too — software, biotech, robotics, or roles deeply embedded in the tech ecosystem (benefits brokers or lawyers working exclusively with VC-backed startups, for example) all count. We may make limited exceptions for people outside tech who we believe will meaningfully contribute to the conversation and are committed to building a redemptive ecosystem in the Bay Area.

We're building an ecosystem here in the Bay Area, so we prioritize applicants planning to stay and work in the region for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, we can't support relocation to participate, and we can't sponsor employment or visas.