What Are the "Walk to Emmaus" And "Chrysalis" About?

Perhaps you've heard about the Walk to Emmaus; perhaps you've noticed that some members of Baker Memorial are members of the "Emmaus Community," and have wondered just what it's all about.

The Walk to Emmaus, and its youth equivalent, Chrysalis, are ministries of the Upper Room branch of the United Methodist Church. Both the Emmaus "Walk" and the Chrysalis "Flight" are three-day-weekend experiences designed to build up the local church by developing Christian leaders, both adults and youth. The structure of the experience is quite simple, and yet quite profound: three days in a retreat center, seventy-two hours spent with all distractions gone, seventy-two hours to focus exclusively on one's relationship with Christ. Fifteen talks covering the essence of the faith; five of them presented by clergy, ten by lay people. The opportunity to learn about God's grace from the speakers, to experience it in daily services of Holy Communion, and to respond in table fellowship following each of the talks. On an Emmaus or Chrysalis weekend, people pray, learn, cry a little, laugh a lot...and being good Methodists, sing lustily and eat heartily!

Contrary to what you may have heard, there are NO SECRETS in an Emmaus or Chrysalis weekend. The content of the talks and the schedule of activities are posted on the websites: http://www.nil-emmaus.org (Emmaus) and www.nil-chrysalis.org (Chrysalis). There are a few surprises, experiences designed to make the weekend more fun while communicating the; Gospel message. But the content of the weekend, what you'll be doing, where you'll be and what you'll be learning, all these things are public.

What's it mean to "develop Christian leaders"? A Christian leader is simply anybody who influences others to get closer to Christ. A committee chair may be a Christian leader, and so might a Sunday school teacher or a member of the congregation whom others look to for support and advice. Emmaus and Chrysalis are primarily focused toward developing Christian leaders among the lay members of the church, but many clergy (including two of our pastors, David and Rich) have gone on an Emmaus weekend.

Chrysalis is the youth version of Emmaus, for high-school sophomores, juniors and seniors. The talks have different names, but the message is the same. The talks are given by a combination of clergy and lay people, adults and youth. Parents are invited to services on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon of the weekend.

If you're interested in the Walk to Emmaus or a Chrysalis Flight, the first thing to do is pray (this is a good thing to do in a lot of other situations as well).

Next, if you're interested in going on the Walk, talk to any of the current members of Baker Memorial who have attended Emmaus about sponsoring you. "Sponsor," in this case, mostly means "support"; the sponsor will pick you up and bring you home from the weekend, and help out as needed to assure that you can truly spend the weekend with your full attention devoted to God. There's a list of Baker Memorial members who are active in Emmaus at the end of this article.

If you're interested in going on a Chrysalis Flight (or a a parent of a youth who's interested), talk to Dan Starr for more information.

Active Members of Baker Memorial who have attended the walk to Emmaus:

 

Ben Adams	Doris Hunt	Pamela Stare
Kathy Adams	Don Johnson	Dan Starr
Sandi Benhart	Elaine Johnson	Kim Starr
Isie Brindley	Mary Linebarger	Chris Stumpf
Debbie Conterato	Janet Markwick	John Stumpf
Cary Couts	Jan McPeak	Kim Stumpf
Betty Erickson	Val McPeak	Erik Swenson
Dave Hall	Marge Meanger	Ginny Temple
Paula Hall	Cathie Ruth	Vic Temple
Emily Hearn	Doug Ruth	Hillary Ungerer
Pete Holmes	Allan Scales	Gilles Verboom
Rick House	Jayne Scales	Ronni Verboom
	Judy Schlarb	Ron Winsor