West Tennessee Emmaus Community
|
P. O. Box 10741
Jackson, Tennessee
38308
Chrysalis
"Flights" (for 10th through 12th graders) are three-day events. This three-day
spiritual renewal time provides an opportunity for you to learn more about
faith, to experience Christian love and support, and to make new faith
commitments. The point is to inspire, challenge and equip you for a closer
friendship with Christ and for Christian action at home, church, school, and
community.
Chrysalis
lifts up a way for you to enjoy Christ's friendship and love and to be Christ's
friend and partner in the world. The three days focus on God's grace, your
experience with Christ as friend, what it means to be the body of Christ, and
giving love to a needy world.
Who
should go to Chrysalis ?
Chrysalis
is Open to members of any Christian denomination. Chrysalis is for the
development of Christian leaders who:
1.
Have a desire to
strengthen their spiritual lives
2.
May have
unanswered questions about their faith
3.
Understand that
being a Christian involves responsibility
4.
Are willing to
dedicate their everyday lives to God in an ongoing manner
What
happens on the Chrysalis Weekend?
You will
enjoy three days of singing, learning, laughing, worshiping, reflecting, praying
and participating in small groups. Discussions center around fifteen talks given
by youth and adult laity and clergy. These talks present the theme of God’s
grace, how that grace comes alive in the Christian community and how it is
expressed in the world. You’ll also discover how grace is real in your life, how
you live a life of grace, and how you bring that grace to others.
You will
have the opportunity to participate in the daily celebration of Holy Communion
and to understand more fully the body of Christ. You will experience God’s grace
through the prayers and acts of anonymous service offered by the Chrysalis
community. You will leave with an experience of Christian love in action that
will equip you for new levels of grace-filled service and
leadership.
What
Happens After the Chrysalis Weekend?
You are invited
to have a closer walk with Christ for the rest of your life; this is called the
Fourth Day.
Those who attend a Chrysalis Weekend are encouraged
to:
Expand
their own spiritual lives through worship, study and active participation in
their local church
Become
more active disciples of Christ in service to the
world
To nurture this
process of discipleship, the Chrysalis movement offers specific opportunities.
First, groups of four to six people meet weekly to reflect on their spiritual
journey and encourage one another in accountable discipleship. Second, there are
monthly community gatherings where Chrysalis participants meet for fellowship,
worship and instruction. Third, community members are regularly informed of the
support needs of upcoming Chrysalis weekends, and other opportunities for
servant leadership.
Chrysalis
is a Journey with Christ
Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is
here! - 2 Cor. 5:17
A
Chrysalis weekend is an experience of Christian spiritual renewal and formation
that begins with a three-day short course in Christianity. It is an opportunity
to meet Jesus Christ in a new way as God’s grace and love is revealed to you
through other believers.
The
Chrysalis experience begins with the prayerful discernment and invitation from a
sponsor. After one accepts this invitation they complete an application. The
Chrysalis leaders prayerfully consider each applicant and in God’s time, the
person is invited to attend a three-day experience of New Testament Christianity
as a lifestyle.
Following the
three-day experience, participants are joined in small groups to support each
other in their ongoing walk with Christ. Through the formational process of
accountable discipleship in small groups and participation in the Chrysalis
community, each participant’s individual gifts and servant-leadership skills are
developed for use in the local church and its mission. Participants are
encouraged to find ways to live out their individual call to discipleship in
their home, church, and community.
The
objective of Chrysalis is to inspire, challenge, and equip the local church
members for Christian action in their homes, churches, communities and places of
work. Chrysalis lifts up a way for our grace-filled lives to be lived and shared
with others.
Although
this text refers to Emmaus, it is equally true for
Chrysalis:
The Walk
to Emmaus® is grounded theologically and institutionally in The Upper Room
ministry unit of the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist
Church. However, The Walk to Emmaus is ecumenical. The program invites and
involves the participation of Christians of many denominations. Emmaus is
ecumenical not only because members of many denominations participate, but
because Emmaus seeks to foster Christian unity and to reinforce the whole
Christian community. This is one of the great strengths and joys of the Emmaus
movement.
The fact
that Emmaus is ecumenical does not mean it is theologically indifferent. On the
contrary, The Walk to Emmaus is designed to communicate with confidence and
depth the essentials of the Christian life, while accentuating those features
that Christians have traditionally held in common.
The Upper
Room Walk to Emmaus is a tightly designed event that is conducted with
discipline according to a manual that is universally standard. Emmaus is offered
only with the permission and under the guidelines of The Upper Room. This
ensures a proven format and a common experience that should be trustworthy from
weekend to weekend wherever Emmaus is being offered.
Each community is
administered locally through its local Board of Directors. The program is
administered globally through the International Emmaus office in Nashville,
Tennessee, USA.
The Walk to Emmaus is an adaptation
of the Roman Catholic Cursillo (pronounced cur-SEE-o) Movement, which originated
in Spain in 1949. Cursillo de Cristianidad means "little course in
Christianity." The original Cursillo leaders designed the program to empower
persons to transform their living and working environments into Christian
environments. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Episcopalians and Lutherans, along
with several nondenominational groups, such as Tres Dias, began to offer
Cursillo. In 1978, The Upper Room of the General Board of Discipleship adapted
the program for a primarily Protestant audience and began to offer it under the
name The Upper Room Cursillo. In 1981, The Upper Room made further adaptations
and changed the name of the program to The Upper Room Walk to Emmaus. In 1984,
The Upper Room developed a youth expression of Emmaus called Chrysalis.
—from What Is
Emmaus? Copyright The Upper Room. "Reprinted from the Chrysalis®
International Newsletter, Used with permission."
Copyright ©
2020 West Tennessee Emmaus
and The Upper Room. All rights reserved.
