The Walk to Emmaus is a spiritual renewal program

intended to strengthen the local church through the development of

Christian disciples and leaders.

Are you currently serving in a leadership role or a support

position in your home church?

The Walk to Emmaus experience begins with a

72-hour short course in Christianity, comprised of fifteen talks by lay and clergy on the themes of God's grace, disciplines of Christian discipleship, and what it means to be the church.

Do you sense the Holy Spirit nudging you to a new level of

participation in your home church?

The course is wrapped in prayer and meditation, special times of worship and daily celebration of

Holy Communion.

The "Emmaus community," made up of those who have attended an

Emmaus weekend, support the 72-hour experience with a

prayer vigil.

During and after the three days, Emmaus leaders encourage pilgrims

to meet regularly in reunion groups.

The members of the reunion groups challenge and support one another

in faithful living.

Are you currently meeting with a reunion group?

If not, have you considered joining one or even starting a new one?

You can start with as few as two or three.

Pilgrims seek to Christianize their environments of family, job, and community through the ministry

of their congregations.

Although connected through The Upper Room to

The United Methodist Church, The Walk to Emmaus is ecumenical.

(representing the whole of a body of churches )

The program invites and involves the participation of Christians of many

denominations.

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 Walk to Emmaus is a tightly designed event

that is conducted with discipline according to a manual that is

universally standard.

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.

Emmaus of Southeast Michigan

Find your Board of Directors as well as much more information

about your community atemsem.org

The Walk to Emmaus® gets its name from the story in

Luke 24:13-35, which provides the central image

for the three-day experience and follow-up.

Luke tells the story of that first Easter afternoon when the risen Christ

appeared to the two disciples who were walking together

along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

Like Christians and churches who are blinded by preoccupation

with their own immediate difficulties, these two disciples'

sadness and hopelessness seemed to prevent them from

seeing God's redemptive purpose in things that had happened.

And yet, the risen Christ “came near and went with them,"

opening the disciples' eyes to his presence

and lighting the fire of God's love in their hearts.

The Walk to Emmaus offers today's disciples a parallel opportunity to rediscover Christ's presence

in their lives, to gain fresh understanding of

God's transforming grace, and to form friendships

that foster faith and support spiritual maturity.

A sponsor is a person who has been through an Emmaus experience and

is willing to share that experience with another new Emmaus pilgrim.

Find Sponsor applications at

emsem.org

The sponsor frees the pilgrim participant from any personal

responsibilities that might distract him or her while on the

experience.

Sponsorship also undergirds each pilgrims 72-hour experience

with prayer and other expressions of God's love.

Sign up for the 72 hour prayer vigil at

emsem.org

According to the dictionary, a sponsor is one who takes

responsibility for another. The suffix "-ship" refers to the skill

involved in the activity.

So sponsorship is the skill of taking responsibility for another.

The aim of a sponsor should not be "to get all my friends to go,"

to “fill up the weekend”,

to “fix people's problems”, or

to “reproduce one's own religious experience” in others.

The aim of sponsorship is to build up the body of Christ.

Pray for the pilgrims openness to God's call to discipleship.

Make an appointment with the pilgrim(or pilgrim couple)

to discuss his or her participation in Emmaus.

Pilgrim applications are available at

emsem.org

Invite the pilgrim to take part in Emmaus for the sake of a more vital

relationship with Jesus Christ.

The sponsor shares his or her faith, explains the basic purpose,

elements, and follow-up dimensions of the Walk.

Ask the pilgrim to make a commitment

by filling out a registration form.

If the participant is married, the sponsor will speak with

both partners and encourage an equal commitment by

both spouses.

The sponsor will also support the pilgrims family

by house-sitting, baby-sitting, watering plants, picking up mail,

feeding pets, or just checking in with a spouse to see if any help or

support is needed.

Encourage the pilgrim in his/her continued journey and take the pilgrim to Emmaus "gatherings" after the Walk weekend is over.

Help the pilgrim re-enter his or her church and consider ways to act

out new commitment and enthusiasm.

Help the pilgrimsponsor others.

As pilgrims conclude their Walk to Emmaus weekends,

they are introduced to the concept of the Fourth Day -- a symbol of the

days of Christian pilgrimage that follow the three-day

Emmaus experience.

"the whole reason for The Walk to Emmaus is to make you a more

faithful disciple and active member in your church."

An important and necessary foundation for faithful Christian living is a vital connection to the Christian community for support,

guidance, and challenge.

The Emmaus group reunion is a small accountability group of two to six persons who have usually (not always) participated in the three-day Walk to Emmaus and

who want to continue their pursuit of a life lived wholly in the

grace of God.

With the regular support of a few faithful friends, the gift of God's love in Jesus Christ becomes a

lifestyle of Christian discipleship through the threefold discipline of

piety, study, and action.

The Fourth Day meeting (Reunion Group)

consists of persons' sharing the stories of their walk with Christ

during the past week.

Reunion group members listen to one another, celebrate the grace of God in each person's life, and

reinforce each one's core commitment to living in union with Christ in all facets of daily

life.

Reunion group members express that reinforcement

through gentle accountability, encouragement, and support of one's stated discipline and plans.

A mature Christian is an informed Christian -- informed about the

mind and heart of God by knowing scripture.

Study, like piety, can be approached in an

intentional, systematic way, resulting in a deepening of your

relationship with God and an empowering of your

Christian discipleship.

Reunion groups provide a natural launching pad for

mission in the community.

Shared engagement in service to others

deepens friendships and opens up avenues for

Christian action.

Some local Emmaus communities take on ministries in their

communities as an act of agape.

Do you remember how much your Walk to Emmaus meant to you?

It would not have been possible without the prayer and sacrifice

of your sponsor.

You can share God's love with someone you know by

sponsoring him or her during an Emmaus weekend.

The sole purpose of the Emmaus Movement is to strengthen disciples

within the ministry of individual congregations.

Emmaus is in partnership with the local church to inspire its leaders

to become more effective and intentional

in their ministry. . .

The Emmaus movement does not exist primarily for the weekend Walks.

Emmaus gives pilgrims the skills needed for leadership and invites them to make the

commitment needed to build up the church for the sake of Jesus

Christ.

"What has the EMMAUS weekend meant to you?" and "What are you

going to do with it?"

Help pilgrims begin to comprehend the kind of servant leadership that

God may require of them in the future.

Decolores