What should I know before attending?

 Emmaus® is for church persons. Emmaus® is designed for active church members and their leaders who want to rekindle their faith or renew their vision. Less active church members who are seeking to renew a relationship with God, to grow spiritually, or to discover firmer foundations for their lives may benefit from Emmaus® also. However, Emmaus® is not an evangelistic outreach to non-Christians. The content of the Walk assumes a certain familiarity with the basics of the Christian faith and tries to build on each person’s positive relationship with the church.

Emmaus® is for people who want to grow spiritually and mature as disciples of Jesus Christ. Emmaus® is for persons who want to build up the church in love and to contribute to its ministry.

The Emmaus® Walk is mainstream in theological outlook.  It is traditional and true to the Biblical and Protestant roots. .Emmaus® has room for a great variety of Christians who seek to grow, share, and give themselves to a three-day walk with Christ. Emmaus® is a common meeting ground for the great diversity of Christians in our churches who celebrate their unity in Christ and feel they can learn from one another, be they traditionalists, evangelicals, liberals, conservatives, activists, charismatics, and especially all those who seek to follow Christ without regard to labels and camps.

 Emmaus® is for building faith and discipleship, not for working through grief or psychological problems. Emmaus® teams are not trained for counseling or group therapy. If you tend toward preoccupation with working through personal dilemmas, consider waiting to go to Emmaus® when you feel freer to focus on the message of the Walk.

 Emmaus® is for fostering unity in Christ, not for theological debate and arguments about denominations. Emmaus® tries to foster appreciation and openness to the different faith-perspectives of the participants. Bring a spirit of Christian tolerance and charity toward others, including members of other denominations. If you cannot affirm your unity with other kinds of Christians, if you tend to define Christianity narrowly and legalistically or are intolerant of those who see things differently, then Emmaus® is probably not for you.

Emmaus® is a concentrated three-day course in Christianity, not a relaxing retreat. Don’t bring work from the office or have hopes of taking an afternoon off to read. Except for break times, Emmaus® is a very full experience. Come with empty hands and open hearts, planning to give yourself completely to the Emmaus® Walk.

Emmaus® is a training course for church leadership.  People who take a walk and then become a part of the community and participate in putting on other walks will learn a great deal about Church leadership.  They will learn how to surround church ministry with prayer and love. Many will learn to speak in church gatherings or pray publicly. They will learn deeply about the theological basics of traditional and Biblical faith.  They will learn to pray for others in silence and in group spoken prayer.  Also they will learn how to speak about the faith if they chose to give talks on a walk.  And they will learn about planning church ministry and how to work as a team.  The goal of Emmaus® is to train church leaders and encourage them to be active in the community for a few years and them put their time and energy back in their church as a leader.

Most Emmaus® workers are very active leaders in their churches while working with Emmaus®.