Progression of Servanthood*

Primary Emmaus Objectives
Many people coming off of an Emmaus weekend want to know how they can get back into the conference room on a team. Just as on your weekend, let us get started with a consideration of priorities.

The Walk to Emmaus movement has three objectives:
1. To strengthen individual's personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
2. To return strong lay leaders to the church.
3. To encourage people to Christianize their environment.

The first step is to strengthen your relationship. Reevaluate your personal priorities. Set aside time for prayer and study. If you are church shopping or visiting, then start by becoming a member of a church body. Consider your commitment of resources to your church - your financial giving, your time spent on in-reach programs and on outreach missions. Remember the three legs of the stool: Piety, Study and Action. Join or start a Reunion Group, it will help you remain accountable for your personal growth.

The next step is to consider your leadership role within your church. Are you actively serving your church on committees, in the choir, teaching Sunday school, working with the youth program, leading a mission project? The opportunities and needs are limitless. Please keep your church ahead of Emmaus. It is not our goal to become a substitute church or to drain resources from the church. Instead we want to be an encouragement and a source of renewal to the church body.

Thirdly, consider your impact on your environment. Start with your own immediate family. Pray with your spouse and children. Protect your meditation and study time as a high priority. Demonstrate that seeking God's will is an important part of your personal and family decision process. Consider being more visibly Christian in your work environment. Be kind, fair and honest in your dealings. Politely tell people when their behavior is offensive to you. When people ask you why you are different, openly share your faith with them. Model Christian behavior in the community - on the highway, at sporting events, in the store. Be someone others want to know and be like.

Another way to think about this is that our Fourth Days are a journey - from passive spectator to active participant; from consumer to producer; from the self-actualizing served to the self-sacrificing servant!

Learning through Service
Now let's talk about your involvement in the Cape Fear Emmaus community. We believe that the Emmaus experience changes almost everyone that goes on a walk. Historically, about one third of those become active in our community. We hope you will be one of them! It starts with participation. Participate in our events. Join or begin a Reunion Group. Attend and participate in Gatherings. Attend Sendoff, Candlelight and Closing for each walk. There are many areas of service open to you. Serve behind the scenes; help with luggage, setup, transportation, etc. Participate in community training sessions.

On your walk you experienced agape love. That love is expressed through selfless service from members of the community - people like you! Your Reunion Group can make agape gifts to distribute on a walk. Sign up for the work areas needed to put on a walk through the Behind the Scenes Coordinator or a Board Member. The 72-hour prayer vigil is available for signing at Gathering and sendoff. If you can't make it to the Gathering, you may contact the board member responsible for a particular work area directly. You are likely to discover that this service is great source of renewal and joy!

A much more personal way you can provide agape love is to sponsor someone on a walk. This requires about a yearlong commitment to that person. It starts with explaining what Emmaus is about and answering their questions. There are booklets available through the Emmaus Library of the Upper Room that are wonderful resources to help you through the process. If they are married, you need to meet with them as a couple. You should encourage both of them to go on walks close together. If only one wants to go on the walk, it is your responsibility to get an assurance from both of them that Emmaus will not become a problem in their relationship. You need to get sponsor letters, arrange transportation and provide for any family needs (baby sitting, pet sitting, emergency numbers, etc.) while they are on the walk. You should plan to attend sendoff., candlelight, closing and follow-up. After their walk, you should help them get into a reunion group, bring them to their first gathering and candlelight and provide encouragement and support for their continued spiritual growth.

Every fall, the Cape Fear Emmaus community elects new members to its board of directors. Each class serves a three-year term and consists of four lay member positions and one clergy member position. The board selects a Community Lay Director and Community Spiritual Director from among its members. Each board position is responsible for one or more work areas. Each of these work areas needs volunteers to serve to make our community successful. The board usually meets six times per year. Board members are encouraged to attend all community events.

Conference Room Service
Cape Fear Emmaus teams are usually twenty-six people strong. The board selects the Lay Directors and Spiritual Directors each year for the following year's walks. Team formation starts five to six months prior to the walk. The Cape Fear Emmaus Board appoints a Team Selection Committee chaired by one board position and consisting of 4-7 experienced community members. The Team Selection Committee works with the Lay Director and Spiritual Director to select about 75 potential candidates for each team.

Each walk requires a team of people willing to make a significant commitment of time and energy to serving as a team member. Approximately five months before the walk, the Lay Director prayerfully selects the laity team members from the list provided by the Team Selection Committee, and assigns the talks and prayer partners. The Spiritual Director likewise selects the other four clergy team members and assigns the clergy talks. The Lay Director and the Spiritual Director distribute team and talk manuals to the team. Each talk has an outline that provides 50-75% of the material presented on the weekend. The rest comes from the personal experiences of the speaker. Each speaker develops his or her talk and posters from the outline. They often get input, suggestions and opportunities to practice their talk from spouses and reunion group members.

Each team has several training sessions, usually beginning about three months before the walk. This provides a time of team bonding, group worship, situation training and talk reviews. Team training requires at least 24 hours of quality training time and may be held as a weekend retreat or on a series of Saturdays. The first training session includes a board training session. The team board member explains the responsibilities of each team position and provides any other essential information that the community or board desires. All fifteen of the talks are previewed by the team and constructively transformed into the team talks. The final training session frequently includes a potluck or shared meal with spouses. After the walk weekend, all team members are asked to attend a follow-up meeting to critique the weekend experience and recommend improvements to the board.

The Cape Fear Emmaus community is committed to a team selection process that is intended to ensure fairness and proper preparation. We seek to have each team be representative of our community in age, location, race and denomination. There should be no more than three team members (excluding LD & SD) from the same church. Lay members are not considered by the Team Selection Committee until they have demonstrated a commitment to the community through attending community events and demonstrated a servants heart through serving on community support committees or serving behind the scenes. Lay members should not serve twice in the same calendar year or on two consecutive walks. The amount of weekend time commitment, in both training and the walk, currently requires us to relax these time restrictions for clergy members.

There is a progression of team positions based on learning through experience. All team members must be active in a church and should be members of a reunion group. Each team is roughly one-third first time team members, one-third on their second or third team, and one-third on their fourth or more. Each team has five clergy and eighteen or nineteen laity. All lay team members must be the same gender as the pilgrims on the walk. There must be one Cape Fear Emmaus board representative on each team, who is responsible for ensuring conformance to the Walk to Emmaus manual.

First time positions are Assistant Table Leader, Assistant Spiritual Director and Assistant Music Leader. Sometimes there will be a first time Table Leader as well. The team selection committee looks for people that have learned about putting on a walk by serving behind the scenes and participating in Gatherings. Given that each walk returns about twelve active members to our Emmaus community and needs six or seven first time team members, over time we will need about half of our active community to serve on a team.

These are the common "tracks" that people follow through the team positions:
Laity: ATL, (ATL,) TL, (TL), ALD, (ALD,) LALD, LD
Music: AML, (AML,) ML, … ML
Optionally, serve as ATL at least once, then join Lay track as ALD
Continue serving in both tracks
Clergy: ASD, ASD, (ASD,) SD… ASD/SD

Assistant Table Leaders (ATL) This is the starting place for conference room service. They help the table leader by modeling a cooperative pilgrim - they follow directions, are on time, help keep table discussions on topic, and encourage all pilgrims to participate.

Table Leaders (TL) give one of the lay talks. They are responsible for facilitating the talk reviews at the table. They need to encourage all pilgrims to participate and not let any one person dominate the discussion.

Assistant Lay Directors (ALD) give one of the key lay talks. They are responsible for keeping the weekend moving smoothly. Each day one of them is responsible for the conference room, one for the kitchen and one for that day's speakers. Teams will alternate between having one or two experienced ALDs. First time ALDs have previously been on at least two teams and have given at least one talk. Experienced ALDs have been an ALD before.

Lead Assistant Lay Director (LALD) is the operations manager for the weekend. They usually do not give a talk They have been an ALD two or three times previously.

Lay Director (LD) is the leader of the walk. They form and train the lay team. They give the Perseverance talk. They usually have been a LALD previously.

Assistant Music Leaders (AML) help lead the music. They may provide some of the special solos. Most importantly, they are there to learn how to select appropriate music during the walk's progress and how to transform music from performance to group worship.

Music Leaders (ML) are responsible for all of the music on the weekend. They should have been an AML at least once. They select what music is appropriate when. They teach the pilgrims community songs. They provide meditative solos during special services. They lead the conference room in worship through music.

Assistant Spiritual Directors (ASD) give one of the clergy "grace" talks. They also lead one or more of the meditations and are available to pilgrims (and team members) for spiritual counseling.

Spiritual Director (SD) is the spiritual leader of the walk. They form and train the clergy team. They give the Means of Grace talk and lead the Dying Moments communion service. They have been an ASD at least once previously.

Past Lay Directors traditionally do not serve on another team for at least a year. After five or more years of continuous service to our community, they deserve a rest! Because of their experience, they may be called upon to fill in when a team member must drop off a team or when there are no qualified candidates able to serve for a team position. They also are frequently sought to be on the Team Selection Committee.

The team's primary focus is self-sacrifice and service to the pilgrims on the walk. Our model for this was given to us by our Lord when He washed the feet of His disciples.

DeColores!

* This article was borrowed from the Heart of Carolina website and edited to match Cape Fear policies and practices. We gratefully acknowledge their permission to use this material.