Sponsorship

A Total Commitment

One of the most personal ways you can provide agape love is to sponsor someone on their Emmaus experience. A sponsor is a person who has been through an Emmaus (or similar) experience, is willing to share that experience with prospective participant and is active in their 4th Day by participating in a reunion group. The candidate should already be on a pilgrimage, willing to grow, and move forward in his/her journey of faith. They know that God has made a difference in their life and must be able to clear their plate to give full attention to the spiritual renewal experience for its duration, including the event’s follow-up activities. Note that Walk to Emmaus is not for people unwilling to accept diversity in beliefs and faith. It is not for new Christians nor inactive Christians. It is not to be used as a substitute for church attendance, nor 4th day small group participation. And it is not for those who are impatient, and cannot hear a dozen talks about faith and discuss those with others in order to grow in faith.

Watch Our Video On Sponsorship

Please watch our Sponsorship video on this page. It describes sponsorship in detail. Below are these same guidelines and the timeline for each step in text format as listed in the official Emmaus Sponsoring Guidebook. This video was produced by our own Grace Emmaus Community via the Board’s strategic brainstorm team on sponsorship. Note: If the embedded video image does not appear above, please go to: https://youtu.be/SX8nAvR-dpQ and enable your audio speakers to hear it.

Next Step: Learn the details and get the forms

Review the details of sponsorship by clicking this button. It contains the links to: PDF questions, sponsorship application, and where to pay the sponsorship registration fee. But first watch the video on this page and read the details below. Thanks!

Sponsorship Details and Forms

Here’s the text of the video on Sponsorship

(National Walk To Emmaus guidebook on sponsorship)

Step 1: PRAY (six months in advance)

Pray for discernment on who to sponsor. Watch the sponsorship video again. The Sponsor’s first responsibility is to pray for discernment. Take a list of names into your prayer room and share that list with God. Leave the list with God and wait for Him to reveal the name to you. It may not happen immediately. Just be patient and wait on God. Be aware of purposeful sponsorship (people ready to enter Emmaus) and questionable sponsorship (people not ready). Then pray for your pilgrim. Pray for when to discuss the walk with your potential pilgrim. Pray for God to guide you in the discussion. Pray for an openness of the potential Pilgrim’s heart for the Walk to Emmaus.

Step 2: MEET with the Potential Pilgrim (five months in advance)

Meet with your pilgrim to inform them about Emmaus. Pray for God to give you calmness, assurance, and perseverance. If your Pilgrim is married, it’s best to meet with both partners to discuss the Walk to Emmaus. The design of the Emmaus movement is to affirm the sanctity of marriage and commitment of spouses to each other. Presenting the information to both partners may preclude misunderstandings and lessen divisiveness. Share important aspects about the walk such as…

Tell when, where, and the time and length of the walk.
This is a Christian Renewal Retreat with approximately 35 women/men from different walks of life who are strangers, but who will become a close-knit Community.
The Pilgrim will experience the unconditional love of Jesus, which binds us all together.
The Pilgrims will experience strong Christian fellowship with support and reinforcement in their Emmaus Walk experience.
The Walk to Emmaus experience doesn’t end Sunday evening. It can continue your Spiritual growth and renewal if you become involved in a Reunion Group.
Give them time to think about these things before asking for a commitment.

Step 3: INVITE the Pilgrim to Attend Emmaus (four months in advance)

Extend the invitation. After they know about what Emmaus is all about, the invitation to them is a proposal from you to deepen your friendship with the objective to grow in grace. Meet in person, maybe over lunch or coffee.

Discuss the process. Explain everything on the form in a face to face meeting if possible. Answer questions. Request that the Potential Pilgrim prayerfully consider the opportunity to attend the Emmaus event. Ask the potential Pilgrim when you can check back for their response. Pray for the person. Don’t take a refusal personally. It may not be God’s timing or Emmaus may not be for this particular person.

Seek a commitment. Don’t be afraid to ask for a firm yes or no. Remember a ‘no’ is ok, but it just means it is not yet God’s timing.

Step 4: SUBMIT THE APPLICATION (three months in advance)

Explain the application questions. Give them your printed application questions, or email it to them. Explain everything on the form in a face to face meeting if possible. Answer questions. Request that the Potential Pilgrim prayerfully consider the opportunity to attend the Emmaus event. Ask the potential Pilgrim when you can check back for their response. Pray for the person. Don’t take a refusal personally. It may not be God’s timing or Emmaus may not be for this particular person.

Submit the on-line application to sponsor a pilgrim. Collect their answers on the application questions, and make sure that everything is filled out correctly. Check their answers to see if the Pilgrim has any critical needs that you need answered before you submit the on-line application. If you have any questions before you fill in the on-line registration, you can ask questions to the Registrar at graceemmaussponsorregistry@yahoo.com. Fill in the Sponsorship online form (in Step Three) with both your information as sponsor – and – the pilgrim’s information that was returned to you, and submit the on-line application form right away. Good sponsorship takes time, so try to do this before the first team meeting if possible, but our usual deadline is by the second team meeting.

The Pilgrim Registrar will inform the Sponsor when the Pilgrim is accepted. After you hear back from the Registrar that you pilgrim has been accepted, inform your Pilgrim of the good news, and remind that person to reserve the dates for the 72-hour experience by marking their calendar as a reminder.

Step 5: GATHER Agape Letters and PAY the sponsorship donation (two months in advance)

Send out request letters: Personal agape letters are important and should be done personally and individually. This may require some personal sleuthing on your part, so that your Pilgrim doesn’t find out what you’re doing. Begin with the emergency contact information on the forms. You should try to collect no more than 10 personal letters or so. Send individual invites, don’t send out an impersonal ’email blast’ to a group. Make the invitation personal and real. It will take you weeks and weeks to get just the right letters. This must be started eight weeks before the retreat.

Registration Costs for each Pilgrim: The Sponsor needs to pay the registration fee after your pilgrim is accepted by the Registrar. The cost is $35 if your registration form is submitted before the second (2nd) Team Meeting. It is $45 after that for a late registration. Send that in asap to the address in the letter your Registrar sends to you, or, pay by credit card at the team meeting prior to the walk. Remember the deadline to register pilgrims is the Second Team Meeting which happens about one month before the walk. You can pay that fee, after you receive confirmation that your pilgrim application has been accepted, at our Give menu on this site, or click here.

Step 6: PROVIDE FOR THEIR NEEDS (during several weeks before the weekend)

Provide detailed information. Contact your Pilgrim two weeks prior to their weekend and offer guidance on what to pack, help them with bedding needs, and discuss what NOT to bring. Provide encouragement and reassurance, which will help them prepare for the Emmaus experience.

Make sacrifices. Check on how you can help with family needs, child care needs, substitute Sunday School teaching, mow the lawn, and other support needs . Pray for your Pilgrim. Obstacles tend to present themselves as the weekend approaches. They will need your prayers of protection.

Step 7: SUPPORT (during the weekend)

Please plan to take your pilgrim to dinner before the Walk and be active during the weekend.

Choose a place to eat that is nearby the retreat, then assist with check-in. It’s best to take them out to dinner near the walk location to ensure you can also get to the walk at the right time. Remain with them until the call-out. Sponsors’ Hour is where you will pray over your Pilgrim’s cross. This will happen directly after the call-out, when all of the Pilgrims and team members have left to begin their weekend.
Attend sponsor’s hour, on-site, at the beginning of the walk
Sign up for the prayer vigil. It’s a good idea to sign the 72-hour prayer vigil. It’s very special for the Pilgrim when they see your name on that chart, too.
Check on your Pilgrim’s family and see if they need anything. You might take them a meal or have them over for supper on Friday night. If your Pilgrim lives alone, you may need to feed a pet or water plants, pick up the mail, or take out the trash. These are all acts of agape love and servanthood.
Attend Community Candlelight Service. Your attendance at the candlelight will be very meaningful. (Young children are not invited for Saturday night.)
Attend Closing and provide transportation home for your Pilgrim. Your attendance at closing will encourage your Pilgrim when they give their thoughts on the weekend’s experience. It will also give you a glimpse of their experience. You are their transportation and personal assistant in moving out.

Step 8: FOURTH DAY - Spiritually support them for one year after the Walk

Encourage 4th Day Involvement in Emmaus. Many find that working a walk gives more blessings than attending one. You job is not only to sponsor someone to attend a Walk - your sponsorship goes into their days, months and years after the walk to support them and encourage their spiritual growth.

Take the new Emmaus member to a 4th Day Gathering. You must invite them to this, just as you invited them to the walk. Ride together.
Connect them to our community. It is very important to get the new Emmaus Community Member involved in a reunion group. Help the new member learn about Emmaus and the many ways in which they can serve in the community and on a Walk. Teach your pilgrim how to be a good sponsor, or take them to an Emmaus Sponsorship training session.
Follow up with them and encourage them to get into a reunion group or other small group for accountability.
Help them focus their early enthusiasm into how they might sponsor someone to attend.
Assist them to find a church if they don’t have one.

The Grace Emmaus Community is strengthened by trained, committed sponsors. Add these steps to your Sponsorship ‘toolkit’ so that you can refer to them and put them into practice. Remember, Christ is Counting on you.

Grace Emmaus Specific Rules

Number of pilgrims accepted per walk: between 10 and 20 depending on the size of our church site.

Priority for acceptance: Pilgrims will be accepted on a “first come, first served” basis and will be ranked from 1 to the maximum number (cannot exceed 24 depending on facilities) in the order the requests are received by the Pilgrim Registrar. No other priority or ranking system shall be used. It must be clear that a pilgrim will only be placed on the list when all appropriate sponsorship paperwork (an on-line form seen in Step Two) is filed along with the Pilgrim Registration form submitted and sponsorship fees paid. Verbal requests are unofficial and will have no bearing on the list. No other person, including a Lay Director, has the authority to verbally accept a sponsor’s request or to officially accept sponsorship paperwork.
Waiting List Protocol: The Board of Directors and Registrar have rules for waiting lists once the Walk is full. Please contact the registrar to see those “first come, first serve” rules.
Acceptance of pilgrims whose significant other will not attend the walk. It is preferred that those in committed relationships attend the same set of walks. Certainly “single” pilgrims without a significant other will be accepted to attend the walk without prejudice. Also there may be situations that arise where one individual in a relationship will attend a walk alone. These situations will be evaluated by the Pilgrim Registrar on a case by case basis. The Pilgrim registrar will counsel with the potential pilgrims sponsor to determine the nature of the situation and the best course of action. Situations that would be appropriate for an individual to attend alone include: the other individual is physically or emotionally unable to attend the walk, the other individual is not a Christian, or the other individual has emphatically indicated they will never attend the walk. Certainly other situations may arise and these cases will be at the discretion of the Pilgrim Registrar and the executives of the Grace Emmaus Board. If the situation is simply that the other individual is not “ready” to attend the walk, the couple should be encouraged to attend a future walk when both will be willing to attend. The potential pilgrims sponsor will be responsible for communicating with the potential pilgrim regarding these matters.
Paying of Fees. As stated above registration of a pilgrim or potential pilgrim will only be official once the appropriate online form is filed with the Pilgrim Registrar and the appropriate fees are paid. (Cost is $35 for registration before the 2nd Team Meeting, and $45 for late registration after that.) The form will only be accepted by the Pilgrim Registrar if the forms are filled out correctly, include all appropriate signatures, and payment for the appropriate fees is submitted to the registrar or treasurer. Payment by credit card is now available at the Team Meetings. Paying the fees in full is strongly recommended but is not mandatory, especially for those with financial hardship. In such situations when some or all of the fees will not be paid, a brief comment to this affect should be included with the paper-work to avoid prejudice for not paying the fees. Once the paperwork is filed correctly and accepted, the Pilgrim Registrar will inform the sponsor if the pilgrim has been accepted to the official list or the official waiting list and will also inform the sponsor of the Pilgrims position on the list.
Persons with disabilities or medical conditions. It is intended that all who wish to come to the walk are invited to attend. However, situations may arise where a physical or emotional disability or a serious medical condition may limit a person’s ability to participate in or complete the walk. It is mandatory that the Sponsor include medical notes in the application form. In certain cases there may also be issues of liability for the Grace Emmaus Community or the facility hosting the walk. In these circumstances whether the potential Pilgrim will be allowed to attend the walk will be evaluated, on a case by case basis, by the Pilgrim Registrar, the potential Pilgrim’s sponsor and the executives of the Grace Emmaus Board.

(Per Grace Emmaus of Silicon Valley Guidelines for Pilgrim Acceptance 11/16/11 Rev 1.3)