Emmaus should follow college,
not fraternity, model

The Walk to Emmaus is supposed to work like the traditional notion of college.
People grow up in their hometown and receive a good education through the local schools. Some go to college, where they receive an advanced education. They return to their hometowns to become community leaders.
The college organizes alumni associations and class reunions to foster the relationships formed and continue the college’s educational mission. The college sponsors continuing education programs to keep alumni abreast of advancements in their fields. A handful of alumni even return to become professors.
The Emmaus program reflects this model.
Local congregations convert, teach and nurture Christians. Some go to walks, where they receive advanced education. They return to their local congregations to become Christian leaders.
The Emmaus program organizes gatherings to foster relationships formed and support more walks. Continuing education and accountability happen in reunion groups. A handful of Emmaus alumni are called by Christ to return as team servants.
That is how the Emmaus program is supposed to work. But a competing model has been adopted in some quarters. It is closely associated with a college fraternity.
In the fraternity model, pledges are solicited from students by current fraternity members. These pledges go through an initiation before they are accepted into the brotherhood. After the initiation, they are allowed to participate in fraternity functions.
In this model, walks become the initiation. Pilgrims become the pledges. Emmaus becomes a fraternity within the church.
Emmaus-as-college is the intended model and serves the church, especially The United Methodist Church, well. The connectional nature of Emmaus matches the connectional nature of The United Methodist Church, and the notion of advanced leadership training for the laity parallels the concept of the lay speaker.
Tensions surrounding Emmaus in the San Antonio area come from these competing models. The main difference is that the Emmaus-as-college approach looks outward to the ministry of Christ in the world. The Emmaus-as-fraternity approach looks inward.
Emmaus fraternities turn to serving themselves with their own projects and events instead of becoming Christian leaders in their denominations and in society at large.
As a result, the multi-congregational communities chartered to present walks find participation declining. Smaller churches are becoming disenfranchised.
The Walk to Emmaus program needs to be refocused on its original intent. Emmaus alumni need to be reminded that the walk is training they have attended, not an organization they have joined.
Pilgrims need to be challenged on whether they are responding to a call from God into strengthening their ministry or simply being urged to join a club.
Team members need to step out of the comfortable to work with Christians they don’t know to nurture the faith of strangers in obedience of the Divine command to “Love thy neighbor.”
This refocusing won’t be easy. Emotions run deep. As the focus changes from the internal preservation of the club outward to the fulfillment of Christ’s Great Commission, the clubs will feel threatened and resist.
The task, though difficult, is worth undertaking. There really is no other program so successful in uniting the body of Christ in the San Antonio area across so many churches and denominations.
The Walk to Emmaus is a journey, not a destination, a class, not a club. Emmaus is a place to visit, not a place to stay.