Chrysalis
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"The information describing Chrysalis on this page is reprinted from the Chrysalis pages of the Upper Room website with permission. Please note that this information is copyrighted by the Upper Room."
What is Chrysalis? Before it becomes a butterfly, a caterpillar goes through a growth stage during which it is called a "chrysalis." On the surface it may not look like much is happening, but the delicate chrysalis process changes the fuzzy caterpillar into an awesome butterfly with wings of intricate designs and intense colors. The chrysalis process symbolizes how Christ can transform you into something beyond your dreams. It happens when you grow beyond yourself, opening your life to Jesus' power and love.
"Chrysalis" is the name chosen for the youth and young adult version of The Walk to Emmaus, its parent movement, because it symbolizes the spiritual growth that is essential between adolescence and adulthood. That growth is as crucial for youth as the cocoon is for the caterpillar. It is that precious time of nurturing a person's faith for discipleship.
Chrysalis "Flights" (for 10th through 12th graders) and "Journeys" (for young adults, ages 19-24) are three-day events. This three-day spiritual renewal time provides an opportunity for you to learn more about faith, to experience Christian love and support, and to make new faith commitments. The point is to inspire, challenge and equip you for a closer friendship with Christ and for Christian action at home, church, school, and community.
Chrysalis lifts up a way for you to enjoy Christ's friendship and love and to be Christ's friend and partner in the world. The three days focus on God's grace, your experience with Christ as friend, what it means to be the body of Christ, and giving love to a needy world.
What happens on a Chrysalis flight? You'll spend three days with other people your age in worship, prayer, fellowship, creative expression, recreation, singing, and discussion. You'll experience the love of God through prayers and the acts of service from a loving support community. Think of it as three days for you to discover or re-discover you spiritual self, to analyze and realize who you are in Christ.
You'll hear talks that focus on the needs of maturing youth or young adults, offer the message of the gospel and the friendship and example of Jesus Christ. Each day speakers present topics with life examples, followed by discussion, reflection, and creative expression of how these messages can encourage your personal faith.
[Adapted from Chrysalis Flight and Chrysalis Journey brochures, available free in The Upper Room Bookstore.]
How to get involved: Chrysalis is open to upper high school students and young adults (ages 19-24) of any Christian denomination. We invite you to join in a flight or journey, an exciting three days of experiencing God's love in a fresh new way. Spread your wings. It's a new day!
Next Steps: Chrysalis is more than a three-day mountaintop experience for young people. The three-day experience aims to deepen young people's experience of God's companionship for everyday life and to strengthen their commitment to follow Jesus back into their familiar environments of friendships, school, family, church, and work. Chrysalis supports young people's return to the world as butterflies by encouraging and strengthening their local church and youth group connections. Chrysalis also provides follow-up through Next Step Groups and "Hoots." "Hoots" are larger, less frequent, gatherings of all of the young people and adults in an area who have participated in Chrysalis for the purpose of renewing relationships, rekindling the fire of faith, and planning to support upcoming Chrysalis weekends.
Groups and Hoots: Next Step Groups are small groups of young people who have been on a Chrysalis Flight or Journey. The groups are designed to keep the spirit of the Chrysalis weekend alive and staying in relationship to help one another live in the light of God's love as disciples of Jesus Christ. At the end of a Chrysalis weekend, participants are broken into groups by churches, schools, or towns. In some communities, young people divide themselves into groups by regular times and days when they would be able to meet.
After the Chrysalis experience is over, Next Steps groups meet regularly to participate in a time of sharing based on the Next Steps Card (a card received during the Chrysalis weekend).
"Hoots" are larger, less frequent, gatherings of all of the young people and adults in an area who have participated in Chrysalis for the purpose of renewing relationships, rekindling the fire of faith, and planning to support upcoming Chrysalis weekends.
Heart of SunCoast Chrysalis
You should check with the Heart of SunCoast Chrysalis website for up-to-date information at Heart of SunCoast Chrysalis