Chrysalis Reimagined

by | Jun 1, 2021 | IndyEmmaus

For those who don’t know what Chrysalis is, it is a part of the Emmaus Ministries family.  It is the high school youth version of the Walk to Emmaus.  

“Chrysalis is designed as a spiritually formative experience for young people in a distinct stage of life and faith formation.  As a part of the Emmaus Ministries family, Chrysalis helps to renew and strengthen the spiritual lives of young people in secondary school, often fourteen to eighteen years old, in an adolescent stage of their formation. It is designed to give these young people a model of what ongoing spiritual formation can look like, in their life now and in the next season of life.  As with all Emmaus Ministries, this purpose does not come to full realization during the Chrysalis weekend itself but in the many days that follow. During the Chrysalis weekend, young people are grounded in God’s love, experience ongoing positive support, try new spiritual practices, and have an opportunity to expand their spiritual leadership in a community of peer.”  (Chrysalis Leaders’ Manual, 7)

The Greater Indianapolis Area Emmaus community was working on holding Flights in 2020 when COVID struck. Since then we have been on hold . . . waiting.   As with all things, this has been God’s time.   During the time since the Flights were cancelled, an Advisory committee from the Upper Room has been reviewing and re-writing the Chrysalis Flights weekend.  They have poured their hearts and prayers into the new and revised program for Flights!!  There are new manuals, new talks, and a new 3 day schedule! 

In May, the Upper Room sponsored a Chrysalis Relaunch Virtual Celebration.  People from all over the world gathered to celebrate the release of the new Chrysalis program.  They were so passionate about sharing God’s Love with our youth.  During the celebration, the people who wrote the new program shared with us the many learnings and how we can launch the new program.  I could feel God’s Love flowing over the proceedings.  I have been attending trainings for the last several months to learn about the new program.  All I can say is WOW!! 

As with all changes, there is good and bad.  Some parts of the Chrysalis weekend are gone, however, for those that have attended Chrysalis many of your favorite parts of the weekend will still be there and there are new exciting replacements for the parts that are gone. 

What is the same?

  • There is a theme for each of the three days.
  • There will be talks given by Clergy, Youth and Lay speakers.
  • There will be discussion and sharing by table groups.
  • There will be worship, prayer and fellowship.
  • There will be communion.
  • There will be an Agape dinner and candlelight.
  • There will be free time with games and time to get to know each other.
  • There will be great meals and lots of snacks.

What has changed?

  • The language has been updated in the manuals (i.e. no more instructing participants to “turn off their pagers”).
  • A few talks have been combined and others replaced by new ones.
  • There is an updated worship booklet.
  • There are updates to the team structure, with youth and adults serving side-by-side.
  • The talk guides are updated so that the talk-writing experience for both youth and adults will be a time of reflection.
  • There is a new communion experience where participants will be serving one another at their tables.
  • A new direction and use for the “caterpillar to butterfly” analogy, where we will be celebrating the “Chrysalis Moments” of our lives – those ways in which transformation occurs as an ongoing process.


What is next?

There has never been a better time to kick off the new Chrysalis program in Indianapolis and Central Indiana.  The new weekends are going to be amazing!  

A group of Emmaus and Tres Dias brothers and sisters are going to start meeting and reviewing all of the new material.  They are going learn the new program and start putting together the next Flights which we hope to have in the summer of 2022.

Would you like to be part of the new Reimagined Chrysalis experience in Indiana?  We would love to have you join us.  Contact Jannell Gunn at [email protected] or 317-989-5892 for more information on Chrysalis.

DeColores and Fly with Christ!!