Emerge
is specifically for young people ages 14 –
18. It is not a program but a strategy
– a sketch pad for youth
leaders. The
guidelines and resources are here. It is now
your turn to get creative and allow your
youth group to
Emerge into the masterpiece
it can be. There are four areas of Emerge:
Knowledge, Community, Mission and Devotion.
The Goal of
Emergeis to give teens the knowledge, spiritual,
physical and mental, they need to choose
life with
their Creator in a God-glorifying
way.
THERE ARE FOUR AREAS OF EMERGE
Knowledge
Includes teaching and
discipleship as well as learning about the world
around them. This is a leader’s to exhort
young people opportunity and allows them to discern what
God is speaking into their lives.
Community Includes hospitality, fellowship, shepherding and
nurture. This needs to be more than a weekly
volleyball game or “fun” time. Adolescents
need people to “be there” for them. This is an
opportunity for teens to be heard by you and others.
Mission Includes witness and serving – helping and healing
others. This could take the form of League of
Mercy or a Service Project for the corps/community.
Adolescents need pilgrimage.
Devotion This is not to be mistaken with Knowledge.
This includes liturgy, praise and/or public worship.
This is a teen’s opportunity to proclaim the
passionate love of God while giving thanks and
praising Him. Knowledge is a teen’s
opportunity to understand him mentally.
Devotion is a teen’s opportunity to understand him
emotionally and to express his/her emotions to God.
TOOLS TO ASSIST YOU!
This is not a curriculum.
It is highly recommended, however, that during each meeting you
include the following practices in your session:
Refine
– the external practice of releasing sin. Choosing to let go of
the hold the world has upon us. This could take the form of
choosing not to watch TV for one week or choosing not to swear
for one week. It is a challenge that might differ from week to
week or might remain for a month or more. This practice helps
teens release the power the world has upon them so that they can
focus more deeply upon Christ and who He is.
Pursue
– external practices can only reach so far without an inward
understanding. “Practices of illumination invite young people
into a deeper awareness of God by challenging them to pursue
holiness in the company of others,”writes Kenda Creasy
Dean in Practicing Passion. These practices seek
Christ’s presence in daily life. They are intentional,
day-to-day faithfulness. This could take the shape of your
adolescents choosing to pray for 5 minutes at the same time each
morning or even creating a phone tree to encourage each other to
do so.
It could even mean that they choose to memorize a
Scripture verse or passage that week. Perhaps it even means
that they break into groups and discuss a passage of Scripture
with an adult either during an Emerge meeting or outside of an
Emerge meeting. They then choose whether or not to continue
these habits.
Unite
–these practices empty us (not just our teens)
completely of our own desires and plans. They allow us to
focus completely on Christ and his grace. These practices take the
form of contemplative prayer, washing one another’s feet, and
liturgy, to name a few. This could resemble practicing
listening prayer or Praying the Bible. It could resemble a
meditation time where youth read Scripture and ask the Lord to
reveal to them what He wants them to know.
It could also
contain physical elements such as a Love Feast.
Note:
Emerge puts a lot of emphasis on mentoring relationships for your
teens. We do, however, recognize that every corps may not have
enough adult members to make mentoring relationships a possibility.
If that is not an option, please continue to use the Emerge strategy but disregard the mentoring facet. In
time, we do hope that your teens will find a mentor they can
trust to go to with their concerns, prayer requests and
lives.
