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Sponsoring |
Click HERE for Responsibilities of a Sponsor |
The Aim of Sponsorship
Every youth who attends Chrysalis has a "sponsor" who supports and encourages them before, during, and after the Chrysalis weekend experience. Sponsorship is the way in which the Chrysalis experience is passed on from person to person, reflecting the manner in which God purposefully reaches out to people through other people.
After a Chrysalis weekend, you may want to share the gift of those three days with others. Sponsorship provides you with a caring and disciplined way to share. In doing so, you, the sponsor, participate in and demonstrate God's amazing love.
Sponsorship can be taken for granted, but this should never happen. The assumption is that everyone knows the "how" and "why" or sponsorship. Sometimes sponsorship is only discussed with reference to the number of participants signed up for a Chrysalis weekend.
Make no mistake - Sponsorship is the most important job in the Chrysalis movement. It is a job shared by the adults who have been through Emmaus and the youth who have been through Chrysalis flights and journeys. It is more than simply "signing youth up" for Chrysalis.
The importance of a Chrysalis community being educated about good sponsorship cannot be overemphasized. The quality of sponsorship impacts the new participants, the health and effectiveness of the Chrysalis movement, and the churches being affected by Chrysalis.
The aim of sponsorship is the same as the aim of Chrysalis: the spiritual growth of young Christian as disciples of Jesus Christ through churches and their youth groups. Every sponsor should reflect upon their motivation for wanting to sponsor another youth, and make sure it is consistent with this aim.
Some examples of mistaken aims:
Sponsorship can be motivated, however, by a number of hopes and prayers for youth which are consistent with the aim of Chrysalis. These include giving youth the gift of three days:
Every youth who attends Chrysalis has a "sponsor" who supports and encourages them before, during, and after the Chrysalis weekend experience. Sponsorship is the way in which the Chrysalis experience is passed on from person to person, reflecting the manner in which God purposefully reaches out to people through other people.
After a Chrysalis weekend, you may want to share the gift of those three days with others. Sponsorship provides you with a caring and disciplined way to share. In doing so, you, the sponsor, participate in and demonstrate God's amazing love.
Sponsorship can be taken for granted, but this should never happen. The assumption is that everyone knows the "how" and "why" or sponsorship. Sometimes sponsorship is only discussed with reference to the number of participants signed up for a Chrysalis weekend.
Make no mistake - Sponsorship is the most important job in the Chrysalis movement. It is a job shared by the adults who have been through Emmaus and the youth who have been through Chrysalis flights and journeys. It is more than simply "signing youth up" for Chrysalis.
The importance of a Chrysalis community being educated about good sponsorship cannot be overemphasized. The quality of sponsorship impacts the new participants, the health and effectiveness of the Chrysalis movement, and the churches being affected by Chrysalis.
The aim of sponsorship is the same as the aim of Chrysalis: the spiritual growth of young Christian as disciples of Jesus Christ through churches and their youth groups. Every sponsor should reflect upon their motivation for wanting to sponsor another youth, and make sure it is consistent with this aim.
Some examples of mistaken aims:
- "to get all of my friends to go"
- to have a full weekend
- to fix a young person's problems or crisis
- to reproduce one's own religious experience in others
Sponsorship can be motivated, however, by a number of hopes and prayers for youth which are consistent with the aim of Chrysalis. These include giving youth the gift of three days:
- to experience the accepting and healing grace of God through Christian community
- to realize they are precious in God's eyes, that they are here on this earth for a holy purpose
- to discuss without judgment their questions and struggles as young persons with peers and mature Christian adults
- to hear anew the gospel of God's love in Jesus Christ and the basics of Christian faith and life
- to make friends with other youth who share the faith and will support each other in living as Christians
- to develop relationships with mature Christian adults, relationships which might extend beyond the three days
- to be strengthened in their decisions to follow Jesus
- to be better prepared to live as Christian witnesses in home, school, church, and community
- to learn what goes into building their lives and relationships on a solid foundation
- to bring new vitality to the church youth group upon returning, to inspire the sponsorship of other youth, to energize the body of Christ through young people whose hearts are on fire with the love of Christ
© 2019 Chrysalis C.A.R.E.S.
