Every youth who attends Chrysalis has a "sponsor" who supports and encourages him/her before, during, and after the Chrysalis 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. And in doing so you, the sponsor, participate in and demonstrate God's outreaching love.

Sponsorship is taken for granted in many communities. The assumption is that everyone knows the how and why of 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 and Jourmeys. It is more than simply "signing youth up." 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 Christians as disciples of Jesus Christ through churches and their youth groups. Every sponsor should reflect upon his or her motivation for wanting to sponsor another youth and make sure it is consistent with this aim.
Reasons NOT to sponsor someone are:

• "to get all of my friends to go"
• to fix a young person's problems or crisis
• to have a full weekend
• to reproduce one's own religious experience in others

• 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.
  
  Go to the "Download" page to download an application or click "Online Applications" to file your caterpillars application online.