Reflecting on the Future of Emmaus Ministries

As I write these words, I find myself filled with deep gratitude. 

Serving as the Director of Emmaus Ministries has been a great honor. Thank you for your friendship, your companionship, your prayers, your honesty, your patience, and your love for this ministry. Over the past year, I have had the privilege of walking alongside community leaders, pilgrims, team members, regional leaders, spiritual directors, sponsors, communicators, and volunteers from around the world who care deeply about creating spaces where people can encounter the grace of God. 

I will be wrapping up my time as Director of Emmaus Ministries on August 2. On August 3, I will begin serving as the Director of Children’s and Intergenerational Ministries with Discipleship Ministries. This transition comes after much prayer and discernment. Ministry with children, families, and intergenerational communities has long been a deep calling in my life, and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue serving the wider church through this new role. At the same time, I remain deeply thankful that I will continue serving within the broader connection of Discipleship Ministries and The Upper Room family. 

Over these next couple of months, my focus will be on helping prepare Emmaus for a healthy and sustainable transition — strengthening systems, communication pathways, support structures, and ongoing projects so that the next director and the communities we serve are well supported moving forward. 

Because Emmaus has never simply been a weekend. It is a movement of ordinary people seeking to follow Jesus together. 

And together, we have done important work. 

Over the last several years, we have been discerning where God is leading Emmaus in this next season of ministry. We have listened carefully to the realities many communities are facing: rising costs, aging leadership, fewer pilgrims and team members, volunteer exhaustion, and concerns that some people who are longing for community and grace have felt excluded or unable to participate. 

Emmaus is already on a course of thoughtful adaptation rooted in the realities facing communities around the world. Rather than responding with fear, I am encouraging you to be courageous and to trust the movement of the Holy Spirit. 

Together, we are reclaiming the grassroots roots of Emmaus — remembering that this ministry began as an adaptive lay movement grounded in accessibility, community, and grace. Edward Bonnín created Cursillo during an economic recession because many young adults could not leave work for a full week-long pilgrimage. So the model was adapted in order to meet people where they were. 

That spirit of faithful adaptation remains part of our DNA today. 

Our core commitments remain the same: 

• Belonging empowered by radical love and acceptance 
• Authentic companionship that nurtures pilgrims in piety, study, and action  
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion through ecumenical, interracial, and international communities of Christian unity 
• Servant leadership that is collaborative, flexible, and Spirit-led 
• Grace-filled environments that cultivate spiritual practice and invite transformation 

In this next season, we will encourage communities to prayerfully contextualize the model in ways that address their local realities while remaining grounded in the heart of Emmaus: grace, discipleship, friendship, and transformation. We will be testing schedule adaptations, integrating more spiritual practices into the model, reimagining the sponsorship model to foster more companionship on the journey, and whatever else the Holy Spirit nudges us to try. 

These conversations will not always be easy. Discernment rarely is. But throughout this journey, I have seen the Holy Spirit continually inviting us toward greater compassion, deeper humility, and renewed imagination for what Emmaus can become. 

I believe the future of Emmaus will belong to communities that are willing to listen well, adapt faithfully, welcome generously, and trust that God is still speaking. 

I also believe the future of Emmaus belongs to the people. 

The strength of this movement has never come from a central office, a manual, or a perfectly executed weekend. The strength of Emmaus has always come from people who show up for one another — people who pray together, serve together, laugh together, struggle together, and remind one another that God’s grace is real.

I am also grateful to continue serving Emmaus through the advisory council we have been developing together. Although my role is changing, my love for this ministry remains. 

Thank you for allowing me to be one companion among you. 

I leave this role hopeful for what comes next and deeply grateful for all we have shared together. I have seen the Holy Spirit at work in this community, and I believe God is not finished with Emmaus yet. 

May you continue to walk humbly, serve courageously, and make room for more people to encounter the transforming love of God. 

De Colores, 

Brittany Sky