Romans 15:4

“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”

The three day look at New Testament Christianity originated as the “Cursillo®” movement in the late 1940s in the Spanish Catholic church and moved to America in the late 1950s.The Lutheran church developed its own version of the weekend, Via de Cristo, when laymen and clergy attended a Catholic Cursillo in 1971.

Church of the Brethren and Brethren Church believers in Indiana attended Via de Cristo weekends and then with the help of their sponsors started the anabaptist/believers church movement called the Brethren Way of Christ in Indiana.

Mennonite, Church of the Brethren, and Brethren Church believers in Illinois attending Brethren Way of Christ, Cursillo, Emmaus Walk, Tres Dias, and Via de Cristo weekends have felt the nudging of the Spirit to make this tool for equipping believers for their journey of faith and life in the congregation their own. And with the encouragement and support of these movements the Way of Christ has developed.

The first Way of Christ weekends took place in the late winter of 2002. Ken Pettifor and Peggy Owens were the first rectors of the Illinois Way of Christ.