Via de Cristo is a Spanish phrase meaning Way of Christ.
The Via de Cristo (VDC) Ministry includes a structured three-day weekend designed to strengthen and renew the faith of Christian people, bringing them to a new awareness of living in God’s grace. The stated goal of VDC is to help develop leaders who will return to their congregations and strengthen the congregations, as they seek to bring God’s love to the world around them.
We tell people that Via de Cristo (VDC) is a series of 14 long, boring talks. The truth is, they are anything but boring! These talks build on one another. The talks help us to understand what it means to be a leader within the body of Jesus Christ. These talks are given mostly by Lay people, but a few Clergy talks are sprinkled in. This is a lay run ministry.
At Zion Lutheran Church, we are part of two different VDC communities. The older of the two is SonRise VDC, which has had 100 men’s and women’s weekends as well as numerous Co-ed weekends. The second community is Northern Light VDC. This group is slightly newer, but has still held over 50 weekends each for men and women. A weekend, as defined by VDC, begins between 7:00 and 8:00 pm on a Thursday and extends until approximately 4:00 pm on Sunday. Each day, communion is offered at worship service. Weekends are held at Christian camps. Sleeping arrangements are in newer cabins, with shower facilities, etc. within the cabins. All of the camps we use are equipped with modern facilities.
Requirements to attend are that you must be Baptized into the Christian faith (not necessarily Lutheran), and the Pastor of the church you attend must have gone through a similar weekend. We are unabashedly Lutheran in our approach to faith, but this is an Ecumenical group. We concentrate on what unites us, not what divides us within the Body of Jesus Christ. Any questions, please feel free to contact Pastor Ritchie Cole at Zion Lutheran Church. Church phone number is (920) 235-4430. Email zionlutheran@ntd.net.
Links to the websites for SonRise and Northern Light, as well as the National Secretariat are listed below:
Website Link for Northern Light VDC: https://www.northernlightvdc.com/
Website Link for SonRise VDC: https://wivdc.org/
Website Link for National Lutheran Secretariat: https://viadecristo.org/