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Getting Started
Please take a moment to download the information packet for Pastors to learn more specific details about the program.
Notes for Pastors, DCE's, Youth Directors, Youth Counselors
Welcome to our page for pastors and DCEs. Our objective is to provide you with good information regarding TEC tailored to your specific points of interest. We will start with a basic description of TEC, what your youth and adult attendees can expect on a TEC weekend, theological topics, and additional background information about the program. You can find out what other pastors have to say about TEC:
Letters from Pastors
TEC – Teens Encounter ChristTEC is a retreat program focused on impacting the spiritual life of young adults between the ages of 16 and 21. Adults are welcomed as observers. Both adults and youth are invited to return to future weekends in a leadership and servant capacity. The leaders of the weekend are a lay person/married couple and pastor who have attended previous weekends and are selected by the Show Me TEC board for leadership. In addition to the leaders, teams comprised of both youth and adults serve on the weekend. Weekends are all alike in that the exact same schedule of events are followed on every weekend, but because the teams of people serving and first time attendees are new each weekend, every weekend takes on its own unique personality. Teams serving on a weekend have at least eight preparatory meetings prior to each weekend during which talks are reviewed, special plans are developed, and the weekend is lifted up in prayer.
When youth and adult observers arrive on Saturday morning there is the usual welcome, icebreaker activities, and weekend “house rules” announced which are usual to most retreat weekends. Early on, the participants are assigned to tables creating small groups, each having a weekend team member for a leader. Youth tables are lead by peers. From that point in the weekend forward TEC is somewhat different from many other retreats in its three day full and varied schedule of activities, each day correlating to a liturgical season, each event building upon the previous events making the entire weekend a robust experience from beginning to end. A TEC weekend is not a place to catch up on pleasure reading or sleep. The weekend is a fulltime activity.
The purpose of the TEC weekend is to enable older youth at a time when they are making life decisions, to encounter the presence of Christ in their lives and commit themselves to a life under Him.
This Christian retreat is Lutheran in theology and is based on the themes of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost.
Retreats are held at various Lutheran church/school facilities in the St. Louis community. The cost is $50.00. Scholarships are available.