A Brief History
In 1938, Ed Harlow, a young missionary in the Belgian Congo, felt a divine calling to establish a Bible school in North America. Shortly after, he left his mission station and traveled to Toronto, Canada, where, in 1941, he, along with John Smart and Ernest Tatham, founded Emmaus Bible School.
After the first year, it became clear that many others were eager to benefit from the solid Bible teaching offered at Emmaus Bible School. However, not everyone could attend the school in Toronto. To address this, Harlow and Smart created correspondence courses based on the material taught at Emmaus, effectively establishing the Emmaus Correspondence School. This school became an independent organization in 2002, separate from Emmaus Bible College.
The reach of the Emmaus Correspondence School grew from the local distribution of three courses created from lecture notes at the Toronto school to a worldwide distribution of over 40 million courses in 100 languages across 120 countries by 2011.
My own experience with Emmaus courses began in June 2013, as a diploma student of the Emmaus Correspondence Centre Canada. Having recently been named an elder in my local assembly, I needed a more disciplined approach to Bible study to be better equipped as an elder. Before long we were using several Emmaus courses for our mid-week Prayer and Bible Study meetings. Four years later, I had completed the 144 course credits required for the diploma. It was during this time, as a recent retiree from secular work, that I sensed the calling to be involved in the Emmaus ministry. My assembly commended my wife, Murielle, and I to the Lord’s work at the Emmaus Centre as well as to the ministry of the gospel in northwestern Quebec both at the local assembly and in camp work.
Disruption Advances innovation
Whether disruption be political, technological, or other, organizations need to be flexible to respond. Consider the disruption that digital cameras represented to Kodak and its business model that was based on the sale and processing of film. The disruption would further be exaggerated when cameras were included in the modern smartphone.
Prior to my retirement as a member of a provincial distance education team, I remember a colleague reaching into his pocket for his smartphone and exclaiming that this device would be the platform for future distance education courses, replacing the personal computer. I was a bit skeptical as I wondered how a 3.5” screen would replace a 15” screen.
My colleague was correct, and the principal reasons were mobility and affordability. There are an estimated 6.7 billion smartphone subscriptions worldwide making the devices almost ubiquitous even in poorer countries where cellphone usage varies between 33 and 55% (2021).
In 2015, during the refugee crisis in Europe, particularly in Germany, ZAM (Zentralafrika-Mission) sought to provide evangelical literature, specifically Emmaus courses, to refugees. Realizing that they did not have the resources to distribute Emmaus paper courses, the idea of creating a mobile application was conceived.
After many months of planning, developing, and programming, the Emmaus App was launched in October 2017, initially offering courses in six languages, with about six courses in each language. Additional languages and courses were gradually added, and the app now offers courses in 31 languages, totaling 461 courses.
As regional director for French-speaking North America, I was invited to join the team of connectors in 2021 as usage of the mobile app by francophone students grew exponentially. Peter Kerr, regional director for English Canada took on the responsibility for Canada, the UK, and Ireland. My first assignment was to be a connector with students from Haiti and before long expanding to francophones worldwide.
The Emmaus App was well positioned to be quickly adopted, as the existing network of worldwide regional directors would be trained on the use and promotion of the app in their respective countries. Many of these directors would also be responsible for seeing new languages and courses added to the app.
By way of illustration, in June of 2021, there were roughly 5,000 active students and by January 2024 an estimated 15,500 active students would be studying Emmaus Correspondence courses online. Students from 195 different countries have completed 274,000 courses since the Emmaus App launched in October 2017.
One of the most notable features of the Emmaus app, aside from the courses themselves, is the opportunity for the student to connect with a mentor. These mentors, also known as “connectors” in the Emmaus community, provide feedback, answering questions as well as providing prayer support to the students.
As impressive as the story that the quantitative data conveys, how much more extraordinary are the personal stories of spiritual growth, commitment to Christian living, and testimonies of those having come to Christ for salvation after reading in a course that the Bible teaches that salvation is by grace and not of works.
A Tour of the Emmaus App
Currently, the English version of the Emmaus App is the home of 50 Emmaus course titles which can be studied on or offline. Each course has integrated Bibles in many languages with footnotes, cross references, and search functions. The student can complete courses anonymously or submit completed courses to a mentor for comment. The app is available on iOS (Apple) and Android devices as well as a web version for browsing on your personal computer (app.emmaus.study/en/courses).
The courses are typically divided into 6 to 12 lessons with each lesson followed by a multiple-choice exam and a short-answer question, as well as a space to ask a question, share a prayer request, or to simply comment on the course.
Sven Becker, the app team leader with ZAM, recently shared that there is a major app update planned for 2024 which promises to provide students with more motivation in working with the Emmaus app.
How To Access the Courses
Intrigued? Why not download the app and give a course a try. The app is 100% free. The Emmaus App ministry looks solely to the Lord to meet the needs of the ministry.
Simply visit www.emmaus-app.com or scan the QR code to get started. You will be richly blessed.
For those more comfortable with the traditional paper courses, they can be purchased from Emmaus Worldwide at emmausworldwide.org (USA) or from The Emmaus Correspondence Centre Canada at ecccanada.org.