John 17 Weekends
Men’s Weekend: JuNE 19-22, 2025
Women’s Weekend: June 26-29, 2025
about the weekends
The Tucson John 17 Weekend is a 72 hour same-gender, adult Christian discipleship weekend that emphasizes the essentials of the Christian life and walk. The weekend is intentionally inter-denominational and multi-cultural, and complements the work being done in Tucson of unifying and mobilizing the Church.
The weekends endeavor to bring Christians to a closer, more personal walk with their Lord Jesus Christ and encourage them to Christian leadership and action wherever they currently live, work, worship, and serve. The main teaching of the weekend is God’s unqualified love for each of us through grace. Each member of the community is asked to grow in their personal relationship with Christ, to study God’s Word and other Christian writings, and to express their love for Christ in Christian action.
why participate?
Discipleship - Adult participants will complete the weekend with a clearer understanding of Christian basics, as well as their opportunities and responsibilities as a follower of Christ.
Unity - Participants will experience a wider span of the body of Christ in Tucson, crossing boundaries such as denomination and ethnicity, while growing in appreciation for the beauty and unity of the entire Christian community.
Servant leadership - Participants who wish are invited to help lead future weekends. As the weekends are lay-led (non-clergy) under the guidance of pastoral leadership, the process of preparing and leading weekends produces servant leadership qualities that transfer to other arenas in the local church and community.
Citywide engagement - Through partnership with organizations such as J17 Ministries, participants will become more aware of the vast and growing expanse of transformational activity in our city, and be invited to engage in the various domains.
Photo credit: Pexels / Pixababy
Photo credit: werdepate / Pixabay
core values
Intentionally seek adult participants from multiple congregations, both ethnically and denominationally diverse.
Create identity and ownership in the entire body of Christ in our city, not loyalty to this particular format.
Encourage participants to engage more fully in the lives of their own congregations as well as the entire Christian community in our city.
Engage individuals and congregations who recognize the deity, humanity, lordship, and salvation of Jesus Christ.
Recognize the Bible as the ultimate authority in all matters of faith and life, seeking to follow Jesus who came full of grace and truth and was referred to as a friend of sinners.
Share biblically based and locally relevant content, respecting and valuing different biblical practices among the various expressions of the body of Christ.
Hold men’s and women’s weekends separately, encouraging husbands and wives to attend back-to-back weekends, although exceptions may be granted.
Why serve?
Serving on team for a John 17 Weekend is an opportunity to be an answer to Jesus' prayer as recorded in the 17th chapter of John: “that they may become perfectly one.” In providing a non-threatening environment to unite with other believers outside the silo of my individual congregation, we are able to celebrate the most important thing we have in common - our Lord Jesus Christ. Time and again, team members say how they are recharged each time they serve. Our home congregations are each special in their own right, but the body of Christ is made up of parts not present in any one congregation. Just as a concert orchestra has many sections, so does the body of Christ. It takes all the sections united and playing in harmony to achieve perfection. Individual section rehearsals are necessary from time to time, but it takes all the sections - together and united - playing in harmony to execute music as intended by the composer. Our Lord Jesus is the Conductor and we can take pride in following His direction rehearsing with other sections of the orchestra as we prepare to serve Him on a John 17 Weekend.
Photo credit: smellypumpy / Pixabay
Photo credit: StartupStockPhotos / Pixabay
have questions?
If you’d like more information about the Tucson weekends, including whether your community has a similar weekend already in place, contact Lisa Byl (artlisabyl@gmail.com) or Dave Strong (daveruns100s@msn.com).
The John 17 Weekends Steering Team Board:
Cindy Bakko
Lisa Byl
Dave Drum
Elaine House
Dorothy McLean
Anthony Moss
Lance Peterson
Beth Premo
Dave Strong
Judy Strong
Louis Velasquez
Lynnea Wheeler