The City Pages recently went undercover to expose the secret of Teens Encountering Christ, also known as TEC. If you’ve never heard of it before, that probably doesn’t sound like big news. But it is. TEC is a Catholic retreat weekend for teens. A lot of denominations have a variation of it, including my own church which calls it Teens Encounter Christ. But it’s all basically the same thing—a weekend where teens are supposed to, uh, encounter Christ. Think of it as Acquire the Fire minus the whole show biz feel and plus a lot of candles.
The reason it’s big news to expose TEC is because it’s supposed to be a secret. Attendees are sworn to secrecy and told they can’t tell others what happens at TEC (“The first rule of TEC is—you do not talk about TEC. The second rule of Tec is—you do not talk about TEC.”) Apparently it would ruin the experience. But on the upside it makes it all sound incredibly cultish. Just hope they don’t serve Kool-Aid.
It’s interesting to read about a complete outsider (and non-Christian) experiencing the whole thing, but they don’t expose anything shocking. I just get a kick out of the fact that they did expose it. Whenever our youth group does it the TEC alums get all weepy and implore the newbies that they just have to go. “Why?” “Can’t tell you, but you just have to go.”
It’s the most cliqueish, cultish, creepiest thing. I’m sure great things happen at TEC and I know and trust some of those TEC alums when they say it’s an incredible experience. But the entire way it’s communicated is what drives me nuts. I’m all over how churches market themselves, and this is not one of the better approaches.
Oh, honey. You clearly need a TECexperirnce in your life.
“You ain’t seen nothing, yet!”
When I made my first TEC, I knew too much, and it ruined the experience for me. I know the secrets make it seem sinister, but in a way, not knowing what is coming helps to focus on the here and now. Don’t anticipate, PARTICIPATE! And when you do, it will be a much greater experience.
I get you point a little years ago when I was in high school I hung out with different friend groups and 1 or 2 people in all my friend groups went to tec and told me I had to go. Me with FOMO talked with my parents and they had doubts thinking cult as well because I didn’t know anything really about this just that I had a handful of friend that attended this retreat every few months…one of my friends came to my house spoke to my parents separately, and they agreed to let me go… I remember as a teen it was full of surprises and so much more…I don’t remember much as a newbie but my emotion on the last day… I went on to go 3 more times as a team member not the right term I can’t remember what returnees are called and having fun with the people that I met that I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to meet without this experience
Attending TEC retreat when I was 19 absolutely changed my life. One of the reasons it did was because I went to The Sacrament of Reconciliation on that retreat after having not gone for a long time. I developed a personal relationship with Christ there for the first time even though I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools my whole life.
It was a powerful weekend that helped me know God has more in store for all of us! I am now 52 and still have the childlike faith I embraced at that TEC retreat 33 years ago.