Confirmation
Paul Anderson
A vital confirmation service begins long before that Sunday in late spring.
Paul Anderson
Confirmation class has been defined as "that time of the week when the pastor questions his call to ministry."
I remember my father, a pastor, grumbling that "these kids want to attend catechism class about as much as they want to sit in school." I never appreciated my father's feelings until I became a pastor and, sitting in the middle of a confirmation classroom, began to consider seriously my aptitude for selling insurance. Not that the time was a complete loss. I learned a great deal — that the epistles are the wives of the apostles, for example, or that Martin Luther King is Martin Luther's brother.
Frustrations like these led folks at Trinity Lutheran to retool our entire confirmation process, from the first parents' orientation meeting to the close of the confirmation service. After overseeing the new program for twelve years, I'm still amazed how a few key principles transform what could be a downer into a delight.
Get 'em Early
We're all agreed that a vital confirmation experience begins long before that Sunday in late spring when the nervous confirmands stand before the congregation. That's why we start early with years of classroom instruction. But at Trinity we found we weren't starting early enough.
Most teenagers are convinced that confirmation is a bad idea. The only way a pastor has half a chance is to reach kids before they become teenagers and hear from their peers, "Aw, confirmation is a bummer."
So we go after kids in the fourth grade. The children proceed through three years of instruction during fourth, fifth, and sixth grades and then have a year of transition and service in their seventh-grade year, with confirmation ...
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