For those of you who are youth ministers in mainline churches, you’ve probably been in charge of Confirmation class. I grew up in a Presbyterian church for awhile, but left around middle school (to join the ranks of the Nazarenes for awhile), so I have never had the opportunity to go through Confirmation.
I share the same frustrations that many of you have with confirmation…it is often viewed more as a “graduation” from church for many of the youth who go through it. It’s viewed as this great accomplishment, and then once they’ve been “confirmed” – then they’re free. They’re done. And many times we don’t see them back in church.
Such an odd thing.
I met with our two Confirmation teachers this past week, and we had a good conversation about what is working well, what we could be doing better at, and they are hungry for new, creative ideas and resources for a United Methodist Confirmation class. The Confirmation youth here meet Sunday mornings during the Sunday School hour and go through a Confirmation curriculum for one year. In addition to that, they worship with at a Jewish synagogue to learn about the Jewish roots of our faith, have a lock-in, go on a Confirmation retreat with other youth from our conference, and have a Confirmation Banquet.
It’s a solid program, but they are looking for some new ideas. If you do something that you think is really unique with your Confirmation class, or have heard of other programs that you really respect, please share some of those ideas below.