Our United Methodist Understanding of Confirmation



Our United Methodist Understanding of Confirmation

The Big Picture

Your child’s confirmation year has the potential to be one of the most significant events in his or her life - and in the life of your family. It is also an experience that we will be asking your help with. For this reason we want to give you some additional information about what your child will be going through and what we will be asking you to help with.

There are three reasons what some of us might find this information helpful:

1. Many people who join our church were not raised in the United Methodist Church or in churches that practice confirmation. This means that for some of us confirmation may be an entirely new idea. We may be more familiar with people making a decision for Christ through an altar call than through a class or program.

2. Others of us may have been raised in churches that practice confirmation, but may not be familiar with how we do confirmation at Highland Park UMC. Our church is nationally known for its confirmation program and it is the centerpiece of our youth ministry. Though the majority of Christian churches practice confirmation, in some ways we are unique in the way we approach confirmation. The degree of parent involvement, for example, is unparalleled anywhere in the country.

3. In 1996 the General Conference of the United Methodist Church adopted a new theology of baptism, and thereby a new theology and understanding of confirmation. This new understanding has far reaching consequences for how we approach confirmation.

Before going into the details of our understanding of confirmation and how we do confirmation at our church, here is the big picture. What we know as confirmation today has existed in the church since the very beginning. And, from the beginning, what we call confirmation has always involve two distinctly different (but related) things:

1. A Worship Service – At the center of confirmation is a worship service. This service is an opportunity, at the appropriate age, to personally respond to God’s call to be Christian and to openly affirm our faith. In other words, confirmation includes a rite or worship service. This is what we will do on Confirmation Sunday.

2. A Class or Program – Confirmation also involves a period of training that prepares the person to make their public profession of faith. This is what we do in the 12 months leading up to confirmation Sunday.

In the early church the norm was for adults to be baptized. Adults went through a period of training and preparation. Then they were baptized and confirmed at the same time. Later, as these adults had children who were raised in the faith, these children were baptized as infants to affirm God’s unconditional love for them, then later – when they were of age – they went through the period of preparation and made their own person professions of faith (confirmation).

The Basic Meaning of Confirmation in the United Methodist Church

The meaning of confirmation is closely related to that of baptism. Baptism and confirmation are both part of an ongoing, lifelong process of sanctification, whereby we are conformed into the image of Christ. The word “confirmation” literally means “to make firm”. Confirmation seeks to make firm that which has gone before. It is closely linked to (and dependant on) what has taken place in the individual’s life already, including God’s prevenient grace, the sacrament of baptism, the Christian nurture provided by the parents and the home, and the Christian nurture provided by the faith community.

Confirmation is part of the life long process of sanctification. Through the Holy Spirit, God is at work in the life of the person - preparing, justifying, sanctifying, and empowering. The larger picture of this journey is Christian education. The confirmation program or class is one piece of this life long process of education. The larger picture is Christian formation, being transformed - over time and through the work of God’s Spirit - into the image of Christ.

Confirmation does not complete baptism. It is not the second half of baptism. The sacrament of baptism stands by itself.

Confirmation is the first public occasion in which a person affirms her or his personal response to divine grace and proclaims faith in Christ. It is the first public expression of the individual’s affirmation of the baptismal covenant. The response of faith in confirmation involves the entire person, including:

1) Repentance: turning from sin and to faith in God

2) Conversion: a process of transformation (not just an event). Part of the life long

journey of sanctification

3) Decision: to accept (receive) God’s grace and to commit one’s life to God

Confirmation also involves the laying on of hands. This is not only symbolic of the receiving of the Holy Spirit and God’s power, but the laying on of hands also symbolizes consecration for service. In confirmation, the individual is given divine authority and empowerment for the Christian calling and vocation of discipleship.

Confirmation as God’s Act

In baptism, the Holy Spirit marks the person as God’s own. In confirmation, the Holy Spirit strengthens (makes firm) the person in his or her discipleship. The confirmation prayer is: “receive the Holy Spirit.”

Confirmation as a Human Response of Faith

A child who has been baptized as an infant or a young child needs an opportunity to personally affirm the faith into which he or she was baptized and raised, and to claim the faith for him or herself. At confirmation we acknowledge that a child has reached the age when he or she can begin to assume responsibility for his or her own faith. Wesleyan tradition is clear in insisting that every person must come to accept for him or her self the salvation offered by Christ and that this commitment is to be made publicly.

The Confirmation Program & the Confirmation Service

Part of the task of Christian nurture or Christian education is to nurture the child in the faith in such a way that the child will be able to respond to the call of God and to claim the faith into which he or she was baptized as his or her own personal faith.

Confirmation is about intentional commitment. During the confirmation process, the individual is asked to consciously embrace the Christian faith and vocation as one’s own and to accept the responsibilities of Christian discipleship.

The Confirmation Program or Class

In order to do this, two things must happen in a confirmation program. First, the child must be instructed in the basics of the faith. Confirmation seeks to give the child a systematic overview of the faith - our identity, our history and heritage, our practices, and our beliefs. This will include both our heritage and practices as a Christian community and as a United Methodist Family, as well as our basic beliefs and commitments. In addition, the person should be instructed in what it means to live the Christian life and be involved in the mission of the church in the world. Some faith traditions base the response of faith on emotion and feeling and emphasize altar calls. Those that practice confirmation base the response of faith more on an informed decision.

The other thing that needs to happen in a confirmation program is spiritual formation. Our faith is not just about information. It is about formation – being molded, shaped, or transformed into the image of Christ. This takes time and experiences, not just data. A comprehensive confirmation program is more than just a class. It seeks to provide experiences and opportunities in which the child can be shaped as a Christian.

Confirmation provides a setting in which the child can be shaped or formed and in which the child can prepare to understand the faith and what it means to make a decision (the confirmation program or class).

Confirmation seeks to mold or shape the child by providing a save environment of love and acceptance in which the child can explore the faith as well as experiences which make what is being taught real (i.e., relationships with peers and mentors, small group experiences, mission opportunities, etc.). At this level the faith is lived and experienced.

The Rite of Confirmation (The Confirmation Service)

As a ritual, the rite of confirmation provides the setting and opportunity for the child to acknowledge and profess the faith into which he or she has been baptized (the confirmation service). During the service the individual stands before the community, is asked the historical questions of Christian discipleship, is asked to affirm the faith for him or her self, receives the power of the Holy Spirit, and is commissioned for a life of Christian discipleship.

This results in the person becoming a “professing member” of the church. The person “professes” the faith into which he or she was baptized. The person intentionally and publicly commits self to practice holiness and strive to continually grow in grace. He or she commitments to the process or journey called discipleship (sanctification). Professing members accept and participate in the privileges and responsibilities of membership in the church. They enter more fully into the ministry for which baptism has commissioned them.

The content of the class will depend on the age at which it is offered. At 6th grade the class will be shaped this age group’s stage of faith, which is affiliative. At this age the focus is primarily on experience and belonging to the community. The cognitive element is there, but it is not front and center. This age group primarily learns through experience.

The 1996 General Conference affirmed confirmation as a repeatable rite, which can occur more than once. The new confirmation resources for 2000 provide resources for both middle school and high school. In this understanding confirmation can occur more than once. Youth can be confirmed during middle school, and then go through confirmation again at high school. Nor does it need to end there. Further confirmation programs and experiences can be provided as the ongoing process of sanctification and Christian journey continues.

The 7 Pillars of Our HPUMC Confirmation Model

Highland Park UMC has made some basic decisions concerning confirmation that give shape and drive everything else. Here are the key decisions we have made.

6th Grade

In this model confirmation is done in the sixth grade. This is not the only year it could be done, and the curriculum we have developed could be appropriate for older youth. With older youth there would be more discussion and you would not necessarily need all of the activities.

John Westerhoff, one of the leading Christian educators of our age, uses a tree image to explain how we go through different stages or “rings” in our spiritual growth. During the middle school years we are dealing with “affiliative faith”, not “questioning faith”. Our goals here include instruction and a basic understanding of the faith. But this is not our primary goal. At the sixth grade level the primary importance falls to experiencing the faith community and an opportunity to identify with that community, be shaped by that community, and to affiliate with that community. The intellectual component is important and is present to some degree. As the child grows the intellectual aspect of faith will become more important. This is especially true during the high school years when youth have “questioning faith”.

A Total/Holistic Program – Not Just a Class

We have made a basic decision that confirmation is to be much more than just class. It is a comprehensive yearlong youth program that includes retreats, socials, visits, mission projects, and special worship services. Many of these other components are reflected in the class curriculum. Two of our sessions are given to preparing for our covenant service. We are away two Sundays on retreats. And we debrief our visits to the Jewish synagogue, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, and an African-American congregation of the United Methodist Church during our morning sessions. Other components are done outside the Sunday morning timeframe.

A Year Long

The class meets for one year. This includes a nine-month academic year component and a summer group building component. In addition, the curriculum for the confirmation year is part of a larger 7-year plan that goes from 6th grade through 12th grade. Educationally, confirmation is a seven-year process, though the rite of confirmation comes at the end of the first year.

Parent Volunteer Leadership Team

In this model it is the parent volunteer team collectively - as a whole - which takes responsibility for leading the confirmation class and program. The professional church staff person has a role - and an important one - but it has changed. The role now becomes analogous to a person conducting an orchestra. Others play the instruments. The staff person’s job is the score, the big picture. The staff facilitates and enables others to play their part to the best of their ability. The staff trusts that when all of the instruments are played well, the result is greater than any one of us could do. In this model, the congregation - through the large parent-volunteer team - owns and leads the church’s ministry to the confirmation class.

Relational

One of the most important things we do in confirmation is build relationships - with God, with each other, with the adults who lead the class. The great commandment that Jesus gave us is to love - to love God and to love each other. In all we do during the year, we try to fulfill this commandment. We intentionally spend a lot of time and effort building trust, building relationships, and building community.

Small Group Based

Small groups are essential for our confirmation program. Our sessions are roughly divided equally into a total group “community” experience and small groups where 6 to 8 youth are in ongoing groups with two adults.

Sunday Morning (Sunday School) Classes

Different churches will have their class sessions at different times. Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, Saturdays, or after school on a weekday are all possibilities. We have elected to have our class sessions on Sunday mornings for two reasons. First, we have our maximum attendance on Sunday mornings. Second, we have made confirmation our sixth grade Sunday school.

The Specific Components of Our Highland Park Confirmation Model

In the model presented here, confirmation is seen as a total youth program, rather than as a class that just meets at a given hour for a set number of weeks. The goal is to totally immerse the confirmation youth and their parents in a holistic and comprehensive program that is designed to foster spiritual formation. Many of the goals of this program are accomplished outside the normal weekly meeting time. Many of the other goals require an extensive period of time.

1. Our Confirmation Summer Class

Highland Park UMC promotes the first Sunday in of June. We also know that the kids are in and out all summer on family vacations and going to camp. This means there is no consistent attendance. The result is that we have three months in the summer where the new 6th graders (our confirmation grade) are in our program, but in which we can’t start our regular curriculum. Our solution is to include these three months in the confirmation program but to make this a “summer component”. We chose to use adventure learning challenge initiatives originally designed for ropes challenge courses. The overall goal of these activities is communication, cooperation, and team building - what it means to be a faith community. Yet each week’s session stands alone. We have discovered that these activities are a wonderful addition to our confirmation program and that they help us in our goals for the confirmation year.

2. Relationships

One of the most important things we do in confirmation is to build relationships - with God, with each other, with the adults who lead the class. The great commandment that Jesus gave us is to love - to love God and to love each other. In all we do during the year we try to fulfill this commandment. We intentionally spend a lot of time and effort building trust, building relationships, and building community.

3. Weekly Sunday School Class

Our main class runs concurrent with the academic school year. This gives us 41 weeks. At HPUMC the class meets during the Sunday school hour and is our sixth grade Sunday school class. If we have visitors who are sixth graders, they attend the confirmation class as their Sunday school. If sixth grade youth join the church during the middle of the year, they become a part of the confirmation class. These class sessions are based on a mixture of large group and small group experiences.

4. Retreats (2)

We’ll begin the year and end the year with a retreat. We have a two night retreat at the beginning of the year and a two night retreat at the end of the year in May. The fall retreat is primarily for group building purposes. The spring retreat focuses on the confirmand’s decision concerning confirmation and what follows that decision.

5. Regular Worship Attendance

It is expected that families who are in the confirmation program will be regular in worship attendance. This is not seen as extra but as integral to the confirmation process itself. Students learn about worship by being in worship.

6. Missions (7)

Mission is seen as an integral part of what it means to be Christian. Mission projects, trips, and opportunities provide chances to engage in “service learning”. The faith we profess is the faith we live. Each informs the other. We believe that it is important to provide the confirmation class with multiple opportunities to learn about mission and to be involved in mission - in a variety of settings. This also gives class members sensitivity to the problems we face in the world and lets them know that they can make a difference. The class will participate in “local missions” where they help within the church in a service capacity, in “community missions” in which they are involved in the large community, and in two mission trips to locations beyond our local community. One of these is in state (spring break) and one is out of state (the summer following confirmation).

7. Visiting Other Churches & Faiths (4)

As we explore our history and heritage, our class will visit four other churches and faiths: A Jewish synagogue (to understand our Jewish heritage), a Roman Catholic church (to understand our Catholic heritage), an Episcopal church (to understand our Protestant and Episcopal heritage), and another United Methodist church (to understand better our own heritage).

8. Parties & Social Events (9)

Another aspect of being a total youth program for the 6th grade is to provide social and recreational activities. About once a month the class will have an opportunity to be involved in a recreational or social activity. Among these are a Whirly Ball, the Main Event, Adventure Landing, bowling, roller skating, ice skating, a swimming party and miniature golf, and more.

9. Faith Mentors

At one time our church had the confirmation class members choose a “faith mentor” - an adult who would share the confirmation journey with them. However, we have realized that with over 50 adults working with our class in a teaching capacity, that we no longer need to do that. We have 50 plus faith mentors in the classroom working as teachers and small group leaders. If class members want to seek out another adult they know (a grand parent, etc.), we encourage them to do so.

10. Special Worship Services (2)

We begin the year and end the year will special worship services. In the fall we begin with a Covenant Service in which youth, parents & teachers all pledge to enter into the confirmation journey together. In the spring we will end the year with our Service of Baptism and Confirmation.

11. Participation in Youth Choir, Spring Break Mission Trip, and Summer Trips

Confirmation youth are also involved in some of the youth activities of our church. In particular they are able to be in our youth choir, the spring break mission trip to San Marcos, and the three summer trips (choir tour, summer mission trip, Colorado Wilderness trip).

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