Confirmation Classes At Faith

Confirmation Logo 2010.jpgFaith offers confirmation classes and related activities for 7th through 9th graders. We use a small-group format to provide positive adult relationships in the lives of our confirmation students. Confirmation classes are held Wednesday evenings during Faith Night throughout the school year. Confirmation-related activities provide youth with the opportunity to serve inside the congregation and outside in the community, as well as to participate in special events and fellowship events.

2010-2011 Confirmation Handbook

The goals of the Confirmation program:

  • Present the core of the Christian faith through the Bible and Luther's Small Catechism and use those basic understandings to examine current issues in the confirmands' lives and world
  • Develop the habits of Christian discipelship in the confirmands by involving them in and providing ways for them to reflect on worship, prayer, service, study, fellowship and encouragement
  • Strengthen the confirmands' identification with the Church by building relationships with other members of Faith through small group and large group experiences guided by trained and caring adults
  • Prepare for the Rite of Affiirmation of Baptism

Expectations of Confirmands

By entering the confirmation program at Faith, students promises to participate fully and to make an honest effort to complete any and all assigned tasks. As leaders of the program, pastors, mentors, and volunteers will encourage students to work toward their potential, but the responsibility to grow, work, think, and strive lies primarily with the student and his or her family.

Behavior expectations are simple. It is expected that students will pay attention, participate, and refrain from any behavior that distracts the group from learning or acting appropriately. That expectation includes any time confirmation students are together whether for meals, in class, on retreat, or in small groups.

Parents' Role in Faith's Confirmation Program

Parents are the most powerful faith teachers a child knows. What parents say and do has more influence on their child than anyting else. If confirmation instruction is important to parents and they let their child know that by their participation and encouragement, the experience will have a more lasting effect. Faith is caught, not taught.

Confirmation instruction and the Rite of Affirmation of Baptism come from Holy Baptism. In baptism, parents promise that they will do the following for their child:

  • Faithfully bring them to services at God's house
  • Teach them the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments
  • Place the Holy Scriptures in their hands
  • Provide for their instruction in the Christian faith, that they might live in the covenant of their baptismand in communion with the church so they will live godly lives until the day of Jesus Christ.

The church provides confirmation instruction and other youth ministries to help parents fulfill their vows, but the responsibility still belongs to the parents. Parents are expected to do the following:

  • Commit themselves to praying daily for their daughter's or son's small group guide, for the pastor, and for the young people involved in confirmation.
  • Be involved in their youth's journey through the confirmation program through caring conversation, asking them what they are learning and discussing their own thoughts and views.
  • Sign a convenant with their youth for confirmation. This is to help remember baptismal promises and to continue to be involved in their youth's confirmation program.

Faith expects parents to be involved in their youth's faith development. The five keys to faith development are family service together, family devotions, family rituals and traditions, caring conversation, and full participation in the community of faith. There are several ways parents can be involved in their youth faith development:

  • Chaperone and mentor their child and other youth on a fellowship event, service event, or mission trip. Take advantage of such opportunities to have fun, serve, and grow spiritually with their youth.
  • Worship weekly with their son or daughter. This is an integral part of preparing for life as God's people.
  • Keep learning. Parents should model to their youth what an active faith life means. They should participate in a Sunday morning adult education class, take part in the Wednesday Faith Night program, do the lesson with their youth and let them help review the Bible, get a book from Luther Library or a Christian bookstore, or find that one bit of ministry that God calls them to offer.
  • Contact the Youth and Family Ministry team, the small group guides, the pastors, or the director of Youth and Family Ministries with ideas or concerns.