One of the seven practices of healthy youth ministry is to help young people deeply understand their Baptismal Faith. We can nurture their understanding in regular worship, prayer, formal teaching as well as informal situations, relationships, and individual study. Each congregation is going to have a different schedule, community, and practice. But one key way nearly every Lutheran church helps youth understand their Baptismal faith is through Confirmation preparation.
Youth ministry is often connected to the preparation for and Rite of Confirmation. Confirmation is a unique educational opportunity to help young people truly dig into understanding the faith into which they were baptized. Youth are challenged to memorize Scripture and the Small Catechism in a way that will hopefully stay with them in difficult moments. It models how to ask significant questions of faith, including “What does this mean?” and how to find answers in God’s Word.
While not every young person and his or her family are engaged in the confirmation process, it is one of the few times pastors, church workers, and lay leaders can get intensive instruction time with (typically) middle school students. Families may return to regular worship or engage in confirmation programs even if they have not been active in prior years. This can be a key moment to reengage parents in the faith lives of their children as well. As much as possible, it is important to take advantage of that time, both in teaching and building relationships.
While the scope of confirmation is usually limited to learning and understanding Luther’s Small Catechism, there is also space for other topics. In seventh and eighth grades, the time most common for junior confirmation, youth are learning to understand abstract concepts. This means some areas of theology are going to be more challenging than others. For many, confirmation can be a time when youth begin to learn, perhaps just enough to ask good questions. We pray that from there they continue to engage in deeper learning.
Confirmation is not graduation. As young people are confirmed, their need for Christian education continues. As students enter high school, what we teach them can help answer key questions about who they are, who they are to others, and their place in the world. High school youth ministry and adult ministry can both build on things learned in confirmation. As we will fill out in more detail later, confirmation is only the start for resilient, lifelong learners.
Youth ministry should connect with confirmation ministry in some meaningful ways. While every congregation handles its confirmation a little bit differently, the more connections that can be made between youth ministry, wider congregational ministry, and confirmation the better. Active older youth might come into a confirmation class to discuss how what they learned has impacted their lives in high school. Youth leaders may join in lessons or even help teach so that they can build relationships. Youth ministry can help celebrate on Confirmation Sunday and encourage youth to join them in the future.
If you want your high school students to dig deeper into catechetical study, consider using the Confirmation 2.0 studies available on this site.
As we look to help young people deeply understand their baptismal faith, what time is more important than confirmation? While adults may not always remember their time in confirmation with great joy, it can still be a powerful moment in the lives of youth. In fact, in our Millennials and the LCMS study, we had one active LCMS young person say that Confirmation was a pivotal moment in his or her faith life because this person realized the gravity of the public profession of faith. It was in that moment of public proclamation that the Holy Spirit worked on him or her to see just how seriously he or she needed to take his or her faith.
Youth leaders, pastors, church workers, and parents can work to take full advantage of this time of intense learning in the faith lives of young people.
To read more about this, you can find it in the book Seven Practices of Healthy Youth Ministry.
© 2023 LCMS Office of National Mission—Youth Ministry. Published by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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