Confirmation Bundle

Recently I was asked what my favorite thing is about being a pastor. So many potential answers rushed to my mind but what came out was, “right now it is teaching Confirmation.” Who says that? So many pastors I know have come to loathe this expectation of their job. Many might think it is because middle schoolers are difficult to work with, high energy and low buy in, but I’ve come to realize much of it is actually related to the difficulty pastors have working within curriculum constraints. When I began serving my congregations in 2019 their Confirmation program needed a serious overhaul. I tried using a pre-packaged curriculum and I came to despise it. It didn’t land with my students and I spent far too much prep time with what claimed to be a grab and go, easy to implement teaching tool.

So, on year two, I decided Confirmation in my setting needed a facelift. I renamed Confirmation FaithLift and made it my own. I have not purchased a curriculum since. The blessing and curse of seminary not teaching us how or really what to teach in confirmation beyond the Lutheran basics means we have a lot of space to make it our own. I got creative with developing fun, engaging ways to teach some of the basics and beyond.

I began asking questions to better articulate my philosophy around Confirmation such as: What if Confirmation was less about teaching content meant to inform and more about contentment with formation happening through unconventional means? What if Confirmation was less about preparing for Affirmation of Baptism Sunday and more about the affirmation young people receive each week as part of the Confirmation group? What if Confirmation was less about being rule bound and more about being grace found? What if Confirmation was less about pastoral performance and more about pastoral presence?

As I pondered these questions, I started experimenting with all sorts of outside the box ideas for engaging students and helping them claim their FaithLift experience as their own. The result of that work is this Confirmation bundle with some of the resources that have worked well with my students. This year my two small, rural congregations have 24 kids participating in FaithLift. Kids keep inviting their friends to check it out. They come to do just that and they stay, recognizing it as a place of inclusion where their curious questions about faith are considered alongside caring adults and a pastor who makes space for these conversations.

May you and your students be blessed by these resources and feel affirmed in your baptisms!