GOING DOWN UNDER AND "BACK TO THE FUTURE" FOR LUTHERAN CONFIRMATION

What's the future of Lutheran confirmation?

A trip to the historic Lutheran heritage museum in the quaint little town of Hahndorf, AU, might give you one surprising answer.

Rev. Mark Hansen treated me to a little trip into the history of Lutherans in the Adelaide Hills country one day a few years back. We entered the museum and found a plaque on the wall that told visitors what the pastor expected of parents each week. Turns out pastor interested in teaching hormonally challenged teenagers the catechism each week. He wanted the education done and done right, so he enlisted - required - that the parents show up for class once each week! The parents would come, get their instructions from the pastor, then go back home to teach their OWN children!

If you happen to be Lutheran and want to be radical (as in "of the roots!"), the future of Lutheran confirmation may look a lot more like the past.

Here's a little something to ponder with your education committee this month:

In the Large Catechism explanations of the Commandments, after saying we need to "take care to preach on the Catechism frequently and to impress it upon our youth, not in a lofty and learned manner but briefly and simply , so that it may penetrate deeply into their minds and remain fixed in their memories..." and after Luther calls folks who don't do their duty "potbellied blockheads" and "drunken swine" (don't you just love Luther!) the good doctor writes:

"It helps to form the habit of commending ourselves each day to God - our soul and body, wife, children, servants, and all we have... thus has originated and continued among us the custom of saying grace and returning thanks at meals and saying other prayers for both morning and evening."

Each day? Maybe confirmation shouldn't happen once a week, but at every meal?

Luther continues: "With childish and playful methods... we should bring up our youth in the fear and honor of God so that the 1st and 2nd Commandments may be familiar and constantly practiced."

Childish and playful? My goodness. Does that look like confirmation class?

And there's more: "This I say plainly for the sake of the young, so that it may sink into their minds, for when we preach to children, we must also speak their language."

One must ask, "what is the language of youth today?" Music? Technology? Social networks? Yes, all of the above. But I'd argue that loving communication and personal care trumps all of those languages. And who better to bring that love and care of Christ than the parents, every night in every home! What's more, the language of sharing "highs and lows" of
the day is always powerful and effective.

Luther continues we are to "do this to hear and discuss God's Word, and then praise God with song and prayers" and then adds "There should be worship daily..."

Worship daily? Why not bring worth to God (woerthe = praise, schippe = the vehicle or ship that brings it) every night in every home?

Finally you gotta love old Martin's German brusqueness as he rails against the "dead drunk swine who only from force of habit go hear preaching and depart again with as little knowledge of the Word at the end of the year as at the beginning."

So... you gotta ask yourself, what would Luther, himself, say is the best place and time to do confirmation? And, would our current parentless confirmation class for adolescents be the model he would choose?

Let me get on my high horse for a moment and dare you to say something like this to your educational leadership next time you meet:

IF WE DO NOTHING ELSE DURING THE CONFIRMATION YEARS, WE GOTTA GET PARENTS TO COMMIT WITH THEIR KIDS TO COME TO
WORSHIP/CHURCH WHERE I WILL DO MY BEST TO EXPLAIN THE BASICS OF THE FAITH SIMPLY AND BEAUTIFULLY, AND THEN CALL THEM TO CONSIDER MY SIMPLE TEACHING AS THE STARTING POINT OF A NIGHTLY FAITH ENCOUNTER. I WILL ASK THEM TO GO OVER THE WEEK'S SIMPLE TEACHING (COMMANDMENT, PETITION, CREEDAL THOUGHT, SACRAMENTAL TEACHING) ALONG WITH THEIR HIGHS AND LOWS AND PRAYERS EVERY NIGHT BEFORE THEY TURN OUT THE LIGHTS ON THE DAY.

As far as I'm concerned, there's your family faith revolution in a nutshell. There's your remedial adult education course for adults who never would take one. There's your new Bible literacy program. There's your new small group prayer ministry that meets every night. And that's the only catechism class you need: small group ministry that gathers with every single young person in the church once a week with a talented and passionate teacher, then goes HOME to nightly impress the truth and beauty and love of God into their lives along with the bedtime ritual.

And if you're a systems thinker, why would you ever START this confirmation process at adolescence?

You wouldn't. You'd start confirmation in the cradle, support it every year of the kids life with faith stepping stone promises at the altar and recommencements with kneeling and laying on of hands, and put the whole enchilada on relational steroids the moment the hormones start flying. You'd call the parents to the joy and responsibility of raising their children in the truth, the knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. You'd ask them all to come together for the training at chruch, then return home to wrestle with your simple teaching and relate it to their nightly highs and lows and prayers and blessings.

Kill the age-segregated, parentless confirmation class before it kills you... and before it kills the church. Resurrect confirmation ministry as nightly family ministry. Redefine family ministry as families doing ministry. Go "back to the future" by calling parents into the core of confirmation ministry - not the sidelines. And watch the beauty unfold.

Blessings on your work today!

Rev. Rich Melheim

PS - Now that I look at it, this might be a good sidebar article for The Lutheran, your regional papers, or some other venue. Use it as you see fit.

Comments

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[Dan Baldwin]

I like your post very much. My daughter is currently involved in a "parentless" confirmation class. I've neither pushed my way into the class nor been invited to contribute. I'll share your site materials with our pastor and president to see if we can get the parents back involved.

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Kill the age-segregated, parentless confirmation class before it kills you... and before it kills the church. Resurrect confirmation ministry as nightly family ministry.