The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

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.

Bedtime Reflections, 9.11.01

If you're still looking for a 2 minute close to your 911 sermon, here's something I wrote and titled "Bedtime Reflections" on 9.11.01:

I put my babies to bed tonight with a more somber tone than
usual. Normally if they have their teeth brushed and “jammies”
on by 8 PM we do a little kick boxing, pillow fighting
... and weight training before our nightly devotions and prayers.
(“Way to calm us down, dad!”) But instead of our routine of
raucous fun, this night started out on a more sedate tone.We
began with the story of Jesus’ arrest in Matthew 26 and the
“put away your sword” command.We talked about the violence
done to Jesus, about his unwillingness to allow a follower
to pick up the sword in his defense and his strange
surrender to evil. “Those who live by the sword will die by
the sword,” Jesus told his friends. It’s not the answer.Violence
only causes more violence.
We spoke of our sorrow for the unspeakable tragedy of the
morning.We shared “Highs & Lows” for the day and a little
discussion.We prayed for the poor and powerless of the
world who often pay the price for the sins of their leaders
or a few fanatics in their midst.Then I found myself blessing
my 12 year old football player, Kathryn, and eight year old
Lego grandmaster, Joseph, with the strangest blessing they’ve
ever received: “I hope this is the darkest night of your life,” I
whispered.“I hope and pray this is the most hateful, evil night
you will ever know.”
I’m not sure my not-so-little ones fully understood what
their crazy dad was saying as I knelt down to kiss their foreheads.
I’m not sure I understood it, either. But deep down I
fear the 911 call on 9.11.01 was only the first of many uglier
nights. For when our collective national shock turns to anger
- and it will - and that anger turns to rage,we may soon find
our nation but a trip-wire away from the kind of blind stupidity
that lashes out at the innocent along with the guilty in
some foreign land half a world away. And that, dear friends,
will only plant the seeds for many,many more nights like this.
“I hope this is your darkest night, dear Kathryn and Joseph.
The most hateful, evil night you will ever know.” - RAM

Saccades and Fixations

Interesting quesiton this morning from Peter Eckerman, our national director of FINK Australia, on a disruptive little trick I embedded in the Bible Song theme slides. Here's Peter's email, and my response.

Subject: Bible Song Review

Hi Rich,

In connection with a Bible Song Review:
I regularly receive comments on the theme review. Theme titles that enter from above, below and from the right as you look at the screen are all easily readable as they appear but theme titles that appear from the left as you look at the screen are difficult to read. In my home BS it creates a little disruption as children call out the titles with some children scrambling for their journals and some struggling to guess. Probably only minor in the big picture. If this could be changed it would be helpful.

 

Peter,

We could change it easy enough, but just so you know, having 1/4 of the titles come in from the left was a deliberate brain teaser.

Making the brain anticipate, work, and try to figure things out creates both better attention and retention. If they kids are actually scrambling for their journals GREAT!

In "Proust and the Squid" brain researcher Maryanne Wolf talks about the eye and how it darts back and forth and fixing on the known while scrambling for the unknown by reading forward and then going back. (It's called "saccades and fixations" for anyone who likes these things.) The brain loves puzzles, and loves the satisfaction of trying to figure things out. An unstimulated brain simply shuts off, or looks elsewhere for a challenge.

Case in point:

The polar bears at the San Diego Zoo were getting progressively moodier and dangerous. They brought in an animal psychologist who spent a few hours with them and announced: "They're dreadfully understimulated. Bored. They no longer have to work for their food or use their thinking skills. Here's what you do: You put their fish in a block of floating ice one day. You hang it from a tree the next. You put it in a container they have to figure out how to open the next. Etc."

The bears perked up and everyone was happy.

Anyway, I understand it would be easier to feed them all easy words (above, below, right), but having 1/4 of the titles involve just a little more work is just enough to keep them on their toes.

I'll put this on the list of future notes, but for now you know the meaning behind the maddness.

Rich

(PS - Get that book if you are looking for a fascinating view on how to make meaning in the slightly disordered brain.)