Confirmation is a rite of passage for our young people who are transitioning from childhood to adolescence. Many children are baptized as babies. Their parents make the decision to have them baptized and promise to raise them in the faith through the church. When a child is going into 6th grade, they are invited to join our 3 year confirmation program. Typically, students are confirmed in the fall of their 9th grade year. When being confirmed, they are affirming their baptisms. They are saying yes to continuing in the faith of Jesus Christ.
Our church mission statement “Growing in Relationships, with God, each other and our neighbors in the way of Jesus” is a good explanation of what our confirmation program is all about! We want to help our middle school aged young people to grow in relationship with God, each other, the church and the community! We do this through classes, worship participation and service projects. Classes take place on Wednesday nights from mid-September to just before Thanksgiving. Then we resume from January through the week before Ash Wednesday. Pastor Krista teaches a 45 minute large group session. Then kids are broken into groups by age and gender to talk further with their peers and an adult mentor, or Confirmation Guides, for another 45 minutes. Students also must participate in worship regularly. They fill out Worship Response Forms in order to facilitate their understanding. One of the most beloved evenings of our program is grocery shopping for the Holy Communion Lutheran Church Food Pantry. Each student brings money that they pool together with their groups. Then they are sent out to local grocery stores to buy as much food as they can for the food pantry! They deliver the food right to Holy Communion. It’s fun and it helps our neighbors in need!
Winter 2021
From January 6-February 10, 2021, we are still doing confirmation online. This session, Pastor Krista meets with all students and guides on zoom from 6:30-6:55 p.m. on Wednesday nights. There, she introduces the lessons from a collaborative curriculum she has contributed to writing called “Tell Me A Story”. (See link below!) Each week, she reads a children’s book and connects it to a story about Jesus and prays with the group. Then, at 7 p.m., students meet in their small groups, also on zoom, to continue talking about the lesson and catch up with one another.
If you have any questions about confirmation at MPLC, feel free to contact Pastor Krista.
