1. Christ. Everything in confirmation teaches this one thing or the teacher got it wrong. The crafts, illustrations, discussions, and activities all must point to that one bedrock starting and ending point, Jesus Christ-the foundation, God almighty who dwelt among us, on this we can build all of the other stuff .
2. The Church. Church is what you do and not where you go. Our "church" fits into the "Church". Christ comes to us personally but is "caught" better in groups. Church is where we worship as a family and are nourished by the sacraments. This is where we learn to care and then live a life of caring.
3. The Holy Trinity is still a good framework to speak of the complexities of God. We Plants, the sun, an apple and other things for illustrations which probably made more confusion than light. We worked with the confusion of having one God and not three Gods. Even with all of this, the Trinity is still the best place to start the journey of knowing that it is all God, all of the time.
4.The Bible. The Bible is confusing, relevant, leads to awesome wonder, a difficult journey and is worth the effort. Basic skills in how to study and how to use the Bible in study must be taught and reinforced. All ages need this important touch.
5. Personal worship. Don't just do something-sit there. Each of these kids understood quiet time and sacred space. Granted, one of them found their sacred moments on the toilet. Others had places in nature, in hunting, in their rooms or other places-but they have a space that reminds them to think of God. So should we. Where is your time and space for God?
6. Discipleship. Don't just sit there-do something. Faith is infectious and is both learned and taught by doing. All of our classroom efforts would have been worthless without the kids participating in worship and going to the nursing home. "Witness" is a noun and a verb. You have and do your witness. It should be a good one.
7. Struggle is good. The kids wore me out with unanswerable questions while standing their ground expecting answers.. My faith grew each week from my personal struggle. (Next time I will have them WRITE THEM DOWN!) I had to struggle but didn't give them instant bumper sticker answers. They need to know how to get answers. These kids are hungry for the truth. All need to catch their spiritual hunger. We all need to struggle to get the answers that God is faithful to give-by faith.
8. Fewer words. Barth said, "We cannot speak of God, yet we must speak of God." or as one of our young men said, just "Keep it simple". (While I was making a cutesie quote) Group discussion is harder to teach than a lecture to a group. Lecture, for the most part, doesn't teach anything.Speak of God boldly but don't try to impress anyone with churchy language. Action speaks louder.......
9. The Beauty of spiritual youth. The beauty of these young people bubbled up from a simple and honest faith. Faith age is not our calendar age. A disciple is not immature if searching for the things of God. Even we who are older can learn to have a spiritual youth, not relying on what we know but in going where God leads us. God rewards the adventurer and not the "expert". Maybe this is why so many of our grown up "kids" were drawn to this class?
10. Confirmation is not over at age 12. This was a two year process for half of our kids, by accident, and need to be formalized into a 2 or 3 year process. The basics need to be added to Each age level-nursery to senior citizens, all year long.
My final and most important lesson was that I am greatly blessed, that we are indeed blessed. Now, let's go and be a blessing.
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