In March 2022, the Presbyterian Outlook published my Matthew 25 confirmation curriculum, Commissioned to Change the World. The positive response was more than I expected. Sales generated over $10,000 to support the Outlook’s ministry in 2022. (I receive no remuneration from the sales.) I have also spoken to congregations, presbyteries, pastors and educators about my curriculum via webinars, digital conferences, and telephone conversations. My wife and I also led a presbytery-wide Mathew 25 confirmation retreat for Mid-Kentucky Presbytery. It has been gratifying to witness the “A-ha” moments on church leaders’ faces when I explained the rationale for Commissioned to Change the World. So has the recognition in teenagers’ eyes that following Jesus can mean making a difference for justice and peace.
I’ve learned from these conversations and encounters that church leaders want and need more clarity regarding how to talk about confirmation. Most of us use the terms “profession of faith” and “confirmation” interchangeably. However, the terms are not synonyms. That’s why I refer to the profession of faith as “membership confirmation” and confirmation (laying on of hands, strengthening in the Spirit, and anointing into the priesthood of believers) as “missional confirmation.”
Church leaders want and need more clarity regarding how to talk about confirmation.
I coined the term “membership confirmation” based on my study of Christendom, the roughly 1700 years in which the church shared power with various iterations of “empire.” The Christian’s chief responsibility in Christendom was to support the church’s budget and buildings. Piety consisted in becoming a member (patron), contributing money and effort, participating in events at the building, and attending worship regularly. Likewise, membership confirmation centers on preparing young people to take their places in the church institution by making a public profession of faith, thereby activating full membership in the church. Ironically, most modern youths quit active participation in the church after becoming active members!
Nothing in the Book of Order stipulates preparing all 12- or 13-year-olds to make their profession en masse. PC(USA) polity states that the young person’s readiness determines when the profession will be made. How do we know when a teenager is ready to profess faith? It requires knowing each youth and talking with and listening to them. It takes making a space for them in our lives and the church’s life. If you know your young people, really know them, you’ll know when they are ready to make their profession of faith.
So, if the profession of faith no longer happens automatically, what can you offer the youth in early adolescence? Parents will still expect the church to gather their children for age-appropriate instruction in the faith. So why not inspire young people to follow Jesus? Why not transform membership confirmation into missional confirmation?
I use the term “missional confirmation” to indicate a formative practice more or less in line with the missional church movement. While Christendom is dying, Christianity is not. Churches are finding a resurgence of purpose as they learn to embrace their newfound marginality. Key to the missional impulse is the conviction that the church serves God’s mission to renew creation. God is a sending God; the church is an outpost, a training center. It’s a place where disciples gather and are trained to recognize where the Holy Spirit is at work and join in. From there, disciples are sent into neighborhoods, communities and workspaces to change the world.
Missional confirmation inspires a missional identity and commissions young people to a missional way of life.
Jesus called the disciples to walk with him, learn from him, emulate him and meet and minister to strangers, aliens, impoverished or disregarded people. The disciples belonged to Jesus by answering his call, following and observing him and making mistakes. They served an apprenticeship with Jesus as he mentored them, introducing the kingdom of God into every sphere of their lives.
Missional confirmation inspires a missional identity and commissions young people to a missional way of life. It is not about joining the church; it’s about joining the missional project initiated by Jesus and entrusted to the church. The missional community affirms each young person as a Spirit-gifted disciple and strengthens them as partners in God’s mission to transform the world. Following Jesus’ practice, missional confirmation models faith formation as an embodied task — a shared practice within a relationship of trust. Extensive personal interactions between confirmands and mentors provide the context in which the missional imperative is caught more than taught.
Young people want to be inspired to do great things. Missional confirmation inspires teenagers to change the world, in big and small ways, in service to Jesus Christ.
Missional confirmation inspires teenagers to change the world, in big and small ways, in service to Jesus Christ.
After a year of living with, teaching, and talking about Commissioned to Change the World, I was inspired to revise and update my confirmation curriculum. This spring, the Presbyterian Outlook released Changing the World: Confirmation for the Missional Church. It’s bigger than Matthew 25 and the PC(USA). The revised and updated version includes:
- new worship ideas and meditative readings,
- sermon suggestions,
- doable service project ideas
- inspiring stories of young people changing the world
- closer attention to the distinctions between equality, equity, and justice
- foot-washing as the culmination of the retreat
- clearer prompts for covenant-making
- role-playing scenarios
For those who want to discuss confirmation, please email me at mdhedd94@gmail.com or watch my conversation with Outlook Editor/Publisher Teri McDowell Ott, “Confirmation in the post-Christendom church.”
Learn more about Changing the World here.