The Confirm07 team welcomed over 400 confirmands and their counselors and mentors to three Confirmation Weekends held at Lake Junaluska Conference Center in North Carolina. The FCF has just announced it's first fall Confirmation retreat (November 30-December 2, 2007) as well as the dates for its Confirm08 events:
February 29 - March 2, 2008 @ Harrell Center, Lake Junaluska, NC
March 7-9, 2008 @ Terrrace Auditorium, Lake Junaluska, NC
April 11-13, 2008 @ Shackford Hall, Lake Junaluska, NC
April 25-27, 2008 @ Harrell Center, Lake Junaluska, NC
November 21-23, 2008 @ Harrell Center, Lake Junaluska, NC.
If you attended a Confirm06 or Confirm07 weekend, we invite you to post your comments, feedback and questions here.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Confirmation at what age?
Confirm07 is a series of weekend events for young confirmands of the UMC and their adult counselors and mentors, sponsored jointly by the Pfeiffer School of Religion and the Foundation For Christian Formation, led by a team of United Methodist resource persons, among them: Chris Hughes, DMin, Minister to the University, the Rev Kathleen Kilbourne, MA, Director of the Masters of Arts in Christian Education for Pfeiffer, Ed Kilbourne, MDiv, musician, storyteller and folk theologian, and Gloria Hughes, MCE, Christian Educator and Event Coordinator for the Confirm07 weekends.
In our experience, while 11 & 12 year olds may be prepared to begin the confirmation studies and activities offered to prepare them to respond to the invitation to Christian discipleship and church membership, they do not have the maturity to make the final commitments of confirmation until they are at least 13 (eighth grade). We feel strongly that the decision to be confirmed must be a free and informed response to an invitation. Often, church, parent and peer group agendas push children along and they are unclear as to what they are committing to and why. A forced response is meaningless to the church and to the confirmand and they are resistant or at least indifferent to participation in confirmation classes or events such as our Confirm07 Series.
Care should be taken to make sure that the youth that come on a confirmation retreat (or any retreat), have made the decision to participate on their own. A final note -- any over night retreat with early teens may be the first such trip they have made. Therefore commitment to structure and to the schedule is very important. Combine a lack of reflection and maturity, undeveloped social skills, with too little sleep and too much sugar, and you are in for a very long weekend. Experienced supervision should be in place and behavior covenants announced and agreed to before you leave home. Even then, ministry with youth is always an adventure.
In our experience, while 11 & 12 year olds may be prepared to begin the confirmation studies and activities offered to prepare them to respond to the invitation to Christian discipleship and church membership, they do not have the maturity to make the final commitments of confirmation until they are at least 13 (eighth grade). We feel strongly that the decision to be confirmed must be a free and informed response to an invitation. Often, church, parent and peer group agendas push children along and they are unclear as to what they are committing to and why. A forced response is meaningless to the church and to the confirmand and they are resistant or at least indifferent to participation in confirmation classes or events such as our Confirm07 Series.
Care should be taken to make sure that the youth that come on a confirmation retreat (or any retreat), have made the decision to participate on their own. A final note -- any over night retreat with early teens may be the first such trip they have made. Therefore commitment to structure and to the schedule is very important. Combine a lack of reflection and maturity, undeveloped social skills, with too little sleep and too much sugar, and you are in for a very long weekend. Experienced supervision should be in place and behavior covenants announced and agreed to before you leave home. Even then, ministry with youth is always an adventure.
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