Confirmation, do you believe?

I spent this past weekend at our students Confirmation Retreat. I am new to this whole confirmation deal (the Nazarene church doesn't do it) but the more I learn about it, the more I believe it is something all denominations should do.

From what I have gotten, Confirmation is the time where students given the knowledge of the universal church, the methodist church, and their specific church, plus they are given information to help them decide whether they want to join the church and make a statement of faith or not. The students are posed the question of have they given their life to God and will they give their life to the church. I will admit, some of it seems like they are drinking the kool-aid when committing to the church, but when I talked to the kids, they seemed to be glad that they got the opportunity to do it.

Confirmation is a time for students to reflect on what and why they believe. I think this is a great start in youth ministry and I really believe it helps students to maintain their faith better because they have questioned it and had questions answered. As a youth pastor, this is something that I can build my ministry on and then continue to have the students try and test out their faith. I know students struggled with defining why they believe and what they believe, and confirmation helps them do that.

I watched on Friday night as the 16 students tried to write their own belief statement. Our pastor lead them through the process and helped them to focus in on certain parts and make sure they all agreed and that was what they wanted. It was interesting to watch and see them think through which sayings/ideas were important to them and then to the group. I was amazed. The students did a great job.

I was happy to be there and looking for to leading my first confirmation class next year.

Do you know what and why you believe???