I'm reading The Evangelizing Church for a course I'm taking in Seminary. One of the things that struck me was a claim by the authors that there should be a stronger relationship between baptism and vocation.
Baptismal theology is a richer resource for evangelizing than was once imagined. In particular, the role of vocation is reemerging as one of the most central dimensions of how Lutherans grasp a holistic approach to mission and evangelizing in the world (46).
I think that
a lot of churches in multiple denominations have a hard time laying claim to
baptism as an incredibly powerful evangelizing tool. I've been making a strong case for the connection between baptism and vocation in my ministry for years. Most intently in my confirmation ministry.
Readers of my blog will know that I found my
faith and was baptized as an adult. In order to become a member of the church I
was asked two questions;
- Do you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? and
- On which committee would you like to serve?
When I
accepted my most recent position at Valley Community Presbyterian Church in
Golden Valley, MN, I was asked to lead the confirmation program and was
unsettled about the idea of leading something for which I had no personal
experience. What I knew, even at that time, was that it was inappropriate for
us to ask teenagers to do something that we would never ask adults to do,
study, write, and recite a personal faith statement in front of the membership in order to become members. I never had to do this and I venture a guess that if we
asked this of adults, they would never join our church. Forcing
children to go through this kind of confirmation experience because as children we were forced to is an
institutional form of hazing.
Instead, I chose to base confirmation on my own
experience and that experience begins with baptism. What I love
about this experience is that it is a direct response to those who would argue
that meaning comes from numbers. The smaller the number of students, the more
we can focus on creating an intentional experience for them. Creating a
meaningful confirmation experience is not about numbers but about orientation.
Are we taking seriously the promises of our baptism?
Here is a basic outline of what we do. As always, I welcome your thoughts!
MENTORS:
When we are baptized we are baptized into a community of believers. Baptism is the sign of God's promise of Christ's call and claim on our life. It is a visible sign that we are bound to the community of believers. That
community is called upon to nurture and witness to each baptized member. We are
called to raise everyone up within the community and help them discover their
calling in Christ. For some, that discovery starts at birth, when parents accept on their
behalf the promises that God makes. For others that discovery starts at a time in our lives when we can
claim for ourselves the desire to be bound together. No matter when it occurs, baptism
happens in community.
In
Confirmation, we partner youth with a trusted adult within the community. The
youth are encouraged to ask for people that they already know. The process
allows us to identify the people in our community who are already participating
in the lives of our young people. If there are no strong connections, we give
extra thought to how we might make stronger connections.
HIGH COST: Christianity
is a high cost high rewards faith. If you are Christian, your life is not your
own. Our confirmation is four intense months together where we sacrifice large amounts of our time,
energy, intelligence, and imaginations. In return, youth gain
friendships with peers and with other beloved members of the congregation, they
grow closer to parents and families, they discover things about themselves that
they never knew before, and learn things about God and how God is already using
them.
WORSHIP: Before
we are sent, we are gathered. It is critical that we understand that our
conversations and our work are all an extension of our life in worship. As part of
our experience we are always worshiping together and learning how our everyday
lives are an extension of the gathered body. Our group work leads directly to a
particular worship service led by discipleship teams.
MEMBERSHIP: We affirm that it is
through baptism and baptism alone that we are called into God's
community. It is about what God has done, not what we can do, that binds
us together in community. Therefore Confirmation is one avenue for membership. We invite folks to participate in Confirmation who truly see this as an
opportunity to explore where God is already using them and might use them in
the future. Those youth (and parents) who do not view this as an opportunity
are welcome and encouraged to explore other avenues of membership.
VOCATION: Each student is partnered with a mentor and then we pair them up to
form discipleship teams. These teams are considered communities for the
duration of confirmation. Our conversations and work are done within these
communities. The first six weeks of confirmation, we meet in our discipleship
teams to talk. We spend 2-1/2 hours together each time learning how to be
community with one another, sharing our experience and insights, assembling our
faith tools, discovering our gifts, talents, and interests, and discerning how God
might be calling this particular group of people to participate in God’s
mission.
The second
six weeks of confirmation is spent living out that unique expression of faith. Unique
expressions of faith that I’ve witnessed include; creating a Facebook page and
teaching people how to use it, teaching young children songs and inviting them
to sing at a nursing home, painting flower pots and bringing them to shut-ins filled
with a bloom, collecting books for a local shelter, raising money and awareness
for local organizations, organizing a quilt sewing event (an all guys group
btw) and sending quilts with a member of the congregation who travels with
Doctors Without Borders, painting storm drains with a message not to dump, and
memorizing Psalm 23.
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