Confirmation Class *shudder*

Confirmation - that word still sends shudders thru me (in a bad way!). I'm not even sure why. I didn't go thru "confirmation" class as a kid. (My only childhood memory of church is making a turkey out of indian corn for Thanksgiving.) So I don't know why I have this bias toward the word as it relates to attending a class to confirm one's faith. All that being said.....

We just finished our first "confirmation" class at our church - and it was very cool. We combined Youth Alpha (YA) with our New Members (NM) class. Did Youth Alpha last fall and just finished the New Members piece last night. Here is what I loved about it.....

* Relationships, relationships, relationships - so many of the messages and discussion focused around our relationship with God and then with each other.
* Surrounding the students with adults of all ages from 22-70+! Adults serving youth by cooking dinners, small group leaders, giving talks, helping with faith statements, playing spider ball, worshipping together, eating together. "Church family" indeed!
* This process served as a great opportunity to talk with PARENTS! I haven't talked with so many parents ever until we did this. Their concerns about what the expectations are for their child's faith statements, about attendance, about expectations, etc. Wow - I learned so much about the hopes that parents have and the struggles and insecurities they have in talking about their faith with their kids. What a great time to come along side and encourage them.
* A different crowd - many of the youth came because their parents heard this was out "confirmation" class and they really encouraged their kids to be there. Opened some doors to engaging students we hadn't seen before and showing them Christ's love.
* Faith Statements - some of the stuff they wrote down blows me away.....maybe for another post I'll share some it.

Good stuff. God stuff. Who knew? (God did....)