Hi there.
I'm re-purposing my blog, The Big 3, to help document and explore the journey of our Shadow Rock confirmation class this year. So posts will hopefully be fairly regular, and primarily about this group of nine 7th and 8th grade students. Occasionally as I am inspired/led/called, I will write about some other stuff too.
When I joined the staff at Shadow Rock UCC, confirmation was one the programs I was excited about. My own oldest child ('G-man' here in blogland) had just been confirmed. For several years, Shadow Rock had used as a basic confirmation curriculum the book, The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. Chapter titles of Borg's book became the working titles of the class sessions. Last year, I shepherded 4 students through confirmation and continued using this basic format. We are blessed to have several retired clergy, clergy working in other settings, and incredibly well-read laypersons in the congregation. These folks would come in to facilitate various class sessions that matched their interests and expertise.
It was a good year. Despite its small size, the 2011-2012 confirmands were a terrific group of kids. I am fortunate to have played a role in their faith journey. And, just by the way, I still recommend the Borg book. It's one of two books that I would credit with my move from childhood faith through a period of interesting heathenism to a maturing, progressive, experiential faith. The other book is If Grace is True.
Still, this spring I noticed an itch to mix it up.
We have another faith formation program - a weekend retreat for adults called Profound Journey Dialogue. PJD takes its basic structure and assumptions from the Ecumentical Institute's Religious Studies I, an introduction to theological breakthroughs of the mid-20th century that was part of Shadow Rock's founding and central to our culture and sense of covenant. In a PJD weekend, people explore their orientation to life, significant events in their lives, their sense of calling, and their commitment to be in the world a certain way. It's an intense weekend...
So my urge to mix it up looks like this so far: 2012-2013 Confirmation will use the 4 sessions of Profound Journey Dialogue as the outline for class sessions. Twice monthly class sessions will allow for additional time to process the material and make connections to everyday life (something that would be good for adults too!).
These four sessions are:
1 The Way Life Is: acknowledging the push-pull of life (Bultmann - the God lecture)
2 Events That Make Us Who We Are: seeing and accepting our life as it is (Tillich - the Christ event)
3 Freedom and Responsibility (Bonhoeffer - Spirit lifestyle)
4 Community (Neibuhr - the Wedgeblade cadre)
The theologian and phrase in each parentheses is the session as it would be recognzed by folks who were familiar with RS1 in the 70s and 80s, but are not familiar with Profound Journey Dialogue.
Whew! A lot of unweildy exposition in this post (kinda like Half-Blood Prince, right?) - I apologize. But here's what I want to say about confirmation:
Part of this journey (both the program that we call 'Confirmation,' but also life itself) is about choosing your basic orientation to life. Through what lenses will you see your life and the world around you? Here are the options as I see them:
1 - You can ignore the truth around you and see only good things.
2 - You can ignore the truth around you and see only bad things.
3 - You can see life as it is, and call life a curse, an enemy, something to be endured.
4 - You can see life as it is, and call life your friend, a gift, something to be celebrated.
What does it mean to ask children to consider this choice at the age of 12 or 13? Do we even get to choose this orientation, or is it something we are born with? At this age, is this orientation still developing or already set?
More soon! Our first session is this coming Sunday evening.
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