Confirmation Class, 2015-2016
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Confirmation Class, 2015-2016 Dear Parent(s), I am pleased to invite your youth to participate in our 2015-2016 Confirmation experience at Trinity Heights United Methodist Church. I hope you will take a few minutes to talk with your youth about this opportunity, and if s/he is interested, please work together to return a completed registration form to me by this coming Sunday, August 23. As I have shared, confirmation is intended to help us explore Christian faith and make for ourselves the decision to be a Christian. In confirmation, most of us confirm the promise made by our parents when we were baptized, while some of us choose to be baptized into the faith for the first time. The back page of the youth letter includes information about the commitment we expect of all who want to take part in confirmation this year. These commitments are: • Classes: Attend at least 17 of the 22 class sessions in order to be confirmed in May. • Field Trips: Although not mandatory, I strongly encourage attending. • Service and Mission: We ask each confirmand to give at least 18 hours of service in our church (e.g. ushering; helping teach; etc.), as well as participate in at least 3 missions opportunities offered by our Youth Group or church. We will be providing the following resources to every confirmand: • Wesley Study Bible (New Revised Standard Vision) with his/her name imprinted on the cover. We intent to present the confirmands with these special Bibles during the 9am Traditional Worship on Sunday, September 6. • Credo Confirmation Journal • re: Form Traditions Methodist “Anti-Workbook” • three-hole punched handouts and worksheets • three-hole punched reading plans to help them engage their Bible On Confirmation Sunday we will also present confirmands with a United Methodist cross and flame (either as a pendant or keychain, per their choice).
Transcript of Confirmation Class, 2015-2016
Confirmation Class, 2015-2016 Dear Parent(s), I am pleased to invite your youth to participate in our 2015-2016 Confirmation experience at Trinity Heights United Methodist Church. I hope you will take a few minutes to talk with your youth about this opportunity, and if s/he is interested, please work together to return a completed registration form to me by this coming Sunday, August 23. As I have shared, confirmation is intended to help us explore Christian faith and make for ourselves the decision to be a Christian. In confirmation, most of us confirm the promise made by our parents when we were baptized, while some of us choose to be baptized into the faith for the first time. The back page of the youth letter includes information about the commitment we expect of all who want to take part in confirmation this year. These commitments are:
• Classes: Attend at least 17 of the 22 class sessions in order to be confirmed in May. • Field Trips: Although not mandatory, I strongly encourage attending.
• Service and Mission: We ask each confirmand to give at least 18 hours of service in
our church (e.g. ushering; helping teach; etc.), as well as participate in at least 3 missions opportunities offered by our Youth Group or church.
We will be providing the following resources to every confirmand:
• Wesley Study Bible (New Revised Standard Vision) with his/her name imprinted on the cover. We intent to present the confirmands with these special Bibles during the 9am Traditional Worship on Sunday, September 6.
• Credo Confirmation Journal • re: Form Traditions Methodist “Anti-Workbook” • three-hole punched handouts and worksheets • three-hole punched reading plans to help them engage their Bible
On Confirmation Sunday we will also present confirmands with a United Methodist cross and flame (either as a pendant or keychain, per their choice).
In addition, I want to encourage you to participate. Specifically, I hope you will regularly engage your youth as s/he goes through the Confirmation Experience. We hope you will take time to talk with them about what they are learning and about their faith. To help with this, we can provide you with a copy of the Credo Confirmation Guide for Parents. This resource follows the order of lessons in the Credo curriculum and in the confirmands’ journals, giving you the opportunity to read about the theme(s) as well as reflect on your own thoughts. Please let me know if you would like one ordered for you. Finally, I also want to share that I am hoping to do something new, and offer a confirmation-like experience (using the same lessons and resources) for adults. We’re going to call the group re:Confirm, and it will meet on Monday evenings the same weeks as confirmation. You should see more information shared with the congregation at large soon. I hope that some of you parents might be interested in learning and reflecting with others about the same theological themes and discipleship questions as your youth, and that you will join us for this small group experience. If you want more details, please feel free to contact me. May God bless you and keep you, Rev. Ron Bartlow [email protected] (928) 526-1397
