Académique Documents
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By Joshua Noah
Director of Children, Youth, & Family Ministries
Trinity Presbyterian Church
East Brunswick, NJ
2014-2015
Program Requirements
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and
love your neighbor as yourself.
- Jesus, Luke 10:27
Requirements:
100 Hours of Church Service, Mission Work, &
Worship
Break-Down:
Mission Project:
50 Hours
Worship Attendance:
20 Hours
Intrachurch Service:
30 Hours
Summary of Requirements:
Complete Conformation Mentor Modules
o To be completed BEFORE Mission Project begins.
20 Hours of Worship Attendance
o With JOURNALING for each attendance (journals dated)
50 Hours of Mission Work
o Complete and submit Mission Project Proposal to Confirmation
Coordinator
o With JOURNALING for each day you work on your project (journals dated)
30 Hours of Intrachurch Service/Participation
o With JOURNALING for each day of service (journals dated)
Attend Youth Lock-In/Retreat (10/03-05/2014)
o Complete Faith Interview with Confirmation Coordinator
o Complete Faith Interview with at least one Parent/Guardian
Conduct Remaining Faith Interviews (Other Parent & Mentor)
Meet Theological Competency Requirement
o Either 70% attendance at Jr. High Sunday School (2013-2014) OR
o Pass (60%) the Presbyterian Study Catechism Confirmation Edition
Meet Biblical Literacy Requirement
o Either 70% attendance at Jr. High Sunday School (2014-2015) OR
o Pass (60%) Biblical Literacy Exam
Compose Statement of Personal Faith
o Submit several drafts to Confirmation Coordinator
o Rewrite and resubmit drafts to Confirmation Coordinator
Attend Session Meeting one month before Confirmation
o Session meets on the 2nd Monday of the month and NOT during the
Summer.
Attend the Presbytery of Monmouth Pizza & Polity Event
Serve as Liturgist during Confirmation Service
Present Mission Project on Confirmation Sunday
Reasons to do Confirmation
You want to confess Christ as your Lord & Savior and commit to serving
Christs Church by affirming the vows taken at your baptism.
You want to take the next step in the Journey of Faith.
You want to begin taking on more adult roles within the life of the
congregation.
You want to learn how to make your Christian faith a way of life and not
just something you do on Sundays.
You feel you have more doubt than faith and want to explore it further.
You feel you have gifts that you want to share through the Church.
You feel called to serve God and the Church but dont quite know how.
You have questions about faith that seem to have no answer.
Something seems to be urging you to do this, yet you cant describe
what it is.
Reasons NOT to do Confirmation
i.e. The day after the Confirmation service, we never see you in the
church again except maybe on Christmas and Easter.
You think that Confirmation will guarantee that youll get into Heaven.
faith. This model is also something which adolescents are quite familiar
with because it is exactly what our culture expects of them: to consume.
Therefore, the adolescent, who is in the middle of constructing his/her
identity, according to developmental psychologist Erik Erikson, never
actually constructs their faith, but simply consumes it. Making faith only one
of many things tried on or tested in the pursuit of identity. Moreover, the
church just becomes part of the cultural white noise. It becomes
indistinguishable from the rest of culture. The church ceases to be holy, in
the sense of being something separate from the rest of the world. Instead,
it is accommodating to the worlds standards and its Gospel becomes
watered-down to the status quo.
Therefore, in order for confirmation to be more biblically based, more
like the accounts found within Acts, the pedagogy has to be transfigured in
a way that inverts the standard cultural paradigm just like the Gospel
does. Confirmation must be done by the adolescents within the context of
their entire faith community. They must have the opportunity to be
producers of faith instead of consumers of it. They must be able to engage
with every aspect of their faith community, so that they can learn to spread
the Gospel by actually doing it alongside experienced, faithful adult
Christians. There must also be the understanding that confirmation is really
about beginning a new phase in ones faith journey and not about reaching
some faith finish line. Confirmation must be about understanding the
process of faith formation, not trying to get the faith. The process of
Confirmation must be embodied incarnate not just a mental exercise.
This is reflected over and over in Acts, especially in its description of
Pauls life as, a series of journeys, pilgrimages, excursions out into
some unexplored territory where all that is known is the faithfulness of God
(103). Therefore, confirmation truly becomes a life-long process and not
just a moment in time. When a church approaches confirmation in this way,
the church and Christian faith are no longer part of the rest of the culture; it
becomes something holy, something separate from the rest of the world.
The Christian faith leaves its church building and becomes a way of life
where we are expected to behave differently from others, to live together
with other Christians, to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and to produce
works of faith in joyous response to Gods grace instead of simply
consuming all that that Gods creation has to offer.
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Its not that Gods Church has a mission; its that Gods Mission has a church.
Karl Barth
The church does NOT exist apart from mission. Without mission, the Church is
nothing more than a group of people who gather together for their own self-gratification.
Therefore, to be a part of the church is to be a part of the Missio Dei the Mission of
God in the World. The Presbyterian Church (USA), along with the rest of the Church
Universal, confesses this belief through the Nicene Marks which says the Church is
one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. But what does that mean for confirmed members in
our denomination?
In its calling, the confirmed members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) give
witness to the Nicene Marks of the Church as being "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic."
In order to best understand the way in which the PCUSA gives witness to these Nicene
Marks of the Church catholic, it would be best to examine them in reverse order - from
apostolic to catholic to holy to one.
The confirmed members of the PCUSA give witness to the apostolic nature of the
Church universal through its mission throughout the world. The very word "apostolic"
come from the word "apostle" which means "one that is sent." By being sent out into the
world to witness to the love of God through Jesus Christ, the confirmed members of the
PCUSA, adhere to this mark. This mark of apostolicity can be seen in the Mission of the
Congregation section of the Book of Order which states that,
"The congregation reaches out to people, communities, and the world to share
the good news of Jesus Christ, to gather for worship, to offer care and nurture to
Gods children, to speak for social justice and righteousness, to bear witness to
the truth and to the reign of God that is coming into the world" (G-1.0101).
Through this apostolic "sent-ness" confirmed members of the PCUSA affirm and
participate in the mission of the Church universal; a mission which was initiated by
Christ at the Great Commission, and begun at Pentecost.
In acknowledging its universal apostolic mission, confirmed members of the
PCUSA also affirm the catholicity of the Church universal. In understanding the term
"catholic," we must acknowledge that the term actually means for the Church universal
to find its unity, its center, its foundation in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. While there
may be many expressions of this faith, there is only ONE Lord, Jesus Christ. It is this
one Lord that the Church universal serves in its mission to the world. Confirmed
members of the PCUSA claim and affirm Christ as Lord, especially as Lord of its
mission and ministry to the world, when we state that,
"Christ alone rules, calls, teaches, and uses the Church as he wills, exercising
his authority by the ministry of women and men for the establishment and
extension of Gods new creation. Christs ministry is the foundation and standard
for all ministry, the pattern of the one who came not to be served but to serve
(Matt. 20:28)" (G-2.0101).
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In affirming Christ as our Lord, we also affirm that we will follow and obey the one who
calls and instructs us in the ways in which we, in unity with the rest of the Church
universal, serve Christ by our mission throughout the world.
In affirming ourselves as ones who are sent into the world under the calling of our
one Lord, Jesus Christ, the confirmed members of the PCUSA also acknowledges its
holiness with the rest of the Church universal. This mark of holiness is one in which we
are set aside to be sanctified for the vocation to which our Lord has called us. Part of
this holiness is the participation in a life of disciplined discipleship through which we
worship, study, and pray. This disciplined discipleship includes observance of the Lord's
Day for, "It is the beginning of the believers week and gives shape to the life of
discipleship (W-5.5001). This holiness through disciplined observance includes worship
of our one Lord (catholic) and "engagement in ministries of witness, service, and
compassion" (apostolic) (W-5.5001).
Finally, in witnessing to the world the Love of God, through our submission to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ, and separating ourselves to live holy lives that fit Christ's call
to service, the confirmed members of the PCUSA also affirms its oneness with the
Church universal. As members of Christ's body, we show our oneness through the way
we love one another, not in the way we organize our churches. The PCUSA has worked
to affirm this oneness through its "opportunities for conversation, cooperation, and
action with other ecclesiastical groups" (G-5.0101). By working together with its sisters
and brothers in Christ, the confirmed members of the PCUSA witnesses to the world the
love that Christians have for one another, and their call to all Christians to spread this
love of God to people throughout the world.
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One of the foci of the confirmation class will be a mission project in which you
engage in mission work while reflecting upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You will be REQUIRED to keep a journal of every day that you work on
your mission project.
Be sure to date each of your journal entries.
By keeping a journal, you will be able to keep track of your work, reflect back on
work you have done previously, and work with your confirmation guide and
parents in finding biblical and theological resources that support the work you
are doing. You should bring your journal to confirmation progress meetings and
to your mentoring meeting so that your guides and mentors can help you with
your biblical and theological reflections. Your journal can be done in several
ways, you can:
Give a written account of the days events
Write about what you felt or how you saw Christ/God/Holy Spirit
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Describe what you think, as of now, are the connections between your mission work and
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What makes the work you are about to do mission and not
just community service?
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I hereby commit to serving this mission project as a part of my confirmation program for
Christs church. I will accurately and faithfully keep track of my reflection journal and
hours that I have dedicated to accomplishing this project.
________________________________________________________________
Confirmand
Date
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Commissions/Committees/Teams:
Children, Youth, & Family Commission
Adult Christian Education Commission
Membership & Discipleship Commission
Mission Commission
Property & Finance Commission
Worship & Spiritual Life Commission
Women at the Well (females only)
Trinity Disaster Relief Team
Bazaar Focus Team
Trinity Earth Shepherds
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Other Requirements:
Faith Interviews: (HEART/MIND/SOUL)
One of the first matters that the confirmands will tackle is understanding where
they are at this moment in their faith journey. They will begin confirmation by conducting
an interview with the Confirmation Coordinator concerning their faith journey thus far.
This interview will allow both the confirmand and the Confirmation Coordinator to
understand the confirmands faith journey up until now and understand why he/she has
decided to begin confirmation at this point. This initial assignment, combined with the
work throughout the program, will lead the confirmands into their final assignment a
one page statement of faith which they will read before the Session of Elders and the
congregation on Confirmation Sunday. These interviews will occur during the Youth
Retreat/Lock-In on October 3-5, 2014.
The other interviews will conducted by the confirmand with his/her parent(s)
(each parent separately) and with his/her mentor. The purpose of these interviews is to
help the confirmand develop an understanding of the scope of a persons faith over a
lifetime. At the same time, it will help the confirmand understand his/her parents beliefs
and help promote greater conversations about faith between parent and child which
should be occurring throughout the confirmation program. The confirmand will then
reflect on the interviews in his/her journal.
***One of the parents/guardians should be present on the first evening of the
Youth Retreat/Lock-In (October 3, 2014), so that one of the parent/guardian interviews
can be done as part of the work for the Retreat/Lock-In.***
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Date
Hours Worked
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Mission,
Worship, or
Intrachurch?