From membership to discipleship

Focus of confirmation shifting in post-denominational world, noted Christian educator says

by Jerry L. Van Marter

VANCOUVER — If 100 participants in the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) annual conference here are to be believed, Presbyterian churches are going about confirmation all wrong and they know it.

      Fully 90 percent of those in a Feb. 3 APCE workshop entitled “Transforming the Confirmation Journey” said they think churches believe that the purpose of confirmation is “becoming a full member of the church.”

      But when asked to choose from a list of 11 possibilities what they “wish” churches believed the purpose of confirmation is, not a single person stayed with that response.

      Instead, they clustered equally around two responses:

• “a personal and communal response to God’s grace through a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ” and
• “the sending out (commissioning) of the believer as a missional agent of the gospel”

      The striking contrast in responses between what is and what should be, said workshop leader and Columbia Theological Seminary faculty member Rodger Nishioka, is a result of some rapidly changing trends in how Presbyterians view confirmation.

      “The American church has equated confirmation with church membership,” Nishioka said. “But one of the trends is the movement from a nurture model with the goal being membership in the church to a faith development model with the goal being a proclamation of faith in the community of the body of Christ.”

      That shouldn’t be surprising in a post-denominational world, Nishioka said. “You should hang it up right now if your goal is to make good Presbyterians,” he said. Though the question of denomination may come up eventually and Presbyterian churches should be prepared with answers when it does, “the focus these days should be on making great disciples who have roots in the Reformed tradition.”

      And what’s the best way to do that?

      Two keys, Nishioka said, are the creation of strong relationships between confirmands and their peers and adults other than their parents or step-parents and “the incorporation and expression of Christian values and living into daily situations.”

      “Knowing the right things doesn’t necessarily produce great discipleship,” he said. “Christian faith is not just a set of personal beliefs (‘subjectivism’) or rote answers to questions (‘objectivism’), but a journey in which peers, mentors and the community must seize the opportunity to engage young people directly” — what Nishioka called “constructivism.”

      The result, he said, is “an incorporation of God’s love, trust, acceptance into the lives of all.”

      The most essential “best practice,” Nishioka insisted, is the establishment of mentoring relationships at the outset of the confirmation process. “All adolescents are in the process of shifting their primary relationships from their parents to their peers,” he explained. “But at the same time, adolescents are yearning for contact with adults other than their parents.

      “If your confirmation process doesn’t start with the formation of mentoring relationships with significant adults other than parents or step-parents,” Nishioka said, “pack it up right now.”

      Other emerging best practices in transforming confirmation, he added, are at least 17 hours of relationship-building with peers (most effectively done in a retreat setting), study of Scripture, the writing of personal and corporate faith statements, spiritual practices, Christian service, and vocational discernment.

      Perhaps most important, confirmation must not be seen or structured as an isolated program of the church. “Confirmation must be intimately related to the whole church’s ministry,” Nishioka said. “This relationship happens through connections to the community and through mentoring.

      “It’s all about relationships.”

      Congregational Ministries Publishing in the Congregational Ministries Division introduced a new confirmation curriculum, Professing Our Faith, which will be available this summer. For an introductory “sampler” (product #623007S) call Presbyterian Distribution Service at 800-524-2612 or visit the Web site www.pcusa.org/marketplace.