Lutheran Teenagers Learn How to Become Disciples

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "People between the ages of 13 and 18 are serious about life.  They are also self-reliant, stressed out and skeptical, but they are spiritual and survivors," said the Rev. Paul G. Hill, director of the Center for Youth Ministry, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.  "They realize the society is a mess and they are the ones to fix it. We should help turn the clean-up generation into disciples."
     Hill spoke at "Confirmation 2000," a symposium on confirmation ministry sponsored by the Division for Congregational Ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) held here June 14-16.  About 60 lay leaders, youth ministry workers, clergy and theologians identified the present practices of confirmation ministry in the ELCA and sought to reshape Christian education in Lutheran congregations for the 21st century.
     "Traditionally, confirmation ministry has been regarded as an educational process where the Bible and the Lutheran catechism are studied, but it's much more than that," said Diane Monroe, ELCA associate director for Christian education.  "Confirmation needs to be the way young people see themselves as named, claimed and affirmed by God.  It is God's loving action in one's life that is the basis of confirmation."
     The primary content of confirmation programs includes the study of the Lutheran catechism and the Bible, according to a recent survey on confirmation ministry in the ELCA.  About 600 of the ELCA's 11,000 congregations were surveyed; 422 responded.  Most confirmation programs include community or church service projects, memory work, sermon and worship reports, homework and retreats, indicated the study.  The most common approach to confirmation is the traditional school model.
     "Confirmation should not just include a pastor and a classroom of children.  We need to look at confirmation ministry as more of a family project.  How can parents be involved in nurturing faith in the life of an adolescent?" asked Monroe.  "Confirmation is about helping adolescents understand they can be disciples."
     Monroe said confirmation happens in a living community of faith and is the responsibility of the whole congregation.  "Regardless of which approach for confirmation ministry a congregation uses, the home must always be considered the first church.  Parents need to help their children learn about the Christian faith."
     For most congregations of the ELCA, middle adolescence is still the time for some form of concentrated emphasis on learning and activities related to faith development, said Monroe.  "Congregations see adolescence as a key time for educational input.  Congregations need to help adolescents become disciples among their peers, and help them carry what they're learning from the Bible and the catechism into their everyday life. This is what Christian education is all about for adults but more importantly for teenagers as they're facing issues we don't even know about."
     At St. Peter Lutheran Church, Mesa, Ariz., confirmation is seen as a "re-affirmation of Baptism," according to Becky Hampton, Sunday school superintendent for St. Peter.  The congregation has expanded their traditional seventh and eighth grade experience to include people of all ages.
     Members of St. Peter call it a comprehensive, family-centered confirmation program.  It begins with the birth of a child and continues through adulthood, said Hampton.  No matter what the age, there is a confirmation ministry at St. Peter taking place.
     "Few young people know much or anything of the Bible's story or message," said the Rev. Roland D. Martinson, a professor of pastoral care at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.  "Many youth are among the third-generation unchurched for whom Christianity is an alien world."  Martinson was a keynote presenter at the symposium.
     "The 21st century confronts confirmation ministry with complex challenges.  Secularism, materialism, relativism and narcissism, although challenged and tired, drive and will continue to drive North American society and culture, including youth and their culture," said Martinson.
     "Shallow, fragmented and abusive primary life relationships continue to place youth at risk.  Greater concentrations of people, resources and power among the wealthy and the elderly place youth among the most vulnerable in our culture.  As the culture becomes even more complex, fast-paced, desperate and violent the period of transition from childhood to adulthood will be longer, more treacherous and full of risk," said Martinson.
     "Confirmation ministry can effectively engage young men and women in these challenging circumstances," said Martinson.  Models of ministry which speak the gospel in relationship to what matters to youth, their families and communities can nurture faith and determine the difference between life and death for young people, their families and communities."
     "Because families are critical crucibles of psychological, social, moral and spiritual development for teenagers, because families are often exhausted, overextended and fragmented, churches will need to minister to the families of teenagers as well as the young people themselves," said Martinson.
     "Because many young people will come from the ranks of the unchurched ... because many Christian youth will grow up in families and congregations which have not taught them the Scriptures, steeped them in prayer or shaped in them a life of service ... because culture in the 21st century will be pluralistic and predominantly secular, confirmation ministries will need to teach the basics of faith and the fundamentals of leadership," said Martinson.
     "Confirmation ministry is alive and well as it stands at the threshold of the 21st century," said Martinson.  "Young women and men of vibrant faith bear witness to their convictions and make significant contributions to their congregations and communities."

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html