Reflecting upon Confirmation as a Pastor - What Does This Mean?

Confirmation has returned to the forefront of my mind in recent days for personal and professional reasons.  The practice of confirmation is one of the few issues where there is great unity among LCMS pastors these days.  However, it is not necessarily the kind of unity for which we are striving.  The unity that we have achieved is that of dissatisfaction.  Very few pastors are content with their particular congregational model or approach to confirmation, the participation and response of confirmands, and the support of parents and care givers.  In Confirmation Basics, seminary professor Kent Burreson describes confirmation as “a rite desperately seeking a rationale.”  He then refers to “its checkered liturgical history,” “diverse responses of the Lutheran reformers,” “changes in the practice” and “challenges in a post-modern, post-church age” as part of the background for assessing the practice of confirmation today.”  Many associate confirmation with the Lord’s Supper when it is associated with First Communion.  Others connect it with Baptism or emphasize it as something distinct from Baptism and Lord’s Supper by emphasizing the personal vow or the concept of “membership.”  Arthur Carl Repp’s classic Confirmation in the Lutheran Church provides a thorough overview of the history of the rite and the various approaches since the Reformation and traces how elements of the four distinct “types” have been retained.  While Repp’s book is fifty years old, he raises some of the same questions with which pastors and congregations wrestle still today.

The rite in Lutheran Service Book helps to strengthen the connection between confirmation and Baptism.  This helps to place confirmation within the understanding of Christ’s command to “make disciples” by baptizing and teaching.   It becomes in one sense a logical extension of the parent’s commitment in bringing the child to be baptized and the charge given to sponsors.  Confirmation is more than just a white robe and a cards for the boy wearing the uncomfortable tie or the girl walking awkwardly on her heeled shoes.  The explanation in Lutheran Service Book Agenda explains “The rite of Confirmation, though not commanded by Christ in Holy Scripture, is, nevertheless, a salutary custom that marks the catechumen’s confession of faith after a period of thorough and extensive catechesis in the Small Catechism.  It is also a celebration of the gifts that God gave the catechumen in Baptism and affords the confirmand the opportunity to confess his or her faith publicly before the Church.” 

As I searched through the files on my computer, I found three different documents that noted changes to our confirmation program and one “paradigm shift.”  I was surprised how many times we have “revisited” with confirmation without achieving any spectacular solutions.  My pragmatic side is frustrated that there is no “magic bullet” for confirmation.  However, there is still a great commitment to the confirmation in many congregations.  But we have to recognize that family dynamics have changed dramatically in the last twenty-five years.  Marvin Bergmann, also taken from Confirmation Basics, writes, “The three leading challenges in confirmation ministries anticipate five years from now named were the need for greater parent involvement and commitment, schedule conflicts and time pressures, and a post-confirmation lack of involvement by youth.” 

So, as Lutherans are prone to ponder, “What does this mean?”  We have this long-standing “custom” that is varied in terms it’s understanding and practice that is found by many to be difficult and frustrating.  There is no “Thus saith the Lord” attached to confirmation.  What then should we do?  Should we just read confirmation’s obituary and call it a day?  Perhaps a better approach than a funeral would be a “reformation.”  Confirmation is not something that can be “fixed.”  To properly instruct and prepare catechumens means that confirmation instruction will be in a constant state of flux as we strive to make disciples in a constantly changing world. 

What confirmation has traditionally been in most Lutheran churches in the previous century was a time of intensive instruction in the Christian faith in a time that paralleled adolescence.  Some congregations have moved away from confirmation taking place in eighth grade.  Admittedly, junior high is a challenging age.  However, it would seem that there would be great benefit to young people spending significant time with their pastor through catechesis.  Rather than retreating from the challenge,  it would seem to be wise to re-commit ourselves to the importance of teaching the faith at this age.

This also means committing to an approach for confirmation that is adaptable for today.  We cannot take the same approach to confirmation of years gone by.  This means that our approach to confirmation would be multi-faceted and would include parents, care givers and other adults in the process as well as individualized and group settings.  I would envision an approach that still makes extensive use of Scripture and Catechism, but would not be exclusively “delivered” by the pastor in a lecture format.  A seminary professor recently suggested to me that pastors would benefit greatly from taking an “educational methods” class from a local university.   It would be a worthwhile investment of time and resources for the congregation as well.  We must also recognize that catechesis today should include much more of an emphasis on apologetics than was the case previously.   Young people will find the Christian faith under attack as they set foot on college and perhaps high school campuses.  Catechesis will teach the faith thoroughly, but also help the catechumens to be able to answer and contend for the faith in a world hostile to the Gospel. 

For confirmation to serve any purpose beyond the confirmation robe being just a graduation gown, it will mean that congregations view it within an overall commitment to the teaching of children and adults.  This means that the commitment and support of confirmation is more than just an hour of the pastor’s time on Wednesdays and the grandparents who shuttle the kids.  What is needed is a commitment to instruction of children and adults that connects home and church (and Lutheran school) and places confirmation as one piece of a larger puzzle.  This means that pastors and elders and other committees regularly discuss and evaluate confirmation.  It means that parents are actively in engaged in teaching the faith within the home to their children as Luther envisions in the Small Catechism.  It also necessitates more discussions about confirmation between pastors and other church professionals regarding everything from First Communion to different learning styles.  These are topics to be taken up by conferences at the circuit and district level and by leaders at the university and seminary level (Dr. John Oberdeck at Concordia University Wisconsin has been a leading voice for this important topic). 

Ultimately, confirmation is about connecting the young people with Christ and His gifts given in Word and Sacrament.  Burreson writes, “Its purpose must always be to support and strengthen the Church’s Word-filled, sacramental life of faith.”  The hope and prayer of every pastor is that the child who is baptized into Christ will be present at the time of confirmation and that the young person who is confirmed will be present the next week to once again hear the Word and receive Christ’s gifts. 

 

If you've made it this far, check back on Monday for my reflections upon confirmation as a parent.