New tools for confirmation ministry
Filed Under: confirmation, CYD, Youth Discipleship
The Confirmation Ministry Task Force, working with the Commission on Youth Discipleship, recently released Confirmation Ministry Self-Study: A Process to Help Congregations Reflect, Evaluate, and Improve. This congregational tool has two components: a DVD encouraging evaluation of confirmation practices and showcasing new approaches to confirmation used around WELS, and a CD containing the directions, worksheets, and templates needed to conduct the self-study.
The task force, which was created in 2001 to address the problem of declining post-confirmation teen participation in WELS congregations, conducted a survey and a follow-up study that focused on WELS congregations' confirmation practices. The results helped the task force to create these materials that congregations can use to examine their confirmation practices.
Rev. Rik Krahn, chairman of the Confirmation Ministry Task Force, notes, "Nearly all of our members will be touched in some way by confirmation. That means it has tremendous value and importance, and it means we should always strive to do it as well as we can. If we just ask the question, 'Are we doing the best we can?' then we will be better for it, even if we make no changes."
