Lots of churches talk about their confirmation “program.”
Your church will talk about life-giving relationships.
Using CHOSEN TOGETHER, confirmation becomes a means of building relationships that equips confirmation students, their families, and your congregation to integrate the story of God into daily life. In short, the people of your church will join together for a well-formed, informed, and maybe even reformed Christian life!
CHOSEN TOGETHER is unique because rather than offering a complex menu of activities and crafts (one that essentially expects drop-in/drop-out, sporadic attendance), students, families, and leaders participate in an unfolding conversation about Christian faith and life.
- Confirmands engage a simple, accessible way to read the Bible and apply it to real life, in real time, in conversation with people that really matter.
- Confirmands discover gifts and abilities in themselves and others throughout the congregation, becoming part of a tradition of raising up new leaders for faithful ministry and service.
- Confirmands find that confirmation is no longer “graduation” from church, but movement into full membership, including leadership. Confirmands thus walk into deepened Christian faith and relationships of substance.
- Parents and adult members also discover a renewed commitment to their own discipleship and answers to many questions left untouched by their own confirmation experiences. Everyone – families, church members, leaders, and more – is renewed!
CHOSEN TOGETHER believes that, together, parents, trusted adults, church leaders, and youth create the best kind of confirmation experience – one that can be accommodated to any congregation, student, and circumstance.
- Some congregations have midweek meetings. Others find it hard with high-demand school and extra-curricular activities.
- Some congregations have large numbers of students. Others have just a handful.
- Some congregations have ample numbers of teachers. Others struggle to maintain the few they have.
CHOSEN TOGETHER provides substantial flexibility for congregations in any of these circumstances, and more. CHOSEN TOGETHER is designed to assist congregations to identify the most effective combination of at-home, online, and in-person meetings, keeping your confirmands, their families, and the church connected. You and your team will have the opportunity to consult with CHOSEN TOGETHER’s author to determine the best ways to implement CHOSEN TOGETHER to bless the people in your setting.
CHOSEN TOGETHER has 4 interchangeable sections:
- Ten Commandments
- Apostles Creed
- Lord’s Prayer
- The Sacraments and Holy Conversations
Each week CHOSEN TOGETHER introduces a new commandment, article of the Apostles’ Creed, section of the Lord’s Prayer, and more. Confirmands will encounter:
- A scripture text that helps place the week’s topic into a biblical context and connect with the confirmand’s contemporary experience (which can also be the substance of Sunday confirmation gatherings)
- A brief reflection that helps confirmands understand the point and purpose of the week’s topic
- An activity that moves knowledge to action, related to the week’s topic
- A brief devotion for the confirmand to practice at home with his or her family
- A brief activity during or after worship that connects confirmands with others members of the church community
Each section has an accompanying leader’s guide which includes helpful material for leading small group conversations. It’s that simple.
Get together, have a conversation, leave connected and energized.
There are also additional resource guides to assist confirmands in sharing their experiences with the congregation. These culminate in capstone activities that mark final preparations before a confirmation celebration. Retreat and day-long adventure guides are available as supplemental CHOSEN TOGETHER resources.
CHOSEN TOGETHER uses the structure of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, recovering the practical dynamism originally intended by Luther. While covering the catechism’s’ essential content, CHOSEN TOGETHER primarily aims to create an environment of engagement that is flexible to our time and place, and among the wide variety of cultural and denominational expressions that exist within the Christian faith.
Through regular faith conversations at home, at church, and beyond, CHOSEN TOGETHER helps confirmands connect Christian faith with life experiences, relationships, decision-making, and a sense of vocation and calling. All activities are aimed toward relational practices of rehearsing and communicating the content of faith using words and actions. CHOSEN TOGETHER helps confirmands recognize their place in God’s story of grace, mercy, justice, and love. Therefore, confirmands and their community are equipped together to share experiences of God and the content of Christian faith with skills that explicitly recognize and communicate how faith informs education, work, and social connections at home, at church, at school, and beyond.