I just incurred the wrath of my 2nd year Confirmation class by telling them that they had to pass a Confirmation test to be confirmed. They get a re-take if they don’t pass it the first time and I promised that it wasn’t going to be wicked hard. I want to basically know that they learned something in Confirmation and have the information to make the choice about whether or not they want to be confirmed.
I told them what a third of the points are going to be: the Lord’s Prayer, the 10 Commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, and “who is Jesus/why is He important?” (If they can’t answer those questions, I cannot confirm them with a clear conscience. Those are, like, the BARE ESSENTIALS of Lutheranism.) The rest will be short ID’s on people (Noah, Mary, Abraham, Adam, Eve, Paul…), terms (baptism, confirmation, Holy Spirit, Trinity…), and Holy Days (Easter, Pentecost, Good Friday…). There will also be questions like “how are we saved” (by grace through faith) and stuff on things they should know as Christians.
Anything else I should ask? 🙂
Sacraments?
Do students still learn “that is most certainly true?”
I’m old enough that our confirmation program lasted three years, three hours a week except in summer. We had to write sermon summaries, take tests, study OT and New. A lot of Pastors were formed from that congregation – no surprise. We were engaged intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Good luck. It is a big responsibility. Oh….one question should be “what are the names of Mrs. Pastor’s cats?”
The sacraments are going to be on there. 🙂 (My husband would insist on that.)
These kids learned the stuff about “this is most certainly true” in their curriculum last year. The problem is that they havee had 3 different people teaching (including me) so I’m trying to make sure they know the basics (the prayers/commandments/creed) themselves without worrying about getting Luther’s explanation. They’ve had two years and they have sermon notes every week (which they complain about doing but agree that mine are easier than the previous pastor’s.)
The cat question might be a bonus one since Edda and Freya have visited them in class.
those all seem like basics. i would be worried if a confirmation class *didn’t* require the knowledge of these things. 🙂