Confirmation Redefined

Greeting in the name of the Lord of the Church—Jesus the Christ!

Jesus, in the Great Commission calls us to “make disciples” “baptizing” and “teaching them to obey every-thing I have commanded you.” In the Great Commandment He calls us to “love the Lord with all (our) heart, soul, mind, and strength” and to “love (our) neighbors as we love ourselves.”

With this in mind, the main task of the Christian church is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Word and Sacrament, to bring people into faith relationship with Jesus Christ and then to grow them up in that faith, which culminates in them being “makers of more disciples”. This faith is knowing the Scriptures and under-standing them as they are taught in the Lutheran Confessions (head) and living them in our everyday life (heart) and is a lifelong process. We are in the faith formation (disciple-making) business.

This leads us to a question we pose here at Trinity as we constantly look at our Christian Growth Ministry to Children, Youth, and Adults. The simple question is “Are we forming faith?” Not “How can we increase church attendance?” or “How can we get youth and families to come to church or to attend our school?”

With this question always at the center of our prayer, study and planning we have made some exciting changes to our Ablazing Faith Confirmation Program.

These changes you will see center on five key principles that guide our ministry:

1. Faith in Christ is formed by the power of the Holy Spirit in personal, trusted relationships with Christ fol-lowers, often in our homes.

2. The church is a living partnership between the ministry of Trinity and the ministry of the home.

3. Where Christ is present in faith, the home is church, too.

4. Faith is caught (modeled) as much as it is taught.

5. If we want Christian children and students, we need Christian adults and parents.

Our new plan allows for greater family participation, more opportunities for family dialog, and increased op-portunity for serving and growing as a family.

I am very excited for the improvements we have made to our Ablazing Faith Ministry. While anything new presents itself with challenges, we are confident that this new direction will be a blessing to everyone in-volved.

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