Confirmation Class of 2021
by Drew Robertson, Youth Director
This past Sunday we celebrated the 2021 Confirmation Class during worship. Confirmation is a strange process every year, but, due to the pandemic, it was even more so this year. Despite this weirdness, I’m continually blown away by the minds, and the thoughts therein, of our youth — especially at the eighth-grade level. Early on with this class, I sincerely wondered, and worried, how different this class would be because of not meeting in-person. A large part of the class is the small group discussion, where questions build on each other and take important tangents to topics that are all crucial to building each student’s understanding of faith. But, y’all, this generation is going to do, and is already doing, incredible things. The kids are alright.
The Confirmation process offers us a rare checkpoint with our students because we get to actually ask the question, “Okay, so how much have you actually been listening?” We won’t get a direct, comprehensive, answer about everything they’ve retained; but, the class is designed to assess where students are, fill in the gaps, and answer the questions they still have about their faith. We may not have all the answers, but that’s okay. These beliefs and doubts form their culminating Statement of Faith.
Then, as always, the question becomes, “What’s the next step?” The Confirmation process also allows us to figure out how students interact with their faith. When analyzing how we teach our youth about faith, I apply the knowledge and wisdom of Albert Einstein, “Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole life believing it is stupid.” Some of our students lean to the more factual, technical, side of Faith, “What does the Bible actually say?” Some of our students lean to the more spiritual, intangible, side, “What does it feel like and mean to have the Holy Spirit move through you?” Each of these viewpoints is valid and true, and each of them, and all other leanings, are to be nurtured and celebrated because these are lenses through which each student’s foundation of faith is constructed. Then, as the students complete Confirmation and move into the Senior High class, we walk alongside these Westminster students to aid them in understanding their personal relationship with God, and what it means to have faith as a Christian in the world, today and tomorrow.