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Interesting, what age was a person confirmed?
Like in the end, all they needed to "pass" confirmation was to memorize the apostle's creed, 10 commandments, the books of the new testment, the great commission and the great commandment. There where a few other things they had to do such as find 10 total verses in the bible, write them down, memorize them for long enough to repeat them to the teacher and turn them in.
Quite a bit of memorization is required at my church, and my daughter absolutely couldn't do it. She has a learning disability that affects her ability to do rote memorization. This affected her ability to learn spelling words and multiplication tables, as well. She can understand concepts just fine and has no problem learning complex ideas and such. She had to do a little extra to be confirmed to make up for not being able to simply memorize stuff.
I'll be honest, as much as I like the idea, it would be nice to see more people even read the Bible. I'm not sure how realistic a goal the BoC is on top of the Bible.
And just to note, if they go through the BoC, they get the large catechism. I don't know if we should make them do it twice
This is where pastoral care should come in. Being able to learn meanings over word-for-word would IMO suffice for someone who has medical reasons to not easily or possibly memorize.
But I think this should be a case by case thing, not a reason to change the whole program. At my aunt's LCMS congregation, when my cousin was going through the pastor changed the whole curriculum to accommodate a single person in the class. My aunt was outraged that the whole program was watered down so one person could pass. Not only was this not helpful for the rest of the class, but I imagine these are the steps that lead to a tradition of poor confirmation teaching because then it never gets adjusted again.
I think someone mentioned it earlier, but I like it when confirmation asks of the parents (or a mentor) as much as it does of the confirmands.
I taught confirmation in my ELCA congregation and I can affirm, that compaired to what I've seen in the LCMS, ELCA confirmation programs are a joke.
Well, I am being confirmed this weekend. Finished my classes and am really excited about it. I've been looking forward to this day since last fall when I began investigating Lutheranism.
What exactly do they do in the LCMS at an adult's confirmation? The pastor said it was nothing to get worked up about (as in worry). I'm one of those type A people and I like to know what/when/where/how/etc... I'm sure it will be just fine but I have this dread I'll get up there and not be able to say a word. You know???:o
Well, I am being confirmed this weekend. Finished my classes and am really excited about it. I've been looking forward to this day since last fall when I began investigating Lutheranism.
What exactly do they do in the LCMS at an adult's confirmation? The pastor said it was nothing to get worked up about (as in worry). I'm one of those type A people and I like to know what/when/where/how/etc... I'm sure it will be just fine but I have this dread I'll get up there and not be able to say a word. You know???:o
One of the things I'm saying is that if you do a separate 1st communion class sooner (or in cases like some ELCA churches do not require formal instruction prior to reception) then correct reception of communion no longer becomes the impetus behind the instruction.
Although I do believe every Lutheran should learn the catechism. It's more the process as a whole of how we've done it that I wonder about. I am not in favor of forgoing instruction (although I will note many Lutheran congregations--including non-ELCA have not done a good job at instruction, and often have made instruction either irrelevant to or not a significant part of confirmation).
Maybe I'm misunderstanding or missing something here. Above you've said that some ELCA churches do not require formal instruction prior to reception, I'm guessing you're talking about Communion. How is this good? Wouldn't these kids, who have not been properly instructed as to what Communion is, be receiving it unworthily and to their detriment, because they have not been properly taught what it is they are receiving?
All I'm saying is that in many churches that implied impetus for confirmation (instruction prior to communion) no longer exists either because it was removed altogether or is done at an earlier time.
Then that implied impetus needs to be brought back. We can't have anyone eating and drinking judgment upon themselves because they haven't been properly instructed.
We should be clear though that when we discuss eating worthily as Lutherans we talk only and always about possessing faith. For only by faith is the forgiveness received and only by lacking faith does one eat and drink to their own damnation (that is to say, it does not justify ex opera operato).
The pastor at my church actually had a conversation with us about this. Apparently up until 1218 if you were baptized you took communion, no age or educational restrictions were placed on it. I can get more information if you want.
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