Welcome to the confirmation class page.  My hope is that this can be a resource as you make this journey.  I will post video clips that we use in class and weekly topics so if you miss class, this is the place to start.

Week 1 - Jan 8th

Week 2 - Jan 22nd

Week 3 - Jan 29th

Week 4 - Feb 5th

Week 5 - Feb 12th

Week 1 - Introductions and Baptism

Through our baptism, we are brought into the body of Christ.  We are cleansed and made new, claimed in the water by God.  God acts first.  God calls us to a life in Christ and we remember this when we baptize infants because they are called before they can respond.  The confirmation journey is about taking over the promises made on your behalf, to make faith your own.  This is a time to ask questions, to reflect and to search for who God is calling you to be.

Cannonball Baptism video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5abEm1241kY

This is not how we baptize at Westminster, but many faith traditions use a baptistry.  Cannonballing into however, is maybe not the best idea.

On the homework sheet for this week there is a chart called "Growing in Grace and Knowledge:  Where do you fall at this point?  What questions do you have?

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Week 2 - Presby-What - What does it mean to be church?

What does it mean to be Presbyterian?  The word Presbyterian comes from a Greek word that means elders, it describes how our church is governed.  We have elders who represent the people and make decisions based on what they feel God is doing in the world.  We believe we are called by God and guided by the Spirit. 

We looked at the Presbyterian Church (USA) seal.

Check out this website for explanations of the variety of symbols that have been put into our seal.

http://www.infodn.com/class/screenshots/pcusa/WW34.html

Our church constitiution is made up of two parts.  The Book of Confessions and the Book of Order.  We looked briefly at the book of order as we looked at a section called The Great Ends of the Church.  F-1.0304

"The great ends of the Church are:
     - the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;
     - the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;
     - the maintenance of divine worship;
     - the preservation of the truth;
     - the promotion of social righteousness; and
     - the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world."

We watched a video called Me Church.  Take a look and see what you think is wrong with this picture?

The chart this week has to do with what Scripture says about Elders and their roles and responsibilities.

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Week 3  - God

We started with reflection sheets about nature, events, animals, etc and the answer was "God is bigger than that!"  God is our creator and is bigger than we can see or imagine.  We used the Joseph story to look at how God uses situations in our lives that the world may see as bad, but that are in God's reality, good.  It is a reminder that God is sovereign.  It is God who made us and God who is in charge of the world. 

We wrote a Cinquain Poem about God

_________________________
One word title

_____________________________   ________________________
Two word phrase that describes the title, or two adjectives about God.

_______________________  __________________________  _______________________
three word phrase that describes and action related to your title or three verbs (action words)

____________________  __________________  _________________  __________________
Four word Phrase that describes a feeling that relates to your topic or four feeling words

__________________________
One word that refers back to your title

Here is an example that I wrote:

Liberator

Sets free

heals the sinner

Creator, Redeemer, Protector, Deliverer

Source-of-Life

Some Metaphors for God

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Week 4 - Jesus

Who is Jesus?  This is a question that is asked on the streets in several videos.  Take a look at one here.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd97sp2i4Ls&feature=related

So who do you think Jesus is?

One of the names we use for Jesus is Immanuel.  It means God with Us.  It comes from the Christmas story in Matthew. 

Take a look at the following Scriptures.  What do they tell you about Jesus?

Matthew 8: 23-27
Mark 2:1-12
Luke 5:1-11
John 1:14
John 14:7-11
Hebrews 1:3a
Philippians 2:5-11
Colossians 1:15a
 

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Week 5 - Feb 12th - Holy Spirit and Trinity

This week we talked about the 3rd person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  This is not generally a focus in most Presbyterian Churches, not because we don't believe in it, but it does not fit with our sense of "decently and in order".  The Holy Spirit can make things messy.   We talked about the Spirit appearing as tongues of fire in Acts 2 and as a rushing wind and as the dove.  The Spirit was a gift as a way for Jesus to be present with us as he was to the disciples.  The Spirit blows through us and helps Scripture, worship, the Sacraments, our faith come alive.

One of the activities we did was Lectio Divina, which is Latin for divine reading.  It is a way to meditate on Scripture and listen to what it is saying.  We used John 14:25-27 as our text. 

Read the passage aloud slowly. 
What word or phrase stuck out?
Read the passage aloud slowly again.
Think about that word or phrase.
Read the passage aloud slowly a 3rd time.
Draw a picture that represents why the word/phrase is important and what does it say to you at this time in your life.

We also talked about the Trinity.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the traditional language.  How is it that these 3 are one and the same?  One way to think of it is water, ice and steam.  All the same chemical make up but different states.  The problem with this is that it suggests that each "person" of the Trinity stays in one state all the time.  Think of it more in terms of a triple helix (strands wrapped around each other) or as a musical chord where each note sounds, but there is a sound made from all 3 and also leaves room for us to participate in the life of the God head.

We also talked about some different ways to describe the Trinity. 

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer

Rainbow, Ark and Dove

Giver, Gift and Given

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