Sunday Stretch: Vol. 7

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Thanks for joining in for Week 7 of the Sunday Stretch: where I’ll break down some weekly Bible passages, share prayer and prayer requests with you and for this community as well as the broader world.

Today is Reformation Sunday in the Lutheran Church, which also means in my church that we’re celebrating Confirmation Sunday with our Confirmands. For those who aren’t familiar with the rite of Confirmation, it’s also called Affirmation of Baptism. In Lutheran theology, we affirm infant baptism (as well as adult baptism), because we believe that baptism is about God’s love for us, not our decision to follow God. So in some ways, Confirmation functions in similar ways to adult baptism in other churches/denominations.

Central to the rite of Confirmation is catechesis, or religious education through Luther’s small catechism. Churches do this in a variety of ways, but many meet in small groups on Wednesday nights. In my current church, I meet with our Confirmation students (grades 7-8) on Wednesday afternoons. When I first started there, the public school bus actually dropped them off at the church — but that practice ended during COVID.

Still, as you can see, in areas of the country where Lutheranism is predominant, this is highly cultural - and some families end up seeing Confirmation almost like graduation from church. Pastors do try to discourage this notion!

But it’s a big commitment. And after spending so much time with my 7-8th grade students, I’ve gotten lots of insight into middle school, and we’ve also learned and grown in really critical ways together: both through biblical study and through the many challenges of the past few years, processed through a middle-school lens, and also through the lens of our shared faith. These discussions haven’t always been easy, but they’ve been so important, and I always end up proud of our students and their willingness to learn and grow in their faith, in different but all valid ways.

That said, I see the real value of this shared commitment to study, pray, and grow together — and I’ve found myself adding more time just for fellowship and snack, too, as I know it’s equally important that the students create trusting relationships and friendships with one another, so that they’re more comfortable when we get to the Bible study and catechesis.

There’s no shortcut to this kind of faith work. It’s inconvenient at times. It takes many weeks. Preparation. Commitment on the part of students, families, and pastors.

And yet there’s also no substitute for this kind of faith commitment on the part of the church. It reminds me that sometimes the church doesn’t grow or thrive exponentially or in a flashy way. Instead it grows slowly, week after week, in the hearts and minds of maturing middle schoolers, their families and their pastors/church leaders.