A vital confirmation service begins long before that Sunday in late spring.
Paul Anderson

Confirmation class has been defined as "that time of the week when the pastor questions his call to ministry."

I remember my father, a pastor, grumbling that "these kids want to attend catechism class about as much as they want to sit in school." I never appreciated my father's feelings until I became a pastor and, sitting in the middle of a confirmation classroom, began to consider seriously my aptitude for selling insurance. Not that the time was a complete loss. I learned a great deal — that the epistles are the wives of the apostles, for example, or that Martin Luther King is Martin Luther's brother.

Frustrations like these led folks at Trinity Lutheran to retool our entire confirmation process, from the first parents' orientation meeting to the close of the confirmation service. After overseeing the new program for twelve years, I'm still amazed how a few key principles transform what could be a ...