Confirmation Sunday

What a cool worship on Sunday!  Not that other Sundays are cool too, but this past Sunday had an extra cool factor.  We got to confirm 7 wonderful teenagers.  It was the culmination of a year's worth of blood, sweat and tears...mostly from me!  I'm only kidding.  They really were a great bunch of kids, and I miss seeing them regularly on Sunday mornings.  Here's hoping they don't become strangers!
I do confirmation a little bit different here at Minden UCC.  As I talked about in my sermon I try to stress relationship and how our faith should/does have an impact on our lives.  I don't spend a lot of time drilling the kids on the order of the books of the Bible, dates, names and history facts.  I find that boring, and I know the kids would too.  Plus I always have in the back of my mind that I went through that type of confirmation where we filled in answers in a book, and it didn't help me and I went on to seminary!
I want the kids to have an experience that they can look back upon when they're young adults and starting a new life and say, "boy that Pastor Brian wasn't too weird...church wasn't a horribly boring place...maybe I should check a church out now."  I would much rather have them say that then be able to recite books of the Bible and dates and names.  Now, we do talk a lot about the Bible and faith, but I try and take the stories and relate their meaning to the kids' lives.  We open the Bible and read some verses to see how they can direct us today.  Some meetings we'll spend the whole time talking about an incident at school and how we as Christians should respond.  We most definitely laugh a lot, and I try to get the kids to see that the Bible isn't some dry book, because if you read through the Bible you'll certainly see there are some wild stories in there. 
Most importantly I want the kids to connect their faith with their lives.  The Bible verse I used for confirmation Sunday was from John 15 when Jesus is talking about the vine and the branch and how if the branch is disconnected it withers and dies.  If these kids, and us, don't connect our faith with our daily lives then it isn't relevant to us and it dries up.  I wanted them, and I want you, to know that going to church, connecting with the Spirit through daily devotions and prayer is vital to your vibrant life.  We need that connection so we can keep our faith growing and alive.  If we aren't growing and live then we are stagnant and dying.  I certainly don't want to be called stagnant.  As I try to stress with the confirmands, and I want us to see too, you need to see how your faith influences your life.  Let God into your life, try to live by God's commands, and see the blessings that flow.  We aren't going to miss all of life's bumps just because we are plugged in, but we'll certainly have more strength to get through the bumps if we are connected the life giving vine of Jesus Christ.