Cover page and Table of Contents for "Confirmation Ministry Binder."

Confirmation in the Lutheran church is an intentional time of faith formation in the curriculum of the church resulting in the rite of affirming one's baptism. Through catechesis and Bible learning, service, worship, and relationship building, this is a family ministry of the church that nurtures the faith of our young people, normally around the Junior High school age. This binder is used by the student and family as a handbook throughout the confirmation time. If you choose to use this resource, note that the name of our church (St. Thomas/Holy Spirit Lutheran church or STHS) is used frequently. You will want to change the materials to reflect your local setting. There may also be a few location specific references. Feel free to update as needed. Binder cover and Table of Contents page are submitted separately under "Confirmation Ministry Binder Cover and Contents."

If your Christian Enrichment/Education team is looking for a basic curriculum outline for age 4 through the beginning of confirmation years, the following resources will be helpful.

Juxtaposing Luther's Large Catechism and chosen films, human actions and reactions to life's situations are explored which highlight our universal need for God. Unedited curriculum written as MA-Educational Leadership thesis for Luther Seminary, 2007, by Karen Wilson.

Since we are a rather small church, the potential membership for church school from Grade 1 through Junior High is only seventeen persons, so we offered no more than two learning centers each Sunday. On occasion, we used learning centers for the entire hour; other times we combined a classroom situation and learning centers, or used the classroom situation for the entire hour. The learning centers provided a variety of types of activity, from baking bread to learning Bible verses, and from making Shalom stoles and flags to learning Shalom songs in a music center.

Developed to contend with our summer "weekending" and "vacationing," Summer Sunday School presents programs that are complete packages in themselves. You aren't lost if you miss a Sunday or two, but there is a continuity of theme so that regular participants don't feel like they are just bouncing randomly from topic to topic.

The best resource around is to connect with sundaysoftware.com. Neil MacQueen, author of Computers, Kids and Christian Education, is the owner of that company and he's a wealth of info. He and his team carefully search for all the best software for kids and youth

In the summer of 1995, I called together a task group to formulate Educational Ministry Goals for our congregation. This process reflected our concern for how well we were doing in "making disciples of Jesus Christ." The task group believed that the goal of Educational Ministry was to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus.

An example graphic of a curriculum checklist that can be used for the Sunday School curriculum by the Board of Education. Rate on a scale of: Y=Yes, it works, P=it's a possible match, N=No match, doesn't work