Confirmations

Confirmation explores questions

Confirmation conversations explore three questions:  Who is Jesus?  Why did Jesus come? and What will it mean for me to follow him?

There will be lots of opportunities to ask your own questions about God and life?  Questions like:  Why does God allow suffering and evil? What do faith and science fit together?  No question is too simple or too difficult.

Confirmation reads Mark

To help us answer these questions we read Mark’s biography of Jesus over six weeks.  We meet six times for an hour and a half each time.  Mark claims to accurately tell the history of Jesus.  It tells it as a story.  Mark doesn’t tell us what to think.  It’s a bit like he throws all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle down on the floor and challenges us to solve it.

Confirmation explores Jesus

Confirmation conversations explore who Jesus is (Mark 1-5).  Three suggestions are made: ‘God’, out of his mind’ and ‘evil’.  We will need to read the rest of Mark’s biography of Jesus to work out what we think is most likely.  In doing so, we will explore the teachings and life of Jesus.

Confirmation conversations explore what all this means for us.  We’ll get an insight into what Jesus thinks is our (humanity’s) main problem (Mark 6-10). What solution Jesus offers.  And how can we participate? And we see what exactly what following Jesus literally looks like.

Confirmation explores why Jesus came?

Confirmation conversations explore Jesus came.  And we’ll see what solution he offers to our ‘heart’ problem (Mark 11-16).   We ask the question, why did Jesus die?  And: is belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ reasonable, given the historical evidence?

Preparing for the Big Day

One of the ways you can prepare for the Big Day is to read through the service.  Ponder the significance of the undertaking you are making.

Question

You will be asked questions like: Have you been baptised?  Are you ready to affirm your own faith in Jesus Christ?  Do you turn to Christ? Do you repent of your sins? Do you renounce evil?  And respond with the words like…  I turn to Christ.  I repent of my sins.  I renounce evil.

Believing

You will affirm something of the content of your beliefs in answer to the following:  Do you believe and trust in God the Father?  Do you believe and trust in God the Son?  Do you believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit? And you will respond with the classical description of Christian belief: the Apostle’s creed

Promises, Promises

Some of the things you are going to promise relate to:  participating in a local church: learning from God’s word, breaking bread, prayer; others relate to your personal life: resisting evil, changing to be more and more like Jesus, explaining the faith in word and action to friends, family and workmates, caring for members of the church and wider community, and finally as a citizen of nation and world, caring for the poor, the oppressed, seeking justice and peace for all. 

A Final Word

Don’t feel like you have to have your whole life sorted with God before you take part in a Confirmation Conversation.  You’re on a journey just like we are all on a journey.  If you would like to clarify what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  If you would like to explore what it means to be a full member of the Church of England.  You are not signing up to get Confirmed yet.  All you’re saying is that you want to find out more.  If so let’s begin the next step in your amazing journey!  At the end of our six weeks together, you can decide whether Confirmation is right for you right now.