Much of the pressure that kids face as school is peer pressure. The pressure to make a public profession of faith in Christ on "Confirmation Sunday" is parent pressure or grandparent pressure. Parents want their kids to go through this process so that they can be sure that their kids are "OK," and they don't have to worry about them going to hell anymore. Unfortunately, many kids succomb to the parent pressure and stand up there and boldly lie about giving their lives to Christ, and about committing to support the local church with their prayers, presence, gifts, and service. I say this to my dismay.
Last year, after a year long Confirmation program, I spoke to each child individually about how they felt about giving their lives to Christ. They each accepted Christ and made a public profession of faith. Not long afterwards, one of them was boasting to another adult about how he had just done that because his parents wanted him to. He was boasting that he hadn't been back to church since he had been confirmed.
Yesterday (Sunday) I once again spoke to my Confirmation class about my ambivalent feelings about the program because of the way it is abused by parents and kids desparate for their parents' approval. I told them that the only reason that I agree to teach Confirmation is so that I can offer kids an honest, no sugar added, opportunity to dedicate the rest of their lives to Jesus Christ as their Master and Source of forgiveness. I gave them the following information on a half sheet of paper:
Confirmation Decisions
You must decide whether you will believe on Jesus Christ and commit your life to him as your Master and Source of forgiveness. (John 1:12-13, Matthew 7:13,14)
If you do, you will be SAVED (Romans 10:9). You will be saved from the power and penalty of sin, and will be cleansed from the pollution of sin in this life. And you will be saved from the presence of sin in the life to come.
If you don’t believe on Jesus Christ and commit your life to him as your Master and Source of forgiveness at some point in your life, you will spend eternity apart from the presence of God in a place sometimes called hell.
The EFFECT that this will have on your life is called the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (Galatians 5:22-24). Compare this to the EVIDENCE of an unsaved person (Galatians 5:19-21).
The EFFORT that you will need to exert as a follower of Jesus will include:
1. Studying the Bible at home and with others regularly. (II Timothy 3:16, John 8:31,32)
2. Continuing to attend worship. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
3. Striving to continually resist temptation. (I Corinthians 10:13)
4. Praying regularly. (I Thessalonians 5:16-18)
5. Maintaining spiritual friendships. (Entire New Testament)
After discussing this information, we went down to the chapel in our church. I sat at the altar, and said that I wanted them to pray for a few moments, and if any of them wanted to give 100% of themselves to Jesus Christ, to live their rest of their lives for him, to come forward and I would pray with them.
One by one they came and each one of them acknowledged their sin to God, told God that they believe Jesus is the Son of God who died for their sins and rose from the dead. They told him that they received his forgiveness, and asked the Holy Spirit to fill them and make them born again. They told God that they were giving the rest of their breathing lives to him.
I believe they meant it. Please pray for the following young people who gave their lives to Jesus Christ yesterday:
Gina Brooks
Bryce Davis
Traci Tharp
Michael Voigts
Nicole Dunning
Katy Jones
Dakota Opperman
Kelsey Fairfield
After they had all prayed, I had them write on the other side of the halfsheet of paper, "I committed my life to Jesus Christ on April 9, 2006." I told them to put the paper in their Bibles or somewhere they could see it often.
Please ask God to bless them and magnify himself in their hearts as they live out their commitment to Christ. Pray that they may be bold in sharing their faith and resisting temptation.
Pray for young people all over the world who are being pressured to be baptized prematurely or make premature public professions of faith because someone else wants to stop worrying about them. Ask that God would lead them to a true commitment of their precious lives to him.
4 comments:
I will definately pray for these young people and others like them, that they will come to know the truth of Jesus and how He desires to change our hearts in order to spread that truth in the world! Wow, Jason, God is working through you in such a big way...those kids probably don't even know how blessed they are to have a mentor like you in their lives! You have presented the Gospel so clearly to them - just keep on doing what you are doing so well!
thanks for praying for them, wanna. thanks for the encouragment too!
Thanks for your post. I had the opportunity to baptize my niece on Easter Sunday and it caused me to think quite a bit about confirmation classes. She attends another UMC near us and was put into confirmation class because she was the right age. The class only consisted of looking up verses and then, at the end of the 10 weeks or so, they were all told, "Sunday, you are going to be baptized and join the church." She balked because she wanted me to baptize her. When I sat down and talked with her, she had not been prepared for the decision that was being thrust upon her. I appreciate the way you handled this in your church.
I understand the way you feel. We teach a 39 week curriculum and I do think the kids get it be the end. This is the first time in 3 years one youth choose to not get confirmed because he wasn't ready for the commitment. He also did not go on a retreat that seems to be a turning point for many of them. Thanks for sharing-I will definitely pray for your kids.
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