How do we do confirmation post-James KA Smith?

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:13 pm by Morgan Guyton

How do we do confirmation post-James KA Smith? 2014-07-17T14:13:33-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For those of you Jesus nerds who haven’t read James K.A. Smith, you need to change that. Smith names what is probably the most important problem with the way that the church approaches teaching: we teach as though people are most fundamentally rational creatures whose actions are shaped by the abstract principles that they just need to get drilled into their heads, when in fact people are more fundamentally liturgical creatures whose habits shape them far more than their principles. I was thinking about this as I interviewed our church’s confirmands this past week: what would a liturgical confirmation process look like?

When I say liturgical, I mean it in the broadest sense. We are engaged in dozens of liturgies every day. The way we brush our teeth could be called a liturgy. Many liturgies are indifferent routines. Some are routines which are spiritually beneficial; others are destructive. The problem is that our consumer culture instills liturgies that make money for people trying to sell us stuff while causing damage to our self-identity.

In any case, as I was talking to the confirmands, I was really trying to get underneath the Sunday school answer, but I guess when you’re a pastor, that’s the answer you’re going to get from a teenager. I couldn’t help but feel like we’ve failed them if what we’re giving them is material to regurgitate so they can “pass” their confirmation interview (nobody really fails though if they think they’re not ready or not interested in being confirmed we give them that out).

What would confirmation need to be for it to be about living a certain way rather than a list of theological concepts? I’m very drawn toward placing a lot more emphasis on the mentor relationship. We have mentors but they are basically a secondary supplement to our class time. I would think that ideally confirmation would involve shadowing a mature Christian who has healthy habits of discipleship and exploring the practices that you witness until you gain mastery of them.

This may be too great a burden on mentors who live in a time-starved culture. But perhaps that can be dealt with by making confirmation something that kids only do after expressing an interest in becoming a Christian disciple and not just what everybody does in 8th grade. The numbers would decrease but every kid doing it would be doing it of their own volition. So many families come to our church for a year while their kid goes through confirmation and then disappear after that. It really scandalizes me how many people do that. I want to think that if confirmation were more habit-focused than concept-focused, then maybe we would retain our confirmands better.

Previous Post

May 25, 2013

Why Tony Jones (and other emergents) should read Amos Yong's Pentecostal theology

Next Post

May 26, 2013 Viaje Dominicano 2013 #1: When is your team coming back here?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who were Isaac and Rebekah's twin sons?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Simeon and Levi Joseph and Benjamin Esau and Jacob Cain and Abel