Confirmation Questions

Bookgirl asks an interesting question in this post:  "If you were asking confirmation students (grades 8-12, boys and girls) to think/write about their lives without being overtly spiritual about it at first go, what would you ask? How would you write the prompt?"

She takes a stab at her own question: 

"I’m thinking maybe break your life into 3? 4? 7? (they seem young for a whole 7) segments, title each segment, and then write a few sentences about one significant event in that segment…

There could also be a list of prompts from which to choose: favorite teacher/coach/friend and why; a time you won something; a time you lost something; a pet and what you learned; a church activity that was memorable; etc."

I couldn't resist answering too.  Here's what I wrote (I moved one paragraph because it works better earlier):

I like the idea of breaking it into threes–connection to the Trinity and all that. I like the idea of asking them when/where they were most aware of God and also who/what was important to them. Maybe the when/where they were most aware of God piece could come later. I’m assuming you’ve got some time with these kids.

If you’ve got magazines that you don’t mind people ripping up, I think some sort of collaging technique could work well. That way people who can’t draw can work with images, and those who don’t like to write have a way to express themselves. And collaging can lead to interesting surprises from our subconscious.

I also love having people interview their family members and/or other older church folks with similar questions. I want people to get in the habit of asking our elders for their stories while we still have those older people with them.

We had children interview adult church members during coffee hour once and it worked really well. There were some cranky people who didn’t want to go along with us, but most people understood what we were trying to do.