Our church youth group wrapped up it's second major fundraiser in three weeks, a wonderful Christmas-sy festival that we held at one of those new old-farmstead-turned-event venues that have become so popular in rural areas.
After weeks of wondering under our breath, "What did we just get ourselves into?" we parents were overjoyed at the festival's attendance, and even more ecstatic that it turned out to be a profitable fundraiser, which was the intention after all!
Billed as "Waffles with Santa," festival-goers could eat all the waffles they wanted, get a photo with Santa, ride on a hayride and pick up some baked goods for their holiday celebrations. Now, while this might sound like much of a logistical challenge, try pulling this off with five youth group families, and the hill is a little steeper. And this was on the back of a Sunday after church bingo and baked good sale fundraiser just two weeks earlier!
So, if it sounds like this is a selfish high five to our youth group families ... well, it is! Because they deserve it!
However, as successful as the fundraiser was to our group, pastorally speaking I'm more excited to see the joy these events and the work leading up to them is providing our kiddos, big and small!
You see, it was just a month ago that I was visiting with another pastor of a similarly sized small, rural church about how difficult it is to teach confirmation right now. While it may seem that all things are back to normal two years removed from the pandemic, the fact is that that experience forever changed our kids, and therefore, also changed they way that they learn.
This isn't my first rodeo with confirmation. I'd had been teaching it for years before going to seminary, and then in my current church for several more years before the pandemic, after having taken over from volunteer parents. I LOVE teaching confirmation! Being with the kids to discuss how to incorporate faith into their daily lives not only brings me joy, but breathes life into my pastoral identity!
This may seem counterintuitive, but young teenagers are far more excited to share their thoughts on faith, and to have an openminded discussion about challeging faith topics than adults in my experience. And for the first four or fives years, we had really creative and productive classroom conversations about faith, using a hybrid of a curriculum and lesson plans that I developed.
The students were really engaged in the discussions, which made the whole process feel Holy Spirit-filled and not at all like work. Wednesday nights were a highpoint in the week because I knew I had the privilege of spending 75 minutes with the students. And we'd all leave having grown in our faith, even if it was just a little bit.
But something happened after the pandemic. And I'm not ashamed to say that my same style of teaching confirmation isn't working for this next group of students. In fact, it hasn't worked since the start of confirmation in 2022-23.
By the time our students reach Wednesday evenings, their brains are drained, and no one wants to sit through a lecture and group discussion during confirmation class anymore. The students have all they can do just to get through the school week now. Forget a classroom style teaching at confirmtion!
So given our youth group's busy-ness as of late, getting our kids into the church for group cooperative baking nights, organizational meetings about fundraising opportunities and strategy sessions about how to carry out each event ... well, this all couldn't have come at a better time for our confirmation class!
I chuckle to myself because one of the organizing moms of the youth group has apologized twice to me in recent weeks that all of these events and their planning are "taking away time from confirmation." And I keep reiterating that, hey, this all is bringing kids to the church, teaching them cooperation skills, in addition to providing unique and joyful fellowship opportunities for not only our congregation, but our surrounding community as well.
So, in my pastor's heart, I say this is all one gigantic win!
Our kids are getting to see church as a place they "get" to go to to plan fun events. Instead of a place they "have" to go for confirmation class. And, our kids are getting to work alongside each other to reach a common goal, complete with learning about troubleshooting and the delegating of work chores to boot! Finally, whether the kids consciously know this or not, they are totally learning what it means to be the one Body of Christ, as well as be his hands and feet in action here in this earthly realm.
As far as I am concerned, all of this activity couldn't have ever come at a better time! ... Because I don't think the students, nor this pastor, could have gritted our way through one more painful classroom session where I fight for control of a group of students who already mentally are drained for the week.
The good Lord has been looking out for us! And helping us to find a new way to conduct confirmation, even if this will never be like the old confirmation classes of yore! Amen!
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