Vital Worship
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Confirmation and Profession of Faith Practices Are Changing
From Confirmation or Profession of Faith to Multiple Milestones of Faith |
Two concerns—young adults who drop out of church and adult churchgoers who stop growing in discipleship—are pushing denominations to rethink their approach to the sacraments.
Denominations ranging from Christian Reformed (CRC) to Episcopal to Presbyterian (PCUSA) have historically required confirmation or profession of faith before allowing people to fully partake in communion. Some congregations are moving to allow any baptized person to receive the Eucharist. That change sparks more questions, such as what confirmation or profession of faith signifies.
Here’s a look at the variety of practices among North American Protestant churches that emphasize both word and sacrament in worship.
Lengthening the process
In his 30 years as a PCUSA pastor, Douglas J. Brouwer has seen several changes in the confirmation process. The age for confirmation has remained around 8th or 9th grade, but the model and length has changed.
“Presbyterians tend to emphasize learning the life of faith from older, more experienced ‘practitioners,’ as opposed to a classroom model of learning doctrine. Early on the key was to pass along a certain body of knowledge to young minds, thinking that if they understood the faith, they would be ready to live the faith.
“In recent years, the trend has been to apprentice young believers to older, wiser believers, with the hope that young believers would learn by imitating the life of faith. For many years, my congregation had a confirmation mentor process in which youth were paired with an older member.
“Members still tell wonderful stories about relationships formed and meaningful conversations about faith. Some were prouder of their mentor role than their elder role, which is astonishing in a way, but also revealing,” says Brouwer, head pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
New child safety guidelines prevent church members meeting alone with youth. Brouwer says they’ve tried pairing youth with church families but, so far, that doesn’t seem as effective as a one-to-one faith mentorship.
 Churches are questioning their assumptions about when someone is "old enough" to profess faith, take communion, lead worship, or be considered a full member. |
He’s also noticed a trend to expand confirmation classes from six or eight weeks to a year, “with a push toward two years.” Confirmation at First Presbyterian of Ann Arbor has been moved from 9th to 8th grade and lengthened to a year.
Raising or lowering the age
For centuries, the Episcopal Church did not admit anyone to communion unless they were confirmed. “In older days, people were getting confirmed at the age of 11 or 12 and then making their first communions. But a pattern was developing that children would be confirmed and then disappear,” says Edwin Pease, assistant for Christian education at Grace Episcopal Church in Newton Corner, Massachusetts.
“Since Vatican II, there’s been a trend in the Episcopal Church to move confirmation up to age 16 and provide communion to any baptized person who wants it. We’ve moved confirmation up to age 16 to retain the engagement of the children into adulthood. In the Episcopal Church, if you’re 16, you can be on the vestry board and you can be a delegate to the diocese and conventions and so forth,” he says.
Pease notes, however, that there’s an institutional lag in that many laypeople still think of confirmation as a gateway to communion, so wonder why it’s been delayed till age 16. Work remains to help Episcopal members see confirmation as a gateway to greater participation in a local congregation, diocese, and the church as a whole.
In the CRC, profession of faith “is a burning issue. Churches are divided right down the middle,” says Pat Nederveld. She’s a Faith Alive editor and member of the CRC Faith Formation Committee, which is beginning a five-year conversation with churches about baptism, children at the Lord’s Supper, and profession of faith practices.
Congregations that welcome the idea of full participation in communion for all baptized members see it as more consistent with Reformed covenantal theology. It also helps people understand the Lord’s Supper as a meal of grace.
 Involving more young people in congregational worship and ministry benefits everyone. |
Other congregations oppose changes to profession of faith and communion participation. Several CRC pastors responding to a 2007 survey cited 1 Corinthians 11:29 and questioned whether children and young teens are mature enough to receive the elements.
“We ought be concerned that people can eat and drink judgment on themselves if they don't rightly examine themselves before coming to the table,” one pastor wrote. Another responded, “We don't see how a six-year-old can really ‘discern the body’ or ‘examine him/herself.’ ”
Nederveld is among CRC leaders working to “nudge the profession of faith process downward.” They suggest moving away from profession of faith requirements such as memorizing the Heidelberg Catechism or successfully answering difficult biblical and theological questions.
“That emphasis makes profession of faith a carrot that the church holds out to kids. ‘If you want to be welcomed at the table, study hard. Be able to tell council exactly what you’ve learned. It doesn’t become a faith response so much as ‘now I’ve finally mastered the material.’
“Disconnecting the sacrament of communion from profession of faith will be more helpful. But we also need to give churches guidance on how to accommodate that change,” Nederveld says.
Adding a “child’s profession of faith”
 Some Christian traditions are better than others at bringing all ages together to study music and Scripture together. |
“I’m discovering a wave of experimentation and healthy diversity as congregations rebuild and revise local practices for remembering baptism, faith formation, professing faith, and coming to the Lord’s Table,” says Howard Vanderwell, who spent 40 years in Christian Reformed Church (CRC) ministry before becoming a worship consultant and serves on the CRC Faith Formation Committee.
In a 2007 survey of CRC pastors, a quarter of respondents said that baptized children take communion in their church before making profession of faith.
A third said they offer profession of faith for children of middle school age or younger and also have a way of publicly marking these students’ transition to taking on adult responsibilities in the church. These practices include:
- Announcements in the church newsletter or Sunday bulletin
- Simple ceremonies at which the young person (usually age 16-18) acknowledges agreement with the doctrines and beliefs of the church and acceptance of adult responsibilities
- Ceremonies of reaffirmation of (prior) profession of faith
- Two-tiered professions of faith, sometimes called by other names, such as
- First communion/profession of faith
- Children’s profession/official profession
- Covenantal statement of faith/profession of faith
- Profession of faith/profession of discipleship
- Stage 1/stage 2
- Participation in membership classes
“Profession of faith needs to become a much more dynamic event in the life of our youth and congregations. It needs to be a community celebration,” Vanderwell says.
Family cultures mark milestones, from birthdays to graduations to becoming licensed. Similarly, Vanderwell says that developing a new tradition of multiple faith milestones would be “helpful and affirming.”
Pat Nederveld believes that a multiple milestones approach might inspire adults to keep growing in faith. “Continuing to study the word together, beyond what we hear in sermons, adds a vibrant dimension to individual lives and the life of a faith community,” she says.
Text by Joan Huyser-Honig
Photography by Steve Huyser-Honig
 Asking people to reaffirm their baptism reinforces the idea of lifelong discipleship. |
Don’t miss the bonus story on how confirmation and profession of faith practices are changing in Christian Reformed, Episcopal, and Presbyterian churches.
As a church board, consistory, session, or vestry, read and discuss one of these books together:
- A Child Shall Lead: Children in Worship edited by John D. Witvliet
- A Spiritual Formation Workbook: Small-Group Resources for Nurturing Christian Growth (a Renovare resource) by James Bryan Smith with Lynda Graybeal
- Confirmation: Presbyterian Practices in Ecumenical Perspective by Richard Robert Osmer
- My Faith, My Life: A Teen’s Guide to the Episcopal Church by Jenifer Gamber
- Quest of Faith: Understanding What You Confess by Robert De Moor
Faith is expressed differently at different ages. See how other congregations nurture faith formation. Reformed Worship, Youth & Family Institute, and the free downloadable guide Walk On: A Year of Faith Formation (pp. 21-23) all offer ideas for using something tangible to symbolize faith milestones.
Concerned about young adults dropping out of church? Maybe your congregation will find insight in reading UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.
For two decades, the Christian Reformed Church in North America and Reformed Church in America have been discussing whether or not to encourage and include baptized children at the Lord’s Supper. There’s a wide diversity of Lord’s Supper practice within the CRC.
Read Reformed Worship stories about profession of faith, including one on combining testimony and profession of faith at Princeton Christian Reformed Church in Kentwood, Michigan. Learn about confirmation rites in the United Kingdom and Episcopal rites of transition.
If your church is thinking of opening communion to youth of different ages, you may appreciate the Children’s Profession of Faith Kit and Jessie Schut’s I Believe: Getting Ready to Profess My Faith, which comes in a mentor’s guide and teen’s study guide.
Browse related stories on baptism, Christian funerals, faith formation, intergenerational worship, and Lord’s Supper practice in the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition.
START A DISCUSSION
Feel free to print and distribute these stories at your staff, elders, church education, or youth ministry meeting. These questions will get members talking:
- Which issue in these stories resonates most strongly with your congregation’s confirmation or profession of faith experience?
- What is most nurturing about your communion and confirmation or profession of faith practices? What would you like to change—and what would be the first step toward that change? What in your practice is so valuable that it must not change?
- What do you think about the idea of multiple milestones of faith? How might you incorporate that approach into your church life?
- People interviewed for this story consistently mentioned Methodists and Baptists as known for active adult participation in Sunday school and Christian education. Describe a congregation that has a clear culture of lifelong learning in discipleship. What worship elements, values, practices, or programs uphold this culture of learning?
SHARE YOUR WISDOM
What is the best way you’ve found to deepen or adapt your confirmation or profession of faith practice? Please write to us so we can identify trends and share your great ideas. Whether you do these or any other things, we’d love to learn what works for you:
- If you’ve contacted or visited other congregations to learn about a specific approach (such as confirmation, profession of faith, communion participation, intergenerational worship, or adult Christian education), what did you learn? If you developed a template to help evaluate those visits and apply your findings, would you share that with us?
- What has worked best—or not worked well—in your efforts to engage teens and young adults in worship and the life of the church? As you compare these observations with peers in your region or denomination, what common themes emerge?
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This article was first published by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, http://www.calvin.edu/worship/stories/