Sunday morning our church witnessed seven young people profess their faith. They did so in song and in words and in jokes, in standing up before all of the church and their families. They were terrific.
Teaching confirmation has been a really exciting and a very strange experience. There is SO much that I want to share with them and yet I think I realized how much I have to learn about being a teacher - especially with young people. I was always someone who just took information in and wanted to learn more and more and more. It's hard to remember that not everyone functions that way =)
My theology of teaching is to lead by example. I asked questions that "you're not supposed to ask." I made it okay to doubt things that I had said. I wanted to peak their interest by showing how excited I was about certain things. We used our cirriculum, but probably not as well as we could have. We used our mentors, but definately not as well as we should have. Both of those are pieces that I need to include better next time... because leading by example also means that it's not just me doing the leading. I got to have a lot of personal time with the kids, but I really wish that we had the kids meet one on one with a single mentor throughout the entire process. I was trying to lure people to do it with the promise they only had to commit to one Sunday a month - and I think that all of us would have benefited from more regular contact.
Other than that, it was exciting to see the young people up there. It was exciting to help them share pieces of their story with others and to take leadership during worship. It was exciting to see the church supporting them the way that they did.
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