ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE LPTP-20 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 www.captionfirst.com *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> NICK: Thank you. Let me continue along the same line, if I may. What are essential components of Lutheran confirmation practice? >> DR. WARNECK: Nick, probably it's well for us to sort out some of the details that we shared in the previous discussion historically and attempt to focus on what ought to occupy the pastor with his confirmands in today's confirmation instruction. And perhaps also recommend a couple of disciplines that might be helpful in your teaching of the Christian faith in these classes. Essentials of Lutheran confirmation practice today would seem to be several. First of all, the accent we learned in the early church that Lutheran confirmation is between the two sacraments. I think positioning confirmation this way in our thinking can be helpful as we prepare to teach children and adults. On the one hand, confirmation recalls the unilateral covenant made by God with children by grace through Christ Jesus in their Holy Baptism. Secondly, it points forward as it serves to prepare these children, these catechumens for taking the Lord's Supper. Secondly, perhaps we should focus on the word "confirm" just briefly. Where does the real confirming occur and how does it occur? What is our understanding about this? Frequently, in the minds of our people, their attention goes to the rite, the public rite when children are standing there before the altar as if the laying on of hands at that time does the actual confirming. We should perhaps correct that in our minds and our thinking just a little bit. The Holy Spirit actually confirms as the spirit gives faith. And the action of the Holy Spirit begins not on Palm Sunday or Pentecost late in spring when we conduct the right, or one of the Sundays in the spring season of the year, but begins already in September when we gather children for the first confirmation class sessions. And, throughout all those sessions through the year, the Holy Spirit is active confirming children in their faith. So perhaps a change in perception here might be useful. Thirdly, when we speak about full membership in the church, let's understand that membership in Christ's body, His church, occurs at Holy Baptism. Unfortunate is the distinction in our perception again among many Lutheran people between communicate members, those with the privilege to take communion, and baptized members. Kind of a second class citizens. I, myself, grew up in the generation when the perception was you did not become a member of the church until you were confirmed. That's probably a misconception that should be corrected. A child baptized into Christ Jesus is baptized into His body and into the church, the body of Christ, is a full-fledged member. Let's always represent membership in the church that way out of baptism. Next, a word about instruction moving toward the Lord's Supper and, particularly, the accent that all of the instruction in catechism class relates one way or another to this very central sacrament and gift of our Lord in the life of His people, the gift of His body and blood for the strengthening of their faith and the forgiveness of their sins and assurance of that in their personal life and in their corporate life together. So, perhaps in the teaching of confirmation, we ought to more frequently relate those various doctrines to the Lord's Supper if we are really pointing children in that direction. For instance, even the doctrine of man, when we teach about man's fall will into sin and His need for the forgiveness of sin and peace with God, effected through Christ Jesus, it's very easy to take the leap to the Lord's Supper and say that those blessings are given and assured by Christ in the supper to which he gathers His people. The confession of faith made in confirmation, in the rite of confirmation, again, we should not overlook the fact that a Christian child from the time of his or her baptism has been confessing his or her faith and that, in the rite of confirmation, it is one public confession of faith following upon many opportunities that the child in his neighborhood, community, at school and with his friends has been able to confess faith in Jesus and witness to Jesus to others. It's just a little twist and a little different nuance from some of our historical understandings that may be helpful to emphasize. What else can we say here about essential components of Lutheran confirmation practice? The confirmation vow, the statement that confirm and make in the rite, let's say something about that, where we ask�-- as pastors we ask children to say that they will remain faithful in this confession of faith until -- even until death and under the pressure of persecution, whatever, is what we really mean to say. We probably should bind them not to a volitional action on their part as if it was all them and only them making this confession, but to help them comprehend that it is the Holy Spirit that continues a good work in their life. And maybe we ought to emphasize a little more to ask children to be faithful to the -- in the use of those means of grace whereby the Holy Spirit strengthens and helps them continue faithfully in that confession. Again, it's just a little different twist. But perhaps we can improve on some of the perceptions that surround our practice of confirmation and particularly the rite. Last point I would simply mention here is the laying on of hands can be interpreted variously. My own understanding of this is that it's rather symbolic in the sense that it conveys the notion that the Holy Spirit has worked the faith in the child through baptism and further instruction in the word and now the child is prepared to make public confession of the same. It signifies the Holy Spirit's work. I think we best leave the interpretation of the laying on of hands kind of right there. At least that is one view. Now, I said that beyond some of these essentials, we would perhaps focus a few words on some practical issues. When pastors today design their curriculum, that is the track that children follow and study in these confirmation classes, our recommendation is that the Small Catechism of Dr.�Martin Luther serve as the core of that course and instruction. This is such a treasure that Lutheran pastors are well-advised to involve their children at this time in their life in Luther's Small Catechism. To deny them that and substitute all together other materials and the like, I think�-- and I would urge upon you, Nick�-- would be a mistake. We may use supplemental materials to enhance understanding, certainly, workbooks and the like. But make Luther's Small Catechism the core of your confirmation instruction, the 6 chief parts of Christian doctrine. Let's get down to real basics here. You can't improve on that. Secondly, it's always well to relate the doctrines in Luther's catechism to the scriptures themselves. And our church's editions of the catechism do this so very well. Throughout the catechism and the exposition, the questions and answers are scripture passages but also Bible narratives. And we do well to teach our children the doctrines from those Bible narratives, those Bible stories. If children are unfamiliar with a the Bible stories, add to your curriculum a Bible history book or volume that helps them learn the great stories of God's revelation and his interaction with his people. Now, here's an example: How do you teach the sin of covetousness which God forbids, which he indicts and judges and forbids in the 9th and 10th commandment? "Thou shalt not covet." How better to teach that particular point than the Bible story of King Ahab and Naboth's vineyard, the neighbor to the palace in Samaria. The king wanted this beautiful vineyard. He first offers to purchase the vineyard. His neighbor says, "I cannot sell it. I'm under strictures of inheritance and the like." So that's out of the picture. And then Ahab goes home. And in the palace he is pouting. And his wife Jezabel, the evil queen, determines that they're going to get the vineyard anyway. This is covetousness at work. As you know, the story then leads to sins against the 7th commandment, the 8th commandment, and finally the 5th commandment. You remember the story how Naboth's reputation was destroyed in the eyes of the authorities in the village. Secondly, he was condemned and executed. And, thirdly, Ahab then confiscated the vineyard which was not to be his. So you have covetousness as a root sin for three other sins. I go into some detail on this simply to underscore that those Bible narratives are rather well-chosen as they're placed in the catechism. And we can teach Christian doctrine from the vantage of the scriptures themselves, which is the best authority and the best teaching in the end. Let's say a word about memory work. Is this entirely passe? Children in various schools around the country probably some memorize, some don't. Traditionally in our Lutheran church, children committed to memory the six chief parts of Luther's catechism itself and then some of the salient questions and answers and then some of the supporting Bible passages. That was the program of instruction for decades. Where is it going today? Is memory work useful? We still think that it is. Maybe not in the great volume that children were required to master in former times. But memorizing serves to anchor in the child's mind and heart the salient points of Christian doctrine and link those with the key scriptures supporting them. Secondly, memorizing some salient key points in Christian doctrine will equip the child to witness to his or her faith to others, should do that. And, thirdly, anticipating the Christian's long time on earth until old age, what the elderly remember of their confirmation instruction can very well serve them as a comfort, bring the comfort of the word to them in their later years. So memory work is still useful. But every pastor has to decide how much and what to memorize and so on. I just think some of those key questions in the catechism and the answers to them are almost essential. Who is the only true God? Why is it important that we believe that Jesus Christ was true God and also true man? Why is the resurrection of our Lord of such great importance and comfort to us? What do we believe about the Lord's Supper and the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the holy supper? Answers to those key questions of that kind would seem well for children to carry with them. And memory will help them. Of course, when we assign memory work, practically speaking, we have to have the patience to hear it. And that takes some patience. But the overall discipline will be profitable, we think. And it's, of course, for you to decide. Just a closing word about adult confirmation. The gathering of classes of persons from outside our congregation who might inquire about the Christian faith, this has to take some preplanning. Part of our evangelism ministry in the local church is certainly involved in gathering these classes. We have to do more than simply put an announcement in the bulletin that the pastor's class is going to begin on Thursday evening. Much more than that. Much more groundwork has to be done with prospects and cultivation of them and real intentional effort to gather these classes. As a curriculum, I'm going to be so bold to recommend a particular curriculum, even though it may be beyond the purview of this exercise. But Dr.�Guido Merkins at Concordian San Antonio used this curriculum, and many pastors have found it very useful. Oswald Riess, "What Does the Bible Say?" Is a very helpful source for this reason, that Riess has a program of study that's somewhat deductive. And that just works well with the inquirer. He moves from the doctrine of God and creation and scripture all the way to the end times and all the doctrines in between with this methodology. He asks a question: What does the -- what is the meaning of a particular doctrine? Secondly, what does the Bible say? And then he cites some structure passages that address the question. And, thirdly, he concludes from this we learn. Now, that's a very sketchy outline of the methodology. But I, myself, and many others pastors have found that a very useful way which permits the pastor to interject all kinds of his own reflections and teachings and teaching aides. But the basic deductive approach is very helpful and very useful. So these are a few comments on some practical issues surrounding your practice of confirmation. And there are many more, and you'll want to discuss those with your fellows and with your mentors. And we thank you. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***