Elijah was recently confirmed at church. Most people probably don’t know what that means, and those that do probably have differing definitions. My quick explanation of it has been that for the last two years, Elijah has been taking extra classes at church with Pastor and this is his graduation ceremony which is also part of the church service. I think that’s a decent surface level explanation, but I wanted to go a bit deeper here.
First of all, let’s talk about what it is not. Confirmation is not a sacrament, nor is it anything that is commanded in the Bible. It doesn’t save you. You’re not receiving Christ. While it is the point at which you start taking communion, it’s not the same as “first communion” in other churches. You don’t need to do this to get to have faith or get to heaven.
Instead, it’s a church practice where someone (usually towards the end of middle school) publicly affirms their faith. They are acknowledging that they have been taught what the Christian faith is and they are saying they believe that it is true. It’s somewhat similar to a wedding vow renewal ceremony. A wedding vow renewal doesn’t create marriage. The couple was already married, but it is still meaningful and publicly reaffirms what is already true. Somewhat similarly, confirmation does not create salvation. It publicly reaffirms the faith already given by the Holy Spirit through the gospel.
Confirmation class is a structured way to instruct people about what the Bible teaches. Various churches in our national church body handle it slightly differently, but our church does Bible History class in 6th grade, Catechism class in 7th grade, and then life application in 8th grade. The confirmation ceremony happens between 7th and 8th grade. So my quick “graduation” explanation is not at all what we want to happen. Your Christian training lasts your whole life and even the classes continue on next year as they talk about how to apply their faith in their lives.
We were happy that both Tyla’s family and my parents could be there to celebrate along with friends from church. It was a special day in his life, and we pray that it’s just a solid start to his life of faith.
P.S. I’m always happy to talk more about this if you have questions, or you can check out this quick summary of what the Bible teaches: The Great Exchange – WAJ. The rest of that site is great as well.