Hymns for August 10, 2008

What a Friend we have in Jesus LBW 439

Evening and Morning LBW 465

How Firm a Foundation LBW 507

I Know that My Redeemer Lives LBW 352

About Time is it!

Rules Grammar Change

The Plusses and Minuses of Summer Confirmation

Pastor Norman Hanan strongly recommended doing confirmation classes across the summer, rather than through the school year. He cited increasing difficulty getting regular attendance because of sports practices and other extra-curricular events. It used to be that Wednesday night was "Church night" in most communities. This is no longer the case. In Eden Valley, there were still no evening practices or games on Wednesday nights, but there were on Wednesday afternoons. In years past teachers knew that children would be going to confirmation classes that night so they would not assign homework. Now it is often the case that children go from school to practice, eat a quick (often convenience food) supper and then come to confirmation. One and a half hours later they go home and still have a couple hours of homework to do.

Pr. Hanan's suggestion was to dodge the whole Wednesday night mess of children that are either tired or wired on caffeine and instead get them for the best hours of the day -- morning hours. He did this by having confirmation through the summer.

When we re-launched confirmation here at Concordia we made a few changes. As we had a lot of children in the 10+ age group, we decided to start confirmation classes at 10 (before too much teenage cynicism takes over) We also moved confirmation to a month of summer. We have classes 4 days a week for 4 weeks from 9:30 to noon. A little multiplication shows it to be the same number of contact hours as if I were meeting through the school year.

We begin by praying Matins, two hymns and the catechism (16 sessions * 3 years = 48 recitations) This is enough for many children to have the six chief parts learned by heart in only 3-4 weeks with no outside studying. Even those who miss sessions and are not diligent in the task still readily absorb the material. This saves me from the chore and drudgery of daily quizzes.

About 2/3 way through the morning we take a break for a snack. While the catechumens are snacking we watch 15-20 minutes of a supplemental video. We have used the "What's so Amazing about Grace" video curriculum by Phillip Yancy. We have also used videos about creation and evolution, the BBC video of C. S. Lewis' "The Silver Chair" and others.

If we have time at the end of a session we close with a hymn or the litany.

Each catechumen goes through 3 years of instruction.

Now the downside:

I miss having the weekly contact time with the students. It was helpful for me to know what was going on in their lives. The weekly contact (and required sermon notes) also helped keep their church attendance up better than summer catechesis, but I think I have the opportunity to build even stronger relationships in this "summer intensive" than spread out over the year. This drawback can be compensated for by having active youth group Bible Studies or retreats.

Pr. Kurt Onken, I hear, is trying summer catechesis this year and enjoying it.

Soon I will be posting the guide to our upcoming confirmation questioning.

Hymns for 3 August 2008

Feed Your Children, God Most Holy      TLH 659

Lord Jesus Christ, Life-Giving Bread      TLH 312

O Lord, We Praise Thee  TLH 313

O Living Bread from Heaven TLH 316

Praise the Almighty   TLH 26

 

Hymns for 27 July 2008

The Church’s One Foundation   TLH 473

Jesus, Priceless Treasure             TLH 347

(LWML Ingathering Hymn)

       How shall they hear who have not heard    LSB 831 (tune: Angelus)

A Mighty Fortress     TLH 262

 

Tablet ignites debate on messiah and resurrection

Just in case you didn't dismiss this newest flavor of "junk about Jesus," here are a couple good discussions about the stone tablet pre-dating Jesus that (gasp!) may (or may not) predict a messiah that dies and rises in three days.

Only the secular media could believe that this could "Shake the foundations of Christianity."

Sense of Events: Jesus' resurrection rebutted! Let the pile-on begin!

Hymns for July 20

O Holy Spirit, Enter In      LBW 549

Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word  LBW230

The Infant Priest  HS (Rockingham Old)

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence    LBW198

Crown Him with many crowns     LBW 170