Journey: A Confirmation Experience

By Jonathan Kopecky, DCE

I don’t know if you’ve seen Episode 3 of the first season of The Chosen, but in it Jesus welcomes the children, engages in dialogue and thoughtful questions and answers and challenges them about their current understanding of Rabbinical teaching. He brings them along in his daily routine and teaches them as he goes about his normal tasks. 

Although our Journey students might not be so little anymore, and some of us are not so little anymore, this episode reminds me that we are all children. And as a church, Jesus empowers us to engage, enable and equip his children. This is what Journey: A Confirmation Experience is all about. 

John 16:33 says this: “‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’” 

We are God’s children, but we live in a broken world. We are 100% sinner and 100% saint fighting a daily battle of flesh, the devil and sin; but our identity isn’t in our old self. As 1 Corinthians 5:17 says, we are a new creation in Jesus. That is what our prayer will be for our students as they confirm their faith, stepping into the calling they have received by the death and resurrection of Jesus, that they may put on their priestly clothes (1 Peter 2:9) knowing God has specifically ordained a purpose for their life. May they know they were made in his image and can do even greater things than Jesus, as he promises (John 14:12-14).

Let us as a body of believers lift up our Confirmation students this Sunday, standing with them as they are an equal part of our body, encouraging them to walk in the Hope of Jesus, and welcoming them as Jesus does. 

Join me in praying for Lois, Jacob, Isaac, Noah, Abigail, James, Oscar, and Kyya. Pray their faith would sustain them throughout high school and that they will become lifelong followers of Jesus. 

Colossians 1 tells us, “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

These students are His redeemed children and so are you. Let’s give God the thanks!