I love confirmation. I never would have thought, back in seminary, that teaching middle schoolers would be a highlight of my week, but it is. We have 25 6-8 graders in the program this year, and they are bright, articulate, lively, and just plain fun to be around. And pretty well behaved too.
I love the adults who work with these kids as small group guides: articulate, passionate, caring.
And I love trying to figure out every week how to make something like the Creed or a commandment come alive for them, these mostly-protected kids who think deeply but also have limited access to the deepest dilemmas of life and faith right now.
This fall has been fun because this group really seems to love an ethical dilemma. Tonight we talked about the 7th commandment and invited two professional musicians from the congregation to engage them about the ethics of copying music. They did a fantastic, honest job of it, and you could just hear the wheels turning in kids' minds. It's a cliche to say they give me hope for the future. . . but they do.
