CONFIRMATION: Take it Outside the Classroom! Part 2

Here are a few more ideas to get kids thinking about their faith and what they believe outside the classroom.

One of the problems kids in confirmation have is that they don't really interact regarding their faith or beliefs outside of church unless they go to a Christian school. Some families may talk more about it but if you can tell from many of their church attendance before and after confirmation, probably not a lot of kids have deep conversations with family members either. The result is that they don't really know what other people believe about anything they're taught. Unless they go to the same church they probably don't know what their friends believe either.  Here are a few ways to get them interacting with people both in and out of the congregation.  Be sure to create specific questions you want them to ask and during class you can have them participate in choosing the questions. They may have some pretty good ideas of their own but don't let them come up with their own questions without approving them. Also, be sure the questions are open ended.

Have them...

• Talk to 5 people inside and 5 people outside of the congregation (not family members) about the topic.
• Choose 5 people over a certain age to ask about a topic and 5 people under a certain age about a topic to see how people of different generations believe differently.
• Call a relative (or Godparent) about the topic.
• Visit a retirement home and have them talk about how the world has changed regarding religion and what they believe.
• Interview 5 friends who they don't think are Christians to find out what they believe about specific topics. 
• Interview 5 friends of different denominations to find out what they believe about specific topics.

Create a form or worksheet of some kind with the questions on it and room for answers or their thoughts will be muddled in their responses and have as many forms available as the number of people they need to talk to. (Go ahead and copy them back to back.) Be absolutely sure you talk about how they would answer the questions first just in case whoever they're asking turns the tables on them and expects them to answer the same questions in return. If they're going to be asking people personal questions about their faith, they should know what their beliefs are first!