Description
We are pleased to announce the release of an exciting supplement to Changing the World: Confirmation for the Missional Church: “A Handbook for Parents and Mentors.”
During our “Confirmation in the post-Christendom Church” webinar to promote the new curriculum, Outlook editor Teri McDowell Ott and curriculum author Mark Hinds heard that it would be helpful to have an additional supplement that prepares parents and adult volunteers to engage confirmation in a missional way. And so we made “A Handbook for Parents and Mentors.”
What’s included?
The handbook features important theological, pedagogical, and relational perspectives on the transformative potential of missional confirmation for your congregation and its youth. Its contents include essays on:
- A New-Old Approach to Confirmation.
- Do the Opposite.
- Twelve-Year-Old Jesus.
- Kids Who Change the World.
- The Missional Confirmation Worship Service.
- Create a Space.
- Moratorium.
- A Space to Practice Obedience to the Truth.
- Train Children in the Way They Should Go.
- Check-Ins.
- Why?
Testimonial
“Why would youth, who have already been baptized into God’s family, need to be confirmed? This handbook dives right into it with parents and mentors. Not only does Hinds explain why confirmation matters to the adults that are the driving forces behind the youth attending confirmation classes, but it gives excellent steps on how to ensure confirmation is different. Hint: it hinges on membership confirmation and missional confirmation.
… You can use this resource as a visioning process for your confirmation ministry. You could use it as an offering during your faith formation time. You could sit down yourself and read this, chew on its message, return to it several times, and be encouraged to gather your group of people to help vision what your confirmation ministry should look like. Sometimes we practitioners need good reads to encourage, excite, and sustain us. This resource provides such.”
— Elizabeth Christie, Practical Resources for Churches resource center
Do I need to purchase the handbook if I’ve already purchased Changing the World?
No. As of July 21, 2023, you will receive the handbook for free with your purchase of Changing the World. We’ve also sent the handbook to every email we have on file for those who have already purchased Changing the World. If you did not receive an email, please reach out to info@pres-outlook.org.
Why do I need “A Handbook for Parents and Mentors”?
We hope you find the handbook useful as you prepare your congregation for missional confirmation — study the handbook at committee meetings, read it as a session or governing body, distribute it to your parents, and use it to train your mentors.
If you are discerning whether or not to purchase Changing the World, perhaps the handbook can serve as a taste of the curriculum’s emphasis and theology.
Do I need to purchase “A Handbook for Parents and Mentors” for every person I share it with?
No. Once you purchase your digital copy of this handbook, you can share it with members of your church. However, Presbyterian Outlook and Mark Hinds do retain the copyright for the material, and we ask that you do not share this handbook publicly (on websites, social media, etc.).
Mark D. Hinds, Ed.D., is a retired writer, editor and publisher for Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) curriculum development. He has degrees from Trinity University, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (now Union Presbyterian Seminary). His 1994 dissertation was titled The Book of Proverbs: Toward Alternative Pedagogical Principles for Confirmation in the PC(USA). He was the primary writer and project leader for the Big God Big Questions confirmation curriculum. In retirement, he enjoys writing for the church. Mark lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his partner and spouse, Rev. Dr. Peggy C. Hinds.
