Dear Bethlehem,
I am writing to you today to let you know that as our congregation grows and continues to change, so does my need to alter my faith formation opportunities. I say that because I am excited that we have youth that are ready to be a part of a confirmation program. While many of you know of it as confirmation, our hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, calls the rite: A Rite of Affirmation of Baptism. So while the program will look and be taught just like a confirmation program we are simply aligning the name of the program with the rite that we do when they complete this part of their faith formation.
That being said, the best time to offering this new faith formation opportunity for our 6-8th graders is on Sunday mornings. Affirmation of Baptism will be held Sunday mornings from 10:30-11:15am. I am making this time available because our youth are already here and with many other commitments they have during the week, I feel this is the best opportunity to reach them.
Since that is the same time as the Deeper Dive class, I will be moving my class to Monday mornings at 10am. We will continue to follow the same format as before and the new Monday time slot will still discuss the sermon and the text that we had the day before.
In having conversations with some people about this already, I have agreed to try doing the class in a hybrid format. Meaning that I will offer the class in person as well as make it available for people to participate in on Zoom. If you would like to be a part of the class through Zoom please let me know so that I can include you in an email list.
I am excited about these new changes and what they mean for us as a congregation. Thank you for all your flexibility so that we can offer faith formation opportunities for all ages!
Blessings,
Pastor Brian
