Transforming the Confirmation Journey P601

Adolescence Development Paper

Jonathan Moore
February 19, 2015
 Faith Confirmation Journey

This model has been created for the purpose of proposing a new method of faith

enrichment, and affirming of the beliefs of members of The Lord’s House Kingdom Church in

Conyers, Georgia. This model will be presented to the pastoral leadership group at a time to be

determined in the spring of 2015.

Timeframe:

The duration of the experience is 12 months total. Each participant will be invited to

participate in six monthly sessions, which include a four weeks of weekly meetings, followed by

a four week break from the monthly meetings. During the four weeks of off time away from the

group, the entire group will come together for a fellowship outing to be determined by the group

by popular vote. Each member of the group will be encouraged to participate fully in every

outing. In addition to the outing, during the four weeks of down time, participants are urged to be

in contact with their experience mentor, and at least one member of the group, one time per

week. Individuals are responsible for all scripture readings, and consistent participation within all

group activities.

I chose this duration and set up to mimic the life group cycle that the church is currently

implementing. The church is moving towards a four weeks on, four weeks off model. During this

time there will be four weeks of meetings for participants, and four weeks off to regroup for the

next session of life groups.

Setting and Audience:

Meetings will be held at various locations. A set location for each group will not be

determined without the consent of each participant, or the guardians of the participants, and the

group facilitators. Outings, and the set meeting location will fluctuate depending on the desires

of the group.

The age groups of this group will vary during each full cycle. Participants must be

adolescence age, and older. Each group cycle will include participants within the age’s

parameters of plus or minus three years older or younger, than individuals within the group. The

cut off for this type of diversity in age is age 25. After age 25, age gaps of participants will vary

by ten or more years. There may be sporadically exceptions to this rule as needed to fulfill the

desires of all desired participants. Any and every exception to the age parameters must be agreed

upon by all adolescence parental guardians responsible for children in which minors are exposed

to children four years or older, and documentation for the exception must be provided to all

parents explaining why the exception must be considered.

The congregation will be aware of the group and will follow along the journey via social

media posts, and updates provided by the Journey Experience leadership team. After each

session, an attendee of the experience will be asked to provide some feedback that will be

included within a weekly, biweekly, or monthly blog post. Social media presences will include,

but are not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Flicker. Each participant will be

encouraged to join one or all of the group’s social media groups, and all posts will be linked and

shared on the main church’s website, and official accounts of the different mediums.
 Parents and legal guardians of participants who are minors will be required to review all

guidelines for their child to participate. Parents will also be involved with the selection of

outings, and venues determined by the entire journey group. An optional life group of parents

and guardians will participate in the experience alongside the actual participant group. This

group will offer support and aid for how to assist their child in the faith formation process, as

well as provide updates for parents about events and group outcomes as needed.

This collection of decisions was made considering James Fowlers, and Jean Piaget’s

theories of development. Both men believe that there is varying stages of development that

would make learning with a large gap in age groups very unlikely. I believe the separation of

ages is appropriate for the health of each participant, and promotes a level of comfort for all

involved. I also believe that the participants will continue to desire privacy during their process,

but also need the support of the congregation, and parental figures. I believe this model affords a

healthy balance of all ingredients.

Leadership Expectations:

This experience will be led by a facilitator responsible for the administration of the

group, a group of mentors assigned to each individual, the participants themselves, the pastoral

team designated to oversee this particular group of devotees, and two ordained elders who will

serve as mentors to all participants, that could supplement educational aspects of the groups as

needed. These elders are expected to make most, if not all meetings and outings of the Journey

Experience.
 Each facilitator, mentor, and elder will be trained for four weeks prior to accepting the

position of facilitator in the journey group. Also, facilitators must have already completed a

version of the journey experience prior to facilitating the desired journey experience. Each

facilitator will also be required to participate mandatory racial sensitivity, sexual harassment and

misconduct training before being allowed to participate in any leadership roles related to the

Journey Experience. All leaders in any capacity are expected report any incidents deemed

necessary per human resource guidelines, and handbook. For more information about the church

volunteer handbook and guidelines, please see Sister Jamie Moore, Church Office Manager, and

Human Resources Manager.

The expectations for leadership were created with the idea of promoting a safe and

healthy environment for all participants. Leaders need adequate training, participants, and

parents need to be reassured that the minors will be protected at all times while they are away

from home during the duration of this experience.

Components and Content:

The content used during the Journey Experience will include the, “What Grows Faith

Model by Andy Stanley, author of Deep and Wide. Stanley’s model is a five phase process in

that he has modeled to promote healthy church growth, and Christian discipleship, (Stanley,

2012). The Journey Experience model included a six phases that are outlined below. During the

Journey, adults will study the book of John, the book Mark, and periodic scripture readings will

be offered for daily meditation, and study purposes. Youth will study the book of Mark during
the course of study. Additional meditation scriptures will be used to supplement weekly teaching

just as in the adult class. Journaling is encouraged in all groups, but is not required.

The goal of the entire experience is to aid in the faith formation of the entire group

collectively, and individually, to enable each participant to discover and proclaim with

understanding, their individual faith as a follower of Christ, to help each participant develop

sound spiritual practices for participants on an individual bases that can be continued throughout

the participants Christian life, and to enable the participant to discover their unique spiritual gifts

and ways that they may use them to continue to grow personally, and establish the kingdom of

God during their life.

Journey Experience Outline (For Youth Only)

Phase 1. Practical Teaching

I. What is Practical Teaching?

Scriptural Reference: Matthew 7:24-29 (the crowd was in awe if Jesus doctrine and

authority). Practical teaching is biblical teaching designed in such a way that it produces

a movement towards action. This entire month will focus on teaching foundational

Christian principles from the point of view of Mark’s gospel. The goal is to lay a

foundation of desire to study the scripture, but not read the entire gospel in one month.

Instead, the gospel of Mark has been summarized in large chunks that will be filled in

with private study, and group discussion at a later time.

Survey of Mark’s Jesus (4 Weeks)

o Week 1: Introducing to the group and How to read the bible.

 Introduction to Jesus (Mark Ch. 1)

o Week 2: 12 Guy and Jesus (Mark 2-3)

o Week 3: Life with Jesus (Mark 4-10)

o Week 4: Jesus Approaches Death, and Why it Matters (Mark 11-16)

Break Readings (Mark 1-4)

Phase 2. Private Discipline

What is Private Discipline?

Personal prayer time, scripture readings, and other spiritual practices that give

accountability, and intimacy with God will be taught during this four week period of

time.

o Week 1: What is faith? What is prayer? Introduction of faith statements.

o Week 2: Acts of righteousness. (Teachings should convey that acts of

righteousness should be done in private and God will rewards openly.)

o Week 3: Prayer, faith, meditation, and other spiritual practices!

o Week 4: Tithing and giving promotes faith increase.

Break Reading: Mark 5-8

Phase 3. Personal Ministry

During this phase, participants will have the opportunity to evaluate their individual gifts, and get

a better understanding of who God created them to be. Building upon that foundation,
participants will be taught why it is important to serve and live out the gospel that they are

learning about, and given opportunities to serve in ministry capacities inside and outside of the

four walls of the congregation.

o Week 1: I’m unique!

o Week 2: I have spiritual gifts!

o Week 3: I have talents!

o Week 4: Being Jesus’ hands and feet! (Jesus just wants us to bring what we

have to Him, so He can use us to bless others.)

Break Reading: Mark 9-12

Phase 4. Providential Relationships

What are Providential Relationships?

When we hear from God through someone else or see God in them, we have these

encounters. They are viewed as God encounters through man at critical junctures in our lives.

We can't do anything to create these encounters beyond fostering the mentorship roles

outlined in this curriculum, however providential relationships are necessary for faith growth.

During this phase, each participant will focus on identifying key relationships in their life

that help them to see God through the individual’s involvement in the participant’s life.

Week 1: Seeing God in others.

o Week 2: (Parent/Guardian Session) Faith and family life.

o Week 3: Who is My Neighbor?

o Week 4: How to be a friend to people in need.

 o Youth group leaders should lead over extended periods of time...

Break Reading: Mark 13-16

Phase 5. Pivotal Circumstances (Parent/Guardian Sessions)

Pivotal circumstances are harsh moments in life that force growth as outlined by James Fowler.

They promote growth towards the later stages of development in Fowler’s process of faith

formation and development.

o Week 1: How to live through life’s challenges

o Week 2: It's not the event...it's the conclusion we get about God from the event.

o Week 3: How do I fit in the world? (Worldview and who is in our life affects

pivotal circumstances.)

o Week 4: God’s Presence in every circumstance.

Phase 6. Faith Statement Development

Four weeks of participants moving towards pinning their individual and group faith statements

o Week 1: Re-Introduction to Faith Statements/Group Faith (The group will discuss

things they have faith in.)

o Week 2: Family Faith (The group will discuss things their family has faith in)

o Week 3: Individual Faith (The group will discuss their own individual faith, and

work towards creating individual faith statements).

o Week 4: The group will take their individual faith statements and create a group

faith statement.
 At the culmination of the 12 months, the group will have a final outing two weeks after

the final week of participation. Planning for this event will conclude with the planning our of a

worship service to be led by the participants. During this service, participants will in some way

outline their faith statements if desired. Participants may stand before the congregation and recite

their statement, or ensure a portion of their faith statement is included in the group faith

statement that has already been created. Participation in this service will be voluntary, and isn’t

required if the individual feels she or he should not participate.

Analysis:

I chose this format because of the flexibility of the phases outlined by Andy Stanley, and

because of the non-denominational status of The Lord’s House church. I believe it will be

effective in helping ensure a practical, and scripturally sound faith formation of participants of

the Journey Process. Please also note that the six phases included in the format, mimic the phases

of faith development outlined by James Fowler. His stages do not perfectly correlate to the

principles of his faith development that I have outlined, however there are some similarities.

The goal of the process is to push the participants to move towards Fowler’s stage four,

although most participants of adolescence age should land in stage three, the synthetic-

conventional stage. In this stage, participants should have a boxed in belief system. If they were

to move towards stage four, the individual-reflexive stage, the participants would be moving

towards breaking out of social norms and societal norms that they deem unnecessary for their

lives. (Fowler, 1995)

 Bibliography:

Fowler, James W. Stages of Faith: the Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for

Meaning. New ed. New York: HarperOne, 1995.

Stanley, Andy. Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend. Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012.