Confirmed or conformed?

I’ve come to believe the adage, “expression deepens impression”.

Last week six people were Confirmed in the ratty old community centre where we meet for church on a Sunday afternoon. It’s always really noisy. The floorboards are bare and gap-ridden and tend to amplify the delighted squeels of little children as they crash into the sticky plastic chairs (during ‘chasings’ before and after the service).

Sure, we’re a rag tag bunch and that’s the appeal, I think.  Here is a group of men and women, most of whom were unchurched, standing before Bishop Rob and publicly declaring their allegiance to Christ. This is where the “expression deepens impression” thing plays out.

Two of the candidates, we’ll call them “Silvio” and “Jen”, came into the life of our little community of faith through the Mainly Music (http://www.mainlymusic.org.nz) program. Having been warmly welcomed, Silvio and Jen (and their respective spouses and kids) were invited to lots of social activities and eventually they signed up for bible study (group meetings and one to one).

Over time, I suppose it was about a year, Silvio and Jen embraced the values of the Kingdom.

The Confirmation service was a powerful way of expressing publicly (before friends and family) that they’d thrown their lot in with Jesus. The statement, “I turn to Christ” is a gripping declaration, in my view. Those four words, stated thus, deeply impress upon one’s psyche the shift in allegiance from self-rule to Christ’s rule.

We all felt it. Some of the blokes were weeping. I was.

And after the service (following the presentation of certificates) there was even hugging. I’m talking serious man-hugging stuff. Bliss.

I was sitting in the park with Silvio a week before the service and he crystalised the whole deal in these words; “in being confirmed, I’m really saying that my life, from this point on, is being conformed to the will and word of God, right?”

Right. A rite celebration of God’s mercy and grace.

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