Product Overview
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Many youth arrive at confirmation classes without a basic grasp of key Bible stories or Christian traditions. This book helps to fill that gap, offering Sunday school teachers, parents, and adult volunteers a compact guide for equipping their youth with knowledge and understanding of their own faith. It offers an overview of one hundred essential topics that all children growing up in the church should learn about, including key Bible stories, church history, sacraments, creeds, worship practices, world religions, and more. Each entry includes suggestions for how educators and parents can explore this item with their children and ideas for integrating the topic into the child's overall Christian education. This practical resource helps children think critically about Christian faith as they begin their confirmation studies, providing the vocabulary and understanding needed to articulate their own theology.
Reviews
"Growing out of direct experience of preparing young people for confirmation, this book offers an elegant, accessible, systematic and ecumenically useful way of laying the foundations of Christian faith. Rebecca Kirkpatrick builds on a scriptural framework to show how engaging with the narratives and personalities of the two Testaments inevitably faces us with challenging ethical, doctrinal and social questions. She leads her readers with deceptive gentleness to realize that to make a Christian commitment is to take seriously the commitments of other Christians, and people of other faiths. But more than this, through study, worship and creative involvement in our world, it is to set a pattern for life."
—The Rt Revd Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely, and Chair of the Church of England Board of Education and the National Society
"What a great book! In a simple yet deep way, Rebecca shines a light on to the sweep of the Bible's story and Christian worship, helping prepare the ground for confirmation. Any adult using this book to explore the Christian faith with young people will find his or her own faith stretched and deepened as well."
—The Revd Mary Hawes, National Children and Youth Adviser, the Church of England
"There's rich content and scads of ideas for nurturing the faith of children in Rebecca Kirkpatrick's 100 Things! The list is spot on and would help us all be more intentional about what we teach (and why). For each, Kirkpatrick artfully lifts out the key concept, ways to engage the larger community, and suggestions for deeper exploration. It wouldn't be a stretch to incorporate what she describes into an intergenerational church setting where people of all ages could explore any of these one hundred stories, characters, and concepts of Scripture together."
—Liz Perraud, Executive Director, GenOn Ministries
"Reflecting on experiences of teaching confirmation, Rebecca Kirkpatrick provides a helpful list of one hundred topics she believes to be essential knowledge. Each topic is then explored with invitations of how to enable this growth by planting, feeding, and watching growth in understanding and experience. This book is an excellent resource for pastors, educators, and parents, all those who want their children to grow in the life of faith."
—Elizabeth F. Caldwell, Harold Blake Walker Professor Emerita of Pastoral Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary
"100 Things Every Child Should Know before Confirmation provides a wealth of ideas about how to teach the Bible and connect children, parents, and congregations in the task of Bible-based faith formation. Rebecca Kirkpatrick draws from her experiences as a pastor, mother, and confirmation teacher to help church leaders `beef up' programs so that children are learning Bible stories from a young age. Her ideas are succinct and clearly explained, so volunteers won't be intimidated. For all who desire to pass their faith on to the next generation, this book is an invaluable reference tool."
—Karen-Marie Yust, Josiah P. and Anne Wilson Rowe Professor of Christian Education, Union Presbyterian Seminary