Church of the Incarnation in Atlanta has a new student ministry springing into life! Last year, a high school junior asked to be confirmed. This request enabled a confirmation class to start, followed by a Youth Alpha course, and now, regular meetings of middle and high school students at Incarnation. Rev. Janna Ziegler, the Associate Rector of the Church of the Incarnation, led the church’s first confirmation class with three students and their parents. The Student Leadership Network provided written resources, one-on-one coaching, and financial support through the Champion Grant for this first confirmation class.
Janna used this class as a trial run for student ministry programming, and the church got to see what it would be like to have a regular student ministry gathering on Sunday afternoons. In describing the confirmation class, she shared, “I taught through To Be Christian: An Anglican Catechism. In addition, I did a half-day retreat with confirmands and their parents about 1) Living in Relationship with Christ and 2) Living on Mission. The confirmands and their families had dinner with the vestry and the bishop. Finally, they all participated in the confirmation service.”
God’s glory was shown in many ways throughout this process, something that was clear as Janna shared stories about what is continuing at their church. One of the confirmands requested to be confirmed because she wanted to study the faith and make a public declaration of faith in Jesus before she went to college as a way of setting her life before the Lord. “It has been a deep joy to watch her fully respond yes to Jesus at this stage in her life,” Janna told us.
Before Confirmation Sunday, the Church of the Incarnation would have said they had about three middle and high school students at their church, it wasn’t enough to do much with them. Janna decided to take an accurate count of how many students were at their church and there were fifteen! She said she was shocked that their church had that many people in this demographic already connected to their church. “We want to be a church that attends well to students…. One family has been bringing a friend from school who is not yet a believer. Our church vestry has caught a vision for next-gen ministry so we are currently re-adjusting our budget to spend more resources and attention to this area of our church,” Janna said. “All because one junior high student asked to be confirmed,” and the church responded with whole-hearted support.
