I have always loved Barnabas. Did you know his name is actually Joseph? Barnabas is his nickname, given to him by the apostles. It means "Son of Encouragement." And it couldn't be more apt.

It was Barnabas who vouched for the hot-headed young convert, Saul, to the apostles in Jerusalem, when the disciples there "were all afraid of him, for they did not believe he was a disciple." 

So there I was, innocently watching my Twitter feed, when the news came through: 13-year-old Arvind Mahankali had won the Scripps Spelling Bee with the word "knaidel"! And there was much rejoicing!

Yiddish dumplings for the win!!!

— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) May 31, 2013

But then: controversy as people started piping up that in their family it was spelled "kneidel."

a reflection for Pentecost

Go outside.

Quit worrying about the church.

Quit thinking about church growth, about retention rates, about Average Sunday Attendance.

Quit coming up with strategic plans or outreach programs or mission statements.

Just go outside.

Go someplace.

Go to the supermarket, the farmer’s market, the bank, the coffee joint, the library, the post office, the mall, the park.

Go somewhere where people go and look around.

So you've prepped for confirmation until you could prep no more, presenting to your bishop youth and adults who were ready, willing, and able to make a mature affirmation of faith. The iConfirm service went off without a hitch. Parents beamed, the congregation congratulated you, and finally you had a week when you didn't have a class to lead. 

And so here I am, party pooper extraordinaire, to suggest that now is the perfect time to take some extra steps with your confirmands to ensure that confirmation is not a terminal moment for those who have taken this step in faith. 

I recently had the opportunity to interview Bishop Barry Beisner of the Diocese of Northern California about confirmation. Part 1 of our transcribed conversation talks primarily about his experience of confirmation before becoming a bishop. In Part 2, he talks about how his role and perspective has changed as the bishop doing the confirming rather than being the priest doing the preparation.