Confirm not Conform

...first all, I'm sorry to hear that! I heard from a person today who was having trouble buying the CnC Adult program at the add-on price through the website, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience! We thought it was all figured out.

A few days ago, someone asked me how do you train mentors, since having mentors paired with youth is a big part of the Confirm not Conform program. An excellent question! In all the things I’ve done with CnC, training mentors was one thing I missed. Why don’t we investigate this together?

Mentoring is about building relationships, not knowledge. How do you teach people how to become mentors? Especially mentors to teens? So I called our mentor coordinator for her advice and got a couple of suggestions that made me go, “Of course!” and I thought I’d pass them on to you.

If you are planning a field trip to a mosque or synagogue, you might find some helpful information to prepare your class for their visit in the resources we have listed here. This might also be good for the World Council of Religions class (lesson 6).

If you have some good resources of your own, please add them!

I've been running across lots of blogs that make me think of what we're trying to do with CnC Adult: offer a safe place for people to explore their faith and ask the questions they've been afraid to ask. I think there's a lot more need for this kind of safety and exploration than we think--especially for the people in our churches who are not "spiritual" in a way that fits our typical models: the Bible study-prayer group-sacramental type that (from my observation) makes up most of our clergy and that many of us clergy think is The Way Spirituality Is Supposed To Be (TM).

There's a new thread for you to share books that you have found particularly helpful in your ministry. What are some of your favorites? Give your input here.

Hello, there, to all of you who are just purchasing CnC. Since I imagine you're overwhelmed with materials, I wanted to make sure you know to start with the Getting Started Guide. When you log in and go to the files to download, it's waaay down toward the bottom under "Other CnC Resources." I would suggest just downloading the Getting Started Guide to begin with and read it over before you print out anything else. That will go a long way toward helping you find your way into the program as a whole.

August seems so quiet. Dollars to donuts, people in your parish are wondering what you are doing with your time. But if you are in the middle of it, you know that August is the month when everything ramps up. The things that get planned in August are going to make it more likely whether your year runs smoothly (or at least smooth-er) or whether you hobble your way to June.

So if you haven’t already got your act together, or don’t know where to start, here are my suggestions for your August Planning Extravaganza.

I just got the schedule for the summer webinars from Church Publishing, and it's a busy one! There's an intro to Confirm not Conform next Thursday, July 22 at 4:00 PM EST, and an intro to CnC Adult the following Thursday, July 29 at that same time.

So I hear it's hot out. I won't mention, then, that it's currently 65 degrees where I am because that would not be nice. No, instead I shall limit myself to saying, Man, it's hot outside!, and make some suggestions about things you can do within the comfort of your air conditioned office that will give you a head start on your fall programming.

I just finished reading this fantastic interview with Kenda Creasy Dean, Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary. She''s written a book called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church, coming out in July. That''s going on the reading list for sure. In the meantime, check out the interview.