Confirm Not Conform

Graphic showing "Episcopal — Lutheran — Methodist — United Church of Christ — Presbyterian". These are the mainline progressive denominations for which Confirm Not Conform provides customization resources.

Screenshot of the Introduction to the "Denomination Customization Guide".

Confirm Not Conform aims to be universal and adaptable, yet every mainline church has specific differences that instructors will want to highlight. Our "Denomination Customization Guide" provides resources for each.
✝️ 🙏📖📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍🔥⚓🚪 #progressivechurch #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #TEC www.confirmnotconform.com

screenshot: first page of "Lesson 9: The Power to Help"—which explains the theological basis for the lesson, as well as targeted outcomes.

Photograph of a youth playing tag with a child at a summer camp for urban youth.

"Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.
…
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless people now."
—Teresa of Avila
✝️ 🙏📖📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍🔥⚓🚪 #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #BIPOC #LGBTQIA2S+ www.confirmnotconform.com

Alligator Auschwitz and now this, on the week we all gather to celebrate our country. It’s unbearable.

Lord, have mercy. 📕

NY pastor’s long walk for refugees and human rights gains support across Finger Lakes “I’ve not lost anything, except maybe the feeling in my feet."

Ntuala, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls, embarked June 29 on a 78-mile trek to the ICE detention center in Batavia, where she hopes to arrive the morning of July 2 in time to join a peaceful protest.

#TEC #Episcopal

[screenshot: first page of "Lesson 3: Your Truth"—which gives the Theological Statement underpinning the lesson.]

[screenshot: "Timeline for Lesson," showing timeframe, duration and description of each lesson activity.]

"This lesson celebrates the courage and complexity of heresy and opens the youth up to the idea that they, too, might be heretics who can change the world for the better."
—From the introduction to Lesson 3: Your Truth

✝️ 🙏📖📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🌈🏳️‍🔥⚓🚪 #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #BIPOC #LGBTQIA2S+ www.confirmnotconform.com

Lesson 14: May We Present… Theological Statement, plus basis for the lesson, life lessons and skills addressed

All people of faith are called to bear witness and to speak truth to power. Confirm Not Conform offers guidance and praxis in both. "Lesson 14: May We Present…" involves choosing a project and arguing its value to church leaders.
✝️ 🙏📖📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍🔥⚓🚪 #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #BIPOC
www.confirmnotconform.com

A youth takes his turn reciting a passage and teaching at the I Confirm Service, holding a candle to keep his hands steady.

“We were thrilled that all of our confirmands made the decision to proceed with the Rite of Confirmation. 😀 … We enjoyed using the updated curriculum and had some wonderful conversations throughout the year.” —Pastor Funk, Slatingon, PA
📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚓ #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #BIPOC www.confirmnotconform.com

The Progress Pride Flag by designer Daniel Quasar. Per Wikipedia: "While retaining the common six-stripe rainbow design as a base, the 'Progress' variation adds a chevron along the hoist that features black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes to bring those communities (marginalized people of color, trans people, and those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost) to the forefront; 'the arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made.’"

Happy Pride Month BlueSky!

Confirm Not Conform unabashedly centers justice, equity, diversity and inclusion for everyone, especially BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ youth. Because we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚓ #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #LGBTQIA2S+ #BIPOC www.confirmnotconform.com

The Progress Pride Flag by designer Daniel Quasar. Per Wikipedia: "While retaining the common six-stripe rainbow design as a base, the 'Progress' variation adds a chevron along the hoist that features black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes to bring those communities (marginalized people of color, trans people, and those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost) to the forefront; 'the arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made.’"

Happy Pride Month BlueSky!

Confirm Not Conform unabashedly centers justice, equity, diversity and inclusion for everyone, especially BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ youth. Because we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚓ #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #LGBTQIA2S+ #BIPOC www.confirmnotconform.com

Join us! Sunday, June 1 at 6pm ET / 3pm PT — a service to bless and commission Episcopalians who will share God's love at Pride 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ events across the church.

TransEpiscopal’s own The Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge will preach and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will preside. ⚓️

facebook.com/events/s/pri...

Ok, Drew.

[Confirm Not Conform students gather for a "Zap prayer" before they preach at the confirmation service.]

This thread was composed using blueskythreads.xyz

📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚓ #Progressive #Mainline #Confirmation #ConfirmNotConform #Methodist #Presbyterian #Lutheran #Episcopal #Anglican #UnitedChurchofChrist #Justice #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #DEI #Inclusive #Affirming #Accessible #Welcoming #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #TEC #WAT #LGBTQIA2S+ #BIPOC

To learn more, go to https://www.confirmnotconform.com
To buy or view the cost adjusted for your church size, go to https://buy.confirmnotconform.com
Check out a sample lesson at https://buy.confirmnotconform.com/l/vbrqqd

* by exploring the many ways people have expressed their faith through the centuries;
by involving the wider congregation in the confirmation process;
* by empowering youth to teach and lead; and
* by respecting participants’ faithful choice about whether or not to be confirmed.

Using Confirm Not Conform is how:
* by allowing participants of all ages to speak and participate, focusing more on their questions than our answers;
* by showing our confidence that the Christian faith will stand up to honest examination;

This story is about a particular church in particular place, but it is also about the universal church and the call upon all believers to live and act justly in the world. And how do we teach our youth how to live and act justly in the world?

The church* argues that the mayor’s move is a reactionary response to the church’s request to build a shelter for the town’s homeless on its own property.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/nyregion/eminent-domain-homeless-church.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.6rlz.QUwfxgWHnEWs&smid=url-sha

Right now a church in New Jersey is fighting for their survival because the town’s mayor wants to take their prime real estate by eminent domain. The mayor says the town needs more parkland.

mindfulness practice, Wednesday mornings, 8-9 a.m. DM me for more information @sarahcjones.bsky.social

Episcopal Church halts refugee partnership with feds over white South Africans The Episcopal Church has halted a refugee resettlement program with the federal government over the prioritization of white South Africans while other populations see their immigration protections …

“I want to be very clear about why we made this decision…. It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.”
—Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe

Very, very true. It is hard to maintain and sustain the commitment to helping youth make a successful transition to adulthood and beyond.

Members of the congregation lay hands in blessing on all those who have graduated from Confirm Not Conform—whether they have chosen to be confirmed or not.

In a living, evolving process that fosters deep reflection and dialogue, Confirm Not Conform empowers the entire church community to help integrate youth into the church’s mission and ministry—as vital members of the congregation.
📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚓ #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #BIPOC www.confirmnotconform.com

there's no stopping the Latin American meme machine

More historic than realized. ⚓
#Pope

Books of Common Prayer are given to Confirm Not Conform graduates by their mentors in this Episcopal church.

Confirm Not Conform is built on the belief that the Christian faith can withstand honest examination. It prioritizes formation over mere information, values questions more than predefined answers, and empowers youth to lead and teach.
📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚓ #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #BIPOC
www.confirmnotconform.com

Reverse of Card #S1 of S6, They Live (1988) with trivia and a description of the scene.

They Live (1988) // # S1R of S6
'The Episcopal Free Church'

We have also found that many today are more suspect of easy answers than of difficult questions.‍

"[W]hat she found was not a faith that answered life’s dilemmas, but a very different kind of engagement: one that gave space for doubt, rebellion, and ambiguity.”

📕🕯️🏳️‍🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚓ #PCUSA #ELCA #UMC #UCC #BIPOC