Tell me the stories: a curriculum for confirmation

Atha, Matthew C.

Etd

Tell me the stories: a curriculum for confirmation

Public Deposited

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Atha, Matthew C. Tell Me the Stories: a Curriculum for Confirmation. Asbury Theological Seminary. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/de30724a-4e2a-4878-b149-0ca79da42626.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

A. M. C. Tell me the stories: a curriculum for confirmation. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/de30724a-4e2a-4878-b149-0ca79da42626

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Atha, Matthew C. Tell Me the Stories: a Curriculum for Confirmation. Asbury Theological Seminary. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/de30724a-4e2a-4878-b149-0ca79da42626.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Atha, Matthew C.

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the impact of story on the spiritual development of junior high school students who participated in a ten-week confirmation class, September 1998-November 1998, at the First United Methodist Church, Marion, Indiana. In order to achieve this, two groups of students were observed. Seven teens participated in a ten-week confirmation class that used story as primary teaching method at the church. A second confirmation class, which did not use story as its principal teaching method, was also tested. The second class was comprised of seven junior high school students from the Westminster Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church U.S.A.), Marion, Indiana. Both groups were given the Spiritual Well-Being (SWB) instrument before the confirmation classes started, at the conclusion of the classes, and six weeks after the classes ended. Since there were only fourteen subjects, the data collected for this study are seen as a limited ethnographic analysis and any inference must be made with caution. The data presented here indicate evidence of positive spiritual growth in both groups, some of which persisted to six weeks. The story treatment group SWB rose from pre-test to post-test, then declined at the six-week post-test. However, it remained higher than at the pre-test level. The Presbyterian group SWB rose from pre-test, then increased again at the six week post-test. Of the discrete elements of the story treatment confirmation experience measured, a confirmation retreat, Bible stories, and the movie 'Simon Birch' were rated by teen confirmands as the three most positive contributors to spiritual growth.

Publisher