Designed for a new generation, this hands-on curriculum gives students real choices, real agency, and real ways to discover how faith takes shape in their lives.
Lutheran Yes! is a student-centered confirmation curriculum that invites young people, leaders, and families into God’s ongoing YES through curiosity, creativity, and connection. This format helps students grow into the baptismal promises they’ll affirm: to worship with God’s people, hear and share God’s story, and work for justice and peace.
In this post
Each Lutheran Yes session begins with Getting Ready content to help the leader prepare.
As students enter the space, they engage in one of the Gather activities.
Then they Get Connected using the Connection Deck to tap into their current frame of mind.
During Focus time, they explore scripture that is connected to the session topic.
Time to Discover through Quests! Leaders choose from three Quest options—they can offer one, two, or all three for students to select.
Regather to play a quick game with the Connection Deck.
Send students with a YES! to growing and living in their baptismal promises.
Lutheran Yes! was developed using results from our research with more than 100 ELCA congregations of varying sizes, locations, and program lengths.
Results showed that leaders want a curriculum that
Connects faith to daily life
Teaches foundations of the Lutheran faith
Creates opportunities for meaningful interactions with others
Scales to fit congregations of various sizes
Strengthens connections between church and home
Lutheran Yes! stands out from similar curricula due to its emphasis on creating agency and engaging emotional intelligence in the participant's learning process through Quests and the Connection Deck activities. It is a no-screens curriculum and is highly flexible for a program's ever-changing needs.
No-screen approach: Instead of watching lesson videos, students engage with leaders, peers, and tools like the Student Quest Book, Connection Deck, and hands-on materials. Each session is intentionally designed to spark curiosity and build real relationships.
Connection comes first: Every session begins and ends with structured connection time that helps students feel seen, safe, and valued. Gen Alpha wants to belong before they participate—this curriculum helps make that happen.
Student led: Each session’s Quests give students meaningful choices about how they’ll explore the topic. Choice builds ownership, confidence, and engagement—especially for middle school learners.
For any church size: Whether you have three students and one leader or many small groups, Lutheran Yes! adapts easily to your ministry context.
In the main portion of each session, students choose how they engage with the session topic by picking from three Quest options. Quests are designed to tap into various modalities of learning: audio, tactile, collaborative, creative, reflective, and more to best engage the participant in their preferred learning style. Scavenger hunts, art activities, building challenges, and more all draw school-weary participants into deeper learning without the classroom feel!
With Quests, students get meaningful choices about how they want to explore key topics through tactile, collaborative, reflective, and creative activities.
The Lutheran Yes! Connection Deck is a tool that invites students into reflection and dialogue using imaginative and compelling images, intriguing emotion words, and worship-related symbols and colors. Each of the 56 cards activates the imagination, helping students tune in to themselves and one another, talk, reflect, and build community.
These cards are used twice in each session: an activity during Gather time and the Regather activity after everyone completes their Quests.
Lutheran Yes! will have 4 units
1. Lutheran Worship (Available June 1, 2026)
2. Lutheran Theology (Available Fall, 2026)
3. The Ten Commandments (Available 2027)
4. Baptismal Affirmations (Available 2027)
Each Lutheran Yes! unit has ten sessions.
Unit 1 sessions:
Session 1: What Is Worship
Session 2: Elements of Worship
Session 3: The Church Year
Session 4: Holy Baptism
Session 5: Holy Communion
Session 6: The Lord’s Prayer
Session 7: Prayers in Worship
Session 8: The Apostles’ Creed
Session 9: The Colors of Worship
Session 10: Our Worship Service
A: Lutheran Yes! is flexible! Use with a handful of students, multiple small groups, and everything in between.
A: Anyone can lead Lutheran Yes!! Leader guides are designed to easily usher individuals through session preparation and facilitation. No theology degree necessary!
A: Planned prep will lead to big results! Lutheran Yes! works best when leaders take time to prepare—thinking through the session topic, gathering high quality materials, and shaping the space where students will meet.
A: The free Lutheran Yes! Small Catechism app gives families a chance to explore faith together as they ask questions and try activities. Coming soon!
A: Given the many ways the pandemic disrupted the typical schedule for faith formation ministries, we wanted the first unit to cover a topic that most students recognize. Even if their Sunday school attendance was spotty, most students are familiar with the words, practices, and spaces of worship in their church. Throughout this unit on worship, sessions weave in Lutheran concepts from the Small Catechism and our worship practices.