15 Tips for Sponsors
1. Establish a regular time to be with the candidate as listener, sharer, and co-traveler on the faith journey. Communicate that the friendship between the two of you makes a difference in your life.
2. Encourage the candidate to keep a personal journal during the year on their preparation for Confirmation and growth/struggles in their faith. Share reflections of your own from your daily life as well.
3. Be willing to enter into discussions with the candidate about the differing values around us and affirm healthy, life-giving choices of the candidate. Model healthy, life-giving choices and relationships in your own life.
4. Recommend or buy books for the candidate that relate to living the faith.
5. Participate in a community service project together.
6. Support the candidate and his or her peers in leadership capacities at the parish (liturgical ministers, social justice ministry helpers, VBS & Middle School retreat volunteers).
7. Explore a variety of ways to pray together.
8. Read the Scripture for the upcoming Sunday, discuss it, and then attend Mass together.
9. Find five other adults who will pray for the candidate.
10. Create a prayer board for the candidate’s bedroom where he or she can put up the names of people who are in need of prayer.
11. Reach out to the candidate with a “good luck on the exam” telephone call or a congratulatory note about a job well done.
12. Learn friend’s names and inquire about them regularly.
13. Talk to the candidate about the struggles he or she faces each day.
14. Pray for the candidate, and let him or her know it.
15. Ask the candidate to pray for you.