by Tim Bonney » Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:48 am
Sandy,
I believe that the Roman Catholic church may count membership similarly to the United Methodist Church. We have two categories of membership, Baptized members and Professing Members. Professing members are those who have been confirmed in the church or joined the church as adults after the usual age of confirmation.
The Roman Catholic Church also has confirmation as the time when, ideally, persons in the church make a personal commitment to Christ. I think their terminology is slightly different than my own Church but the idea is largely the same.
I know some evangelical Christians are suspicious of the idea of an organized program such as confirmation for making a commitment to Christ. The idea seems to be that God has to tap you on the shoulder and tell you it is time to make a profession. My interpretion of scripture is that NOW is the time for salvation and any time a person wants to profess faith in Christ they can and should do so.