About fifteen years ago, the Reformed Church spent a great deal of time discussing whether children should be allowed to receive communion. One commentator suggested that it was a rite in search of a theology. At the time of the Reformation, the reformers demoted confirmation from the status of sacrament, while wanting to keep a confession of faith as a time when children assumed a mature role within the community. Calvin suggested that children at the age of ten could learn the rudiments of the faith as expressed in the Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Apostles' Creed. Some parts of the Reformed Church have maintained confirmation classes for young people while others have encouraged young people to make their own decision of when to make confession of faith.
Faith embraces both knowledge and trust.
We are called to love God with our minds and our hearts. We cannot trust someone we do not know, nor can we truly know someone we do not trust. Traditionally, our knowledge of God comes to us through the stories of Scripture and the confessions of the church, while our trust of God is nurtured through faithful families and congregations that carry us from the baptismal font into a life of prayer and service. When he or she is ready to understand and live the promises. To be sure, such understanding will be appropriate to the age of the one who comes, but we also confess that all of us are children in faith, growing up until we die.