The idea for the Carmitzveh came to me as I visited a young girl's Batmitzveh (Barmitzveh is for boys), the Jewish coming of age ceremony when a young girl is welcomed into the synagogue adult community. As I was enjoying the ceremony, I realized there was nothing from the time of confirmation (around age 12) until wedding or death, that calls on the body of the church to ask commitment from a young member.

Usually one of the truly life changing events for most young people is when they get their driver's license. A Carmitzvah connects this life changing event for a young person to the church.

At Enon, as a kid in our youth group prepares to get their license, I will plan with the parents and young person, a special service. Each service will take on the personality of the young person and family. It could be as extravagant, with a reception after the service, or as down played as each family would want to pursue.

The thrust of the service is to recognize this (or these) young person(s) for reaching this milestone in their life and to call upon each young person to accept the awesome responsibility that driving presents.

Naturally, to get it started in any church you have to deal with all the youth that already have their DL. The first one here at Enon was on Senior Sunday. Since we only had 3 graduating seniors, the Carmitzveh gave us a reason to have the underclassmen involved in a service where we involved all the roistered kids (8 including the seniors) that have already received their license.

I had key chains made up that say "Enon UMC - Just Think" engraved on them. If you read the attached script you will see "Just Think" is the hook phrase in the ceremony.

You can order the key chains for about 6 dollars a piece. I ordered them from Branders dot com. Ask for John and mention Enon UMC and he will know what you are talking about. The down side is you have to buy 50. So I archived 25 for kids over the next few years and sold the rest to congregants to pay for them.

The text was printed it as an insert into our bulletin. The script is attached.

I am sure I have forgotten some details, but you can customize the idea to work in your church.