The Neglected Practice

Congregations in every age must see themselves as learning communities in which gospel truth has to be taught, defended, and vindicated against corruptions of it and alternatives to it. Being alert to all aspects of the difference between true and false teaching, and of behavior that expresses the truth as distinct from obscuring it, is vital to the church’s health. 1 

As the years go by, I am increasingly burdened by the sense that the more conservative church people in the West, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike, are, if not starving, at least grievously undernourished for lack of a particular pastoral ministry that was a staple item in the church life of the first Christian centuries and also of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation era in Western Europe, but has largely fallen out of use in recent days. 

That ministry is called catechesis. It consists of intentional, orderly instruction in the truths that Christians are called to live by, linked with equally intentional and orderly instruction on how they are to do this. 2 

There are different levels of catechizing, according to the age groups involved: catechizing is, or should be, a vital ongoing discipline for church people from nine to ninety, so angles, styles, and emphases will naturally vary. There are different ways of catechizing— question and answer, one-on-one; set presentation, orally or on paper, leading to monitored group discussion; offering formulae for memorization and affirmations for amplification; or the time-honored school system of chalk, walk, and talk in didactic dialogue with a class of learners—but essentially the same thing is being done each time. The Bible calls it, quite simply, teaching; on that basis we may further label it, discipling. 

 Though Bible-based, catechesis is not exactly Bible study, and though it spurs devotion to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is in itself a discipline of thought in God’s presence rather than of direct address to the Holy Three, or to any one of them. Its intended end product is Christians who know their faith, can explain it to enquirers and sustain it against skeptics, and can put it to work in evangelism, church fellowship, and the many forms of service to God and man for which circumstances call.

As a nurturing discipline, catechesis may be said to correspond to the innermost ring of the dartboard, or rifle or archery target. Bible study meetings and prayer gatherings will reach the outer rings, but it is catechesis—this ongoing procedure of teaching and discipling—that hits the bull’s eye. The fact that all-age catechesis has fallen out of the curriculum of most churches today is thus a major loss, which, as was indicated above, has left many Christians undernourished and hence spiritually sluggish. 

The essence of catechetical material is that it links the formulation of Christian truth with its application in Christian living (i.e., obedience). 

J.I. Packer

1 In Finishing Our Course With Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging (Crossway, 2014)
2 Taking God Seriously: Vital Things We Need to Know (Crossway, 2013) 

As a churchgoer for years, (I count my years as a religious devotee while in sin, if only to emphasize that this has been going on for so long), there is this one thing that is lacking in most, if not all Christian families, and is not mentioned in the pulpits: the necessity and practice of family catechism. Slowly but surely, the responsibility of parents to instruct their family in the ways of God has been incorporated into the church service, under such practices as bible studies, prayer, fellowship, and evangelism; so much so that modern discipleship programs have alienated the church from sound biblical doctrine, and when biblical doctrine is neglected, the whole structure implodes. Zeal for the kingdom's advancement becomes optional, and the interest to know God further is lost. The church is robbed of its power and use. One need only look at their own congregation if zeal in secret prayer and personal devotion in the word is present.

Catechism is not only for the family, but that it should primarily be in the family, it should also be in the church. From the pastor down to the congregation's various ministries, and unto the teachers of children. Meaning well in teaching is not the issue, but a firm understanding of the basic points of the faith is. It will be a tragic end for Christians who remain to be uncatechized.

Uncatechized congregations hence show forth bad fruit by hiding inside the comforts of church activities, and refuse personal study because they see no need for it. Uncatechized parents produce uncatechized children. They in turn produce stagnant religious churches that not only refuse to give birth to solid soldiers of the faith, but are unable to.

I remember a story of a puritan preacher who came into a certain town to minister. When he started ministry, there was not one home with family devotion, and by the time he died years later, there was not one home that did not have one.

Writing in 1548 to the Lord Protector of England, Calvin declared: “Believe me, Monseigneur, the church of God will never be preserved without catechesis.”

Here is a short excerpt from a catechism devotional:

When my son Jonathan was a young child, my wife, Kathy, and I started teaching him a children’s catechism. In the beginning, we worked on just the first three questions:

Question 1. Who made you?
Answer. God
Question 2. What else did God make?
Answer. God made all things.
Question 3. Why did God make you and all things?
Answer. For his own glory.

One day, Kathy dropped Jonathan off at a babysitter’s. At one point, the babysitter discovered Jonathan looking out the window. “What are you thinking about?” she asked him. “God,” he said. Surprised, she responded, “What are you thinking about God?” He looked at her and replied, “How he made all things for his own glory.” She thought she had a spiritual giant on her hands! A little boy looking out the window, contemplating the glory of God in creation!

What had actually happened, obviously, was that her question had triggered the question/answer response in him. He answered with the catechism. He certainly did not have the slightest idea what the “glory of God” meant. But the concept was in his mind and heart, waiting to be connected with new insights, teaching, and experiences.

Such instruction, Princeton theologian Archibald Alexander said, is like firewood in a fireplace. Without the fire—the Spirit of God— firewood will not in itself produce a warming flame. But without fuel there can be no fire either, and that is what catechetical instruction is.

2 Timothy 2:1,2
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.