Revisiting Catechesis...

I've been involved in church Christian Education initiatives off and on for most of my 30 years in evangelical churches. Seems like the biggest hurdle was trying to figure out what to do with adult CE programs. There are so many options. We did classes on parenting, classes on books of the Bible (I taught Romans, Pastor Epistles on a couple of occasiosn for example). There was a class on the book of Acts I sat in on that lasted for years. One teacher in my youth did a great summer series on the Old Testament tabernacle and it's relation to New Testament events. I once led a class on affliction attended by mostly couples over 50, who found such a class more pertinent than the under 30 crowd might. There were classes on marriage, finances, prophecy, current events and more. Options, options, options. Not a cohesive game plan usually. Whatever seemed current and timely - whatever someone was willing to teach.

When we tried to come up with a game plan, for newcomers and new members things generally covered evangelical distinctives. So we dealt with things like inerrancy, salvation by grace through faith, eternal security, maybe a bit about congregational government, a word about tithing and about spiritual gifts. In recent years, the emphasis in many churches seems to be on getting newcomers "active" as soon as possible as opposed to "grounded". One suggestion was actually made in a leadership context that we should avoid "theology" because folks wouldn't come to something heavy.

In leadership meetings in past church affiliations, we tried to be more intentional about depth. We tried to devise a way of covering a few deeper theological concepts and grounding folks in a larger view of how scripture all "fits together". But it was overwhelming. Hard to limit, hard to pick and choose. I once came up with an elaborate three year plan, mapping out a bunch of "essential" ideas for biblical literacy.

But there is a simpler starting point....



Currently, the little Anglican Mission in American startup church I am a part of is reviving the concept of catechesis, and using a pretty universal framework for doing so. It is based on the sort of thing Luther referred to as a shorter catechism. Our intention is to lay a groundwork to immerse new members in the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed. I like this direction. Why?

Aside from it being a historically sound approach (not reinventing the wheel), the three emphases are solid and universal.

The Commandments make the most basic moral precepts of the faith plain. If any culture ever needed to contemplate things like "you shall not murder" or "you shall not commit adultery" or "you shall not covet your neigbor's wife", it is ours. Speaking clearly about moral basics makes coversations about sin (and redemption) a natural next step. It is a direct path to the heart of the gospel.

Second, the Nicene Creed is the de facto gold standard for a universal statement of faith. It begins with the base definition of God who is "one God" and who is "creator of all things". Think that won't lead to some good discussion about the hot topic of origins? Do you think anyone can skirt that issue when looking at the creed? It covers essential Christology, the historical death and resurrection, including references to Pontius Pilate, grounding the resurrection in history. It opens the discussions of the Holy Spirit and the church. If forces us to come to terms with the Trinity. It is a summary of essential, biblical theology. It has a laser like focus on the cross and the resurrection. It can be covered in a short period of time.

The Lord's prayer opens us up to the inner life. I am confronted with how minimally the prayer deals with "felt needs". "Give us this day our daily bread". Pretty basic. It represents a reverent, respectful and humble patter for prayer.

The one debate we have, at the moment, is whether to include anything more in catechism. Based on Methodist practice, we have considered adding the Beatitudes to this basic Christian foundation. The Beatitudes get us to rock bottom Christian living. Seems like a wise choice. "Blessed are the meek", "the persecuted", "those who hunger after righteousness", "the poor". This is the antidote to the prosperity gospel - to the gospel of self-fulfillment and happiness. I favor this addition as a wrap up - moving beyond theology to real living.

The other option is to cover a few distinctives of the Anglican way of doing things, such as ecclesiology, sacraments, basic liturgical concepts, worship. Personally, I prefer the beatitudes, because the entire "newcomers" course would, as a result, be decidedly non-sectarian. My interest in Anglicanism has been based on the notion of Anglicanism as a "middle way", a respect for church history and tradition, yet a commitment to the Scriptures as the ultimate authority, based on the statement from the 39 Articles that nothing can be required of a man unless it can be proved from scripture. I want to affirm the absolute authority of scripture, but where scripture is not abundantly clear, to focus on what has been believed "always, everywhere and by all". I'd like to leave the distinctions of the particular branch of the diverse Christian organism for a later discussion. I may or may not win that debate.

Essential faith is the point of Catechesis, as opposed to offering a broad array of "electives". Whatever our denomination, we are trying to make Christians, not Anglicans, Lutherans, Baptists or Congregationalists. We teach Christianity, not dispensationalism, federalism, or sacramentalism. We need to ground people in essentials first, then move on to the finer points. which are often those things which tend to separate. A focus on those essentials that are so widely recognized seems to me to send a message that we are about firm commitment to essentials and we are willing to hold loosely to those things that have not found a clear consensus. It is an old approach, one that is tried and true. One that probably set me on a path that I remain on to this day. I cannot say enough how thankful I am that I knew the Creed by heart at a young age. It innoculated me from many a doctrinal deviation.

I hope more evangelical churches will someday recall the simplicity of a historical catechesis. It might help prevent the sort of scenarios where believers "major on the minors" and become experts in side issues while having little understanding of the essentials. Vince Lombardi was known for stressing "fundamentals" in football - blocking, tackling, execution. Seems like a sensible approach to me. We'll see how it works out, but I am thinking this is a wise path...