This excerpt is adapted from Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism by Joel Beeke.

Although evangelism differs to some degree from generation to generation according to gifts, culture, style, and language, the primary methods of Puritan evangelism—plain preaching and catechetical teaching—can show us much about how to present the gospel to sinners.

Like the Reformers, the Puritans were catechists. They believed that pulpit messages should be reinforced by personalized ministry through catechesis—the instruction in the doctrines of Scripture using catechisms. Puritan catechizing was evangelistic in several ways.

Scores of Puritans reached out evangelistically to children and young people by writing catechism books that explained fundamental Christian doctrines via questions and answers supported by Scripture. For example, John Cotton titled his catechism Milk for Babes, drawn out of the Breasts of both Testaments. Other Puritans included in the titles of their catechisms such expressions as “the main and fundamental points,” “the sum of the Christian religion,” the “several heads” or “first principles” of religion, and “the ABC of Christianity.” At various levels in the church as well as in the homes of their parishioners, Puritan ministers taught rising generations from both the Bible and their catechisms. Their goals were to explain the fundamental teachings of the Bible, to help young people commit the Bible to memory, to make sermons and the sacraments more understandable, to prepare covenant children for confession of faith, to teach them how to defend their faith against error, and to help parents teach their own children.

Catechizing was a follow-up to sermons and a way to reach neighbors with the gospel. Alleine reportedly followed his work on Sunday by several days each week of catechizing church members as well as reaching out with the gospel to people he met on the streets. Baxter, whose vision for catechizing is expounded in The Reformed Pastor, said that he came to the painful conclusion that “some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half an hour’s close disclosure, than they did from ten years’ public preaching.” Baxter invited people to his home every Thursday evening to discuss and pray for blessing on the sermons of the previous Sabbath.

The hard work of the Puritan catechist was greatly rewarded. Richard Greenham claimed that catechism teaching built up the Reformed church and seriously damaged Roman Catholicism. When Baxter was installed at Kidderminster in Worcestershire, perhaps one family in each street honored God in family worship; at the end of his ministry there, there were streets where every family did so. He could say that of the six hundred converts brought to faith under his preaching, he could not name one who had backslidden to the ways of the world. How vastly different was that result compared with those of today’s evangelists, who press for mass conversions and turn over the hard work of follow-up to others.

An Interview with J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett – Thursday, 30 Jun 2011 – original source WhiteHorseInn.org

Throughout the history of the church, young believers and new converts to the faith went through a process called “catechism.” Although this is an ancient practice, it has fallen out of use in contemporary Christianity. In seeking a remedy to this, White Horse Inn talked with J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett, authors of an important book entitled Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old Fashioned Way. Dr. Packer teaches theology at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., and is the author of numerous books. Dr. Parrett is associate professor of educational ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and is also the coauthor of another book on this subject, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful: A Biblical Vision for Education in the Church.

Why did you feel compelled to write Grounded in the Gospel?
GP: In the garden-variety evangelical world I have moved in for most of the last thirty years, there’s very little sense of a catechetical vision or ongoing catechetical ministries. We therefore felt compelled to try to help address this. This has been on my mind for a while, largely because of seeds planted by Dr. Packer when I was his student almost twenty-five years ago.

Those who don’t come from a background in Reformed, Lutheran, or Anglican traditions might say that catechism sounds Roman Catholic. What is the origin of catechism and how do you define this word?
GP: It comes from the Greek word katekeo, which is used in several places in the New Testament and means “instruct.” In some ways, it is a general word for instruction; but very early on in the life of the church, it was a particular form of instruction that focused on the basics via oral communication’give and take, back and forth. There’s a biblical concern for teaching the faith in substantive ways.

When did this practice of catechesis start and when was it revived?
GP: In the ancient church, in the second through fifth centuries in particular, anybody who came to Christ, especially from outside of the Christian community, went through a rigorous preparation for baptism that was catechizing, equipping them in the basics of Christian doctrine, Christian living, and Christian praying’often for many months, up to two or three years of instruction’before they were permitted to be baptized. Then catechesis went underground in a lot of ways for most of the Middle Ages, was revived by the Reformers with great zeal, and was the dominant feature of Protestantism, at least through the era of the Puritans. But as you suggested, ever since the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, it has been retained largely only in Reformed and Lutheran circles.

Our theme recently on the White Horse Inn was “Recovering Scripture.” Our producer visited a local Bible college, asking students if they were familiar with the book of Galatians. Here are some of their answers to the following questions:

What’s the book of Galatians about? Have you ever read that book or studied it?

I’ve read it, but I don’t really remember.
Um, I haven’t studied it in depth. I’ve read it, but I can’t really recall the one firm message.
I think it’s Paul writing to the church in Galatia. I would say it’s about how a Christian ought to live their life.
Hmm. I read through that a couple months ago, but I don’t recall specifically what that one’s about. I believe it talks a lot about community in the church.
I’m not familiar with it enough to talk a lot about it, I guess.
It comes back to strengthening others in Christ, I believe. I haven’t studied that book. I grew up in the church, but never had a study on that book, not in detail at least.

One of the words that pops up again and again through Galatians is “justification.” Are you familiar with that word?

No. I haven’t looked into it.
I’ve actually only heard of that concept in the last couple of years. I’ve never heard that phrase used in a church, which might just have to do with my church background. I went to one church as a kid and that was it. They never really got very deep.

That’s the same answer I’m getting from everybody. Are churches doing a poor job teaching the basic content of Scripture from kindergarten to college age?

Yeah, I agree with that. I think they need to do a better job of equipping us of how to read the Bible, and less on the topical, like how to do life.
My personal take is that they do a horrible job. Sometimes it could be teachers who don’t really know it themselves. We kind of dumb it down.
I don’t have remotely near the knowledge of the Bible that I feel I ought to have, being able to say, “I was raised in church and went to a Christian college.”
I do think that the church needs to have more in-depth teaching of the Bible, especially starting in Sunday school, because I think a lot of times it’s pretty shallow.

Now what’s striking here is that this is not at a public university campus; this is at a Bible college. Is this exceptional, or is this why you wrote Grounded in the Gospel?
JIP: The conversation you’ve just relayed shows that we today in the evangelical community are far out of sync with Christian discipling in the first century, in the apostolic age. We claim to be Bible people, and we talk a lot about the Bible; but whereas they in the first century drilled people in what now we may properly call Bible doctrine, we simply don’t do that. We go some distance in helping people understand a bit of the historical background and the books of the Bible; but even so, we don’t go very far in encouraging people to soak themselves in the Bible. As C. H. Spurgeon once said, “A Christian’s blood should be bibline.” He was being fanciful; but that is to say, if you prick the Christian with a pin, the blood that comes out should be just oozing Scripture. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Reformers, the Puritans, the evangelicals were literally soaked in Scripture. They seemed to know their Bible backwards. They could quote it appropriately and apply it in relation to anything that came up in conversation. We simply aren’t like that, and yet we think we’re being loyal to the reformational heritage. Continue reading →

Article by Dr. Michael S. Horton (original source – WhiteHorseInn.org)

In order to know what they believe and why they believe it, Christians need to be well catechized and grounded in the central doctrines of the faith. In his pastoral visits to the homes of parishioners, Martin Luther was astounded to find that few knew the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, or the Apostles’ Creed. He therefore wrote his Small Catechism. Other Reformers followed suit, and generations of Christian families have been saturated with biblical teaching through catechisms to this day. Studies show, however, a staggering ignorance of the basic teachings of the Christian faith even among professing evangelicals. We need to get beyond shallow slogans and movements, grounding ourselves and our children in “the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.” Given the statistics we regularly encounter, Luther’s description of the desperate need for serious doctrinal instruction (catechesis) in his day sounds eerily relevant. In the preface to his Small Catechism, he explains,

The deplorable, miserable condition which I discovered lately when I, too, was a visitor, has forced and urged me to prepare [publish] this Catechism, or Christian doctrine, in this small, plain, simple form. Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach. Nevertheless, all maintain that they are Christians, have been baptized and receive the holy Sacraments. Yet they do not understand and cannot even recite either the Lord’s Prayer, or the Creed, or the Ten Commandments; they live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs; and yet, now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to abuse all liberty like experts….O ye bishops! to whom this charge has been committed by God, what will ye ever answer to Christ for having so shamefully neglected the people and never for a moment discharged your office?

Luther implores pastors “to have pity on the people who are entrusted to you, and to help us inculcate the Catechism upon the people, and especially upon the young.” Following the example of the ancient church, the Reformation restored catechesis. So crucial was catechesis to the Reformers that they personally assumed responsibility for teaching it to the youth. The catechism was also taught in the home, usually after dinner, as parents’especially fathers’took responsibility for their “little parish,” as Luther called the family. Instead of lazily accommodating superficial and nominal profession, pastors and parents took up the responsibility of raising God’s people to the standard of honest Christian conviction.

It is often said today that Christians, at least evangelicals, know the truth but do not live it. But as far as knowing why we believe it, most cannot articulate anything beyond their personal experience. Many pastors, teachers, elders, and parents are preoccupied with pragmatic success and fail to take seriously the cry of their own parishioners for deeper, fuller, richer teaching. Participating in the more general cultural distractions, youth groups often fail to connect heirs of the covenant with the wider communion of saints. Luther’s indictment should ring in our ears today.

Therefore look to it, ye pastors and preachers. Our office is now become a different thing from what it was under the Pope; it is now become serious and salutary. Accordingly, it now involves much more trouble and labor, danger and trials, and, in addition thereto, little reward and gratitude in the world. But Christ Himself will be our reward if we labor faithfully. To this end may the Father of all grace help us, to whom be praise and thanks forever through Christ, our Lord! Amen.

Catechism (from the Greek word catechesis) is simply instruction in the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Instead of replacing or supplanting the role of the Bible in Christian education, catechism ideally serves as the basis for it. For the practice of catechism, as properly understood, is the Christian equivalent of looking at the box top of a jigsaw puzzle before one starts to put all of those hundreds of little pieces together. It is very important to look at the big picture and have it clearly in mind, so that we do not bog down in details, or get endlessly sidetracked by some unimportant or irrelevant issue. The theological categories given to us through catechism help us to make sense out of the myriad of details found in the Scriptures themselves. Catechism serves as a guide to better understanding Scripture. That being noted however, we need to remind ourselves that Protestants have always argued that creeds, confessions and catechisms are authoritative only in so far as they faithfully reflect the teaching of Holy Scripture. This means that the use of catechisms, which correctly summarize biblical teaching, does not negate or remove the role of Holy Scripture. Instead, these same creeds, confessions and catechisms, as summary statements of what the Holy Scriptures themselves teach about a particular doctrine, should serve as a kind of springboard to more effective Bible study.

– Kim Riddlebarger

Dr. J. I. Packer:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

(original source Oxford University) serves as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. He is the author of numerous books, including the classic best-seller Knowing God. Packer served as general editor for the English Standard Version Bible and as theological editor for the ESV Study Bible.

This post draws together several quotes from J. I. Packer, highlighting the need for catechesis in the church today, and anticipates the release of The New City Catechism: 52 Questions and Answers for Our Hearts and Minds.

Train in the Truth

It’s every Christian’s calling to continue learning, growing, and striving to know the truths taught in the Bible. Catechesis—from a Greek word meaning “instruction by mouth”— is a historic teaching method of giving Christians the language with which to articulate the basic tenets of faith—narrowing in on what the Bible says, and what it doesn’t say.

In a question and answer format, catechisms pose an inquiry (like the Heidelberg catechism’s first “What is our only hope in life and in death?”) and then supply a theologically-packed response drawn from Scripture.

In Finishing Our Course With Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging (Crossway, 2014), theologian and author J. I. Packer stresses the importance of the practice of catechesis within the church:

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.

While many Christians are actively involved in devotional Bible study, he laments the lack of formal catechetical study, without which, he says, “Well-intentioned minds and hearts will repeatedly go off track.”

Like Scripture says, we all, like sheep, have gone astray. We need constant shepherding and guidance, and knowing and repeating a catechism can be a way to ground our hearts in unchanging truth. The tradition of repeating established statements of faith helps with that shepherding, and it has a long history. Many modern congregations, however, have allowed a lapse in the practice.

In Taking God Seriously: Vital Things We Need to Know (Crossway, 2013) Packer says:

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.

That is why, he says, churches need practical help in knowing how to incorporate the tradition into their lives and families. While it may take time to acclimate to the discipline, the benefits of establishing a tradition of catechesis can far outweigh the costs, and there are many ways to involve people of various ages in the practice. Packer continues:

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.

Catechesis is, in essence, a simple way to train in the truth, and thus, stir affection for the beauty of the gospel. Packer continues:

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.

This devotion-stirring practice may not seem central to ministry, which is particularly why it has become less frequently emphasized in churches. But, when adopted into a church or family life, the effect can be great. He goes on to say:

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.

Thus, the catechized Christian is not just one that knows how to rotely repeat antiquated phrases, but ideally, one who has the tools to translate belief into action.

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

Dr. Kim Riddlebarger is a graduate of California State University in Fullerton (B.A., Roman Catholicism: Evangelical Protestants Analyze What Unites & Divides Us, and Christ The Lord: The Reformation & Lordship Salvation, and is currently the pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, California.

He writes:

The Importance and Practice of Catechism

“Fathers – Instruct Your Children

The Importance of Catechism

Growing up in American fundamentalism, as I did, the very word “catechism” brought to my mind images of the liberalism of mainline Protestant denominations, or some mysterious Roman Catholic ritual that could have no biblical support whatsoever. As a Bible church person, I was taught from my earliest youth that catechism was at best a worthless practice, if not downright dangerous to the soul. But if you were to have asked me just what exactly catechism was, I’m not sure that I could have given you an answer. Growing up with such misconceptions, I often viewed my friends who attended catechism classes as people who could not possibly be born again and therefore, in desperate need of evangelization. For unlike their misguided and dead church, our church had no creed but Christ, and we needed no such man-made guides to faith since we depended upon the Bible alone. Whatever catechism was, I wanted no part of it!

The burgeoning evangelical men’s movement, demonstrated by the huge amount of interest garnered by such groups as Promise Keepers, has raised a whole host of legitimate questions about the role of Christian men in society, the work-place and the home. This is certainly an important and indeed, a healthy trend. But I wonder if the answers to such questions are perhaps best found in the wisdom of earlier generations, rather than from among our own contemporaries. Many of these same questions have been asked before and the answers given to them by our predecessors and fathers in the faith were not only based upon a thorough knowledge of Scripture (which Gallup and Barna remind us is sadly lacking in our own age), but additionally, were forged through a kind of wisdom and life experience gained during an era in which Christians were less apt to simply react to the secular agenda and uncritically imitate its glitz, glamour and noise. Evangelical Protestants of previous generations, it seems, were often more careful about confusing the sacred and the secular than our own leaders, and they often dealt with such weighty issues theologically and historically. Inevitably, when we look to the theological wisdom of the previous generations regarding the role of men in society, the work-place and the home, we come back to the importance of the practice of catechism.

Catechism (from the Greek word catechesis) is simply instruction in the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Instead of replacing or supplanting the role of the Bible in Christian education, catechism ideally serves as the basis for it. For the practice of catechism, as properly understood, is the Christian equivalent of looking at the box top of a jig-saw puzzle before one starts to put all of those hundreds of little pieces together. It is very important to look at the big picture and have it clearly in mind, so that we do not bog down in details, or get endlessly sidetracked by some unimportant or irrelevant issue. The theological categories given to us through catechism, help us to make sense out of the myriad of details found in the Scriptures themselves. Catechism serves as a guide to better understanding Scripture. That being noted however, we need to remind ourselves that Protestants have always argued that creeds, confessions and catechisms are authoritative only in so far as they faithfully reflect the teaching of Holy Scripture. This means that the use of catechisms, which correctly summarize biblical teaching, does not negate or remove the role of Holy Scripture. Instead, these same creeds, confessions and catechisms, as summary statements of what the Holy Scriptures themselves teach about a particular doctrine, should serve as a kind of spring-board to more effective Bible study. When this is the case, these confessions, creeds and catechisms are invaluable tools to help us learn about the important themes and doctrines that are in Scripture. Continue reading →