YOU Gotta Go to Catechism

The neighborhood in which I grew up teemed with kids my age with whom I had great fun, mostly playing backyard, alley, and ballfield sports, where I made many fond memories.  But I recall many an occasion after school trying to round up a pickup game, and my buddies would say, “I gotta go to catechism.”  I didn’t know what that was other than it was a church thing, and specifically a Catholic church thing.  Since I knew enough about my friends’ religion to know they did many things my Pentecostal family considered weird (and that’s saying something!), I never really inquired.  All I knew was they hated it, but it was something they had to do.  Sometime later they’d tell me, “I made my first communion.”  Again, no clue, and little care.  Most of those friends stopped going to church after their “first communion” and we lost track of each other by high school, as many of them went to a Catholic school and my Pentecostal mother (my father had passed away) placed me in a Baptist school as there were none of the Pentecostal variety so, close enough.  I later became a Baptist as did my dear mom. And… it was not until years later that I learned catechisms were not a strictly Catholic thing.  It turns out there is a long history of Baptist catechisms. For example, see this extended quote from Jeff Robinson:

The Reformation was a golden age for catechisms among Protestants. Luther and Calvin placed high priorities on catechizing both children and adults, and each wrote catechisms for that purpose. The Heidelberg Catechism (1562) and The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) are the two best-known and most influential catechisms to emerge from the Reformed tradition.

It’s not as well known, but Baptists also have a rich tradition of writing and using catechisms. They’ve used catechisms virtually since their appearance in the seventeenth century. Both Particular Baptists and General Baptists in England used them. The unforgettably named Hercules Collins (1646–1702), a Particular (Calvinistic) Baptist pastor in seventeenth-century England, adapted The Heidelberg Catechism as the basis for his Orthodox Catechism, published in 1680. One of the most influential catechisms to emerge from Baptists was The Baptist Catechism, published by Benjamin Keach (1640–1704). It’s often called “Keach’s Catechism,” and it’s based on The Shorter Catechism, which also served as the basis for Spurgeon’s [Baptist] catechism in the nineteenth century.

Baptists in America used catechesis as a fundamental pedagogical tool. America’s first Baptist association, the Philadelphia Association, and the South’s first Baptist association, the Charleston Association, published duplicates of Keach’s catechism.

Dozens of churches in both associations faithfully used catechesis, producing different versions according to age and learning level. The Shorter Catechism would be suitable for younger children, while The Larger Catechism was written for older children and adults.

[Baptists continued to produce catechisms] until well into the nineteenth century, as demonstrated by James Pettigru Boyce’s Catechism of Bible Doctrine (1864) and John Broadus’s catechism commissioned by the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board (1891).¹

More recently John Piper published a revised version of Keach’s Baptist Catechism.²

One reason catechisms fell into disuse among Baptists was the arrival of Sunday Schools in the 18th century, and published materials for those schools that provided education to the young.  However, it has been my experience, after nearly four decades of adult life in Baptist churches, that systematic learning for adults has lagged behind the training we offer for children.

So, in the early 90s three pastoral colleagues and I met for a year to produce what I call “a systematic theology for regular people” (known at the church I pastor as Master Plan for Life). It is 28 theology lessons covering the doctrines of God, Bible, Christ, Humanity/Sin, Salvation, and the Church (including Last Things), has homework for each day of the week, and application questions at the end of each lesson.  When we presented this to our church nearly thirty years ago it was clear that it had met a spiritual need, and I have taught it at least every other year since.

In the mid-90s I was introduced to the concept of ‘ordered learning’ in the church, for adults, which immediately struck a sympathetic chord with me.  I determined to offer ordered learning for adults with foundational classes (MPL and How to Get the Most Out of Your Bible) followed by ongoing learning by which to build and grow on that footing, and we’ve done so most of the 20 years of our church’s existence.

But what I didn’t know at the time was that the “new” “ordered learning” process was just the old catechism idea in new wineskins, for adults.  You see, catechism is a Bible word.  The term catechism derives from a New Testament Greek word for instruction, katecheo. For instance, forms of katecheo are used twice in Galatians 6:6: “The one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor” (see also Luke 1:4, Acts 18:25, 21:21, 21:24, Rom 2:18, 1 Cor 14:19).

Authors J.I. Packer and Gary Parrett have written on the need to return to intentional adult learning in the church saying,

Discipleship impresses us as the key present-day issue, and catechesis as the key present-day element of discipleship, all the world over. The Christian faith must be both well and wisely taught and well and truly learned! A far-reaching change of mindset about this is called for, without which such well-worn dictums as “American Christianity is three thousand miles wide and half an inch deep” will continue, sadly, to be verified.³

This means our churches must become serious about teaching the flock.  We leaders need to provide catechesis, and YOU gotta go to catechism!

---

Ken Brown is the pastor of Community Bible Church in Trenton, MI. We republish his article by permission.

---

Photo by Skyler Gerald on Unsplash

1. Jeff Robinson, see here. [↩]
2. John Piper, see here. [↩]
3. Grounded in the Gospel, Baker Publishing Group, 17.  Kindle. [↩]