A Pastor’s Best Friend: A Good Catechism

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There’s an enduring misconception about the essential tool of the Reformation. While it is widely assumed that “the Protestant reformers placed the Bible in the hands of laypeople, it is more accurate to say they were handed catechisms to learn as apt summaries of divine revelation.”[1] The practice of using catechisms to help train children, adults, and even ministers placed the focus of the church back on a biblical trajectory––to affirm and live out sound doctrine. Sadly, Protestants, and especially Baptists, moved away from catechisms around the end of the nineteenth century for a variety of reasons,[2] but thankfully, there seems to be a growing interest in catechisms today. This is encouraging, for every pastor––better yet, every father––should consider a good catechism to help shepherd his flock. In this article, I begin with the need of every Christian to affirm sound doctrine, then show how catechisms can meet that need, and conclude by explaining why I ventured to write an updated catechism for the church today.

1. William P. McDonald, Christian Catechetical Texts (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2011), 24. So successful were Protestant employments of catechisms, that the Catholic counter-reformation took note. Jesuits quickly adopted similar practices to inculcate children in Spain against the surging Protestants. See John O’Malley, The First Jesuits (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), 3, 27–28.

2. The entrenchment of Second Great Awakening theological convictions and practices into church life, modernizing educational theories, and the often Baptist-led Sunday school movement all combined to contribute to the demise of catechism use. Benjamin S. Tellinghuisen, “Developing the New Baptist Catechism for use at First Baptist Church of Farmington, Michigan,” DMin project (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2021), ch 3.

We Need to Affirm Sound Doctrine

Everyone has a theology. Everyone has a worldview. But Christianity is designed to be a worldview based on sound doctrine. Without sound doctrine derived from the Word of God, there are no guard rails for morality, there are no lanes to stay in while reading and interpreting the Bible, and there is no accurate framework to buttress our life. For generations, sound doctrine has been minimized, so much so that evangelicals are as apt as liberal Christians to say, “Christianity is all about a relationship not a religion,” or “Doctrine divides,” or “We want good deeds, not good creeds.”[3] When the church minimizes the importance of sound doctrine, there no longer remains an impetus to catechize. That which used to be very Protestant now seems foreign. The remedy? Rediscover that every Christian needs to affirm, cherish, and defend sound doctrine.

3. Greg Laurie of Harvest Ministries provides an example of the first statement in a recent devotional, and Rick Warren championed the last statement almost twenty years ago. For an illustration of the abysmal state of theology among Evangelicals—albeit in different areas than the phrases cited above—see Ligonier’s biennial State of Theology survey.

In Titus 1, God tells us that elders are to be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it (Titus 1:9). In 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul repeatedly made the connection from his faithful life to his sound doctrine (1 Tim. 6:3–5; 2 Tim. 1:13). The reason for God’s emphasis on sound doctrine? Sound doctrine nourishes the soul and promotes godly living. Therefore, the pursuit, knowledge, and protection of sound doctrine is essential to how God calls every Christian to live the Christian life. Perhaps we should counter modern evangelical clichés with, “Good creeds lead to good deeds.” The backbone for why the Scriptures support the use of a well-crafted catechism is simply that catechisms are excellent tools to communicate, learn, and study sound doctrine.

We Need Tools to Teach Sound Doctrine

I am not a handyman, nor the son of a handyman, and so it shouldn’t surprise that I often come at routine home projects with the wrong tools in hand. Like the time I tried to use a hammer drill to screw a broken chair-arm back together: it now sits with its arm split, hanging limply in my dining room, a constant reminder of my handyman inadequacies. For generations now, pastors have attempted to motivate fresh vigor for godly living with the power of positive thinking, emotional pleas to remember God’s love, calls to rededicate your life, or heaping guilt on their hearers over the urgent plights of a sin-cursed world. As many of these tools have failed, many are beginning to remember that catechisms were the tool churches used for centuries to equip the saints to know and to live out sound doctrine. After all, the goal of our churches isn’t to simply count decisions, but to make lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. Catechisms, used well, help Christians ruminate on sound doctrine. They allow this truth to seep in, rather than bounce off. So, a good catechism can become a pastor’s best friend.

In our home, starting when my children were toddlers, we taught them simple questions and answers. Some of those questions and answers were indispensable to the discipline process: Did you disobey daddy? Yes. What does God call that? Sin. What does God tell daddy he has to do? Discipline me. Others included echoes from church history: Who made you? God made me. What is our only hope in life and death? That we are not our own, but belong to God. And some questions were part of how we helped them discover their world. What does the dog say? Bark. What color is the Banana? Yellow. God designed questions and answers to be part of how we teach children, and how they learn. Good questions pique our interest and so well-crafted catechisms for generations have helped children learn the right questions to ask about God and the Christian life. Consistent review and memorization of foundational doctrines from a young age stick with children long into adulthood.

But catechisms are not simply tools for children. Catechisms are for every Christian, as every child of God needs to learn sound doctrine. So, catechisms have been employed as a discipleship tool for new believers. We often throw the unchurched recent convert into the theological deep end of the Christian life. We expect them to understand through osmosis many theological terms and biblical concepts simply by showing up at church and going to small groups. We need good tools to help move them from milk to meat, and pastors will be well served putting catechisms in the hands of new believers to help walk them through the basics of Christianity. And catechetical instruction is valuable for mature Christians as well, who need to be reminded of sound doctrine, lest we forget. Congregations would do well to read and recite aloud a weekly catechism in the church service.

Certainly, catechisms are not the only tools pastors will use to help teach sound doctrine. There are places for creeds, confessions, Sunday School curriculums, and good theology books, but catechisms deserve a higher place in our regular arsenal.[4]

4. A missionary is currently translating the catechism I developed because there are few systematic theology resources in the heart language of the people to whom he ministers. He wants to use the catechism as a tool to help train elders in sound doctrine so they can be equipped to shepherd the flock. This is very similar to how the early reformers used catechisms as a tool to help train pastors.

Why Develop an Updated Catechism

With such venerable catechisms available, like the Westminster Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, Keach’s Baptist Catechism, and Spurgeon’s Catechism, why is there a need to write a new catechism? Interestingly enough, even these classic catechisms were developed to meet specific needs when they were written. In fact, new catechisms were developed up until the early twentieth century.[5] Thankfully, we’ve seen a renewed interest in the use of catechisms today, and a couple new catechisms have been developed and well-received in recent years. But those of us with clear credo-baptism convictions don’t have as many good options, and many recent catechisms are marketed and designed exclusively for children. That’s why I developed A Catechism for Christian Growth (CCG).

5. See excellent summaries of Baptist catechisms developed up through the end of the nineteenth century in Thomas J. Nettles, Teaching Truth, Training Hearts: The Study of Catechisms in Baptist Life (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2017).

When crafting A Catechism for Christian Growth, I created a compendium of the best questions and answers from historic catechisms and organized them into the traditional systematic theology categories.[6] The CCG works through questions on The Word of God, God, Created Things, Humanity, Sin, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Salvation, The Church, The Ordinances, The Christian Life (including Prayer, Scripture Reading, Evangelism, Discipleship, and Worship), and concludes with Last Things. Thus, the CCG aims to systematically teach sound doctrine with an eye towards our rich Protestant history. Consequently, those familiar with the Protestant catechetical tradition will recognize many similarities to the questions and answers crafted by Christians in the past.

6. Prominent historic Baptist catechisms used to help craft the CCG included: An Orthodox Catechism (1680), a slightly modified version of Heidelberg; A Baptist Catechism, also known as Keach’s Catechism (1693), an amended version of the venerable Westminster Shorter Catechism; A Catechism for Girls and Boys (1798) an even shorter version of Westminster Shorter Catechism; Spurgeon’s Catechism (1855); A Brief Catechism of Bible Doctrine (1878); and A Catechism of Bible Teaching (1892). Other catechisms were read and studied, but these were the ones that proved most helpful.

In composing the CCG, I tried to balance memorability with thoroughness—a difficult task that others have similarly noted.[7] One way I aimed for that balance was by borrowing an idea from the New City Catechism to include a shorter answer within the longer answer, the shorter answer being the starting point for memorization.[8] As an example, Question 7 reads,

Question: What does the Bible teach?
Answer: The Bible reveals the one true God, explains what is wrong with the world, and tells how we can be right with and belong to God forever. The whole Bible is centered on the gospel message, making us wise for salvation.

7. In December 1891, after finishing the first lesson of his catechism, Broadus wrote, “It is, of course, an extremely difficult task to make questions and answers about the existence and attributes of the Divine Being, that shall be intelligible to children, adequate as the foundation for future thinking, and correct as far as they go.” A. T. Robertson, Life and Letters of John A. Broadus (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1909), 398.

8. Redeemer Presbyterian Church, The New City Catechism, The Gospel Coalition (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017).

The bolded portion is designed as a stand-alone answer, but the full text adds clarity. This was done for almost all 190 answers, so the CCG is intended to grow with the catechumen.

A Catechism for Christian Growth is specifically designed to fit into a variety of settings in the Christian life. It helps parents shepherd their children, new converts understand the fundamentals of the faith, and entire congregations learn sound doctrine like catechisms have for centuries. It is a succinct yet systematic scaffolding upon which Christians can fortify their faith and defend against all sorts of heresy. But defense is hardly the only benefit of catechesis, for it will also engender a deep and abiding reverence for the Creator (Prov. 4:20–27) and a warmth of affection for God as Christians rest in his electing love (Deut. 6:5–9). The theological framework of a catechism follows the catechumen into the study, informing her times of devotion and private worship; it follows her into the marketplace to understand how a simple job can be done for the glory of God; it follows her into the home where she is able to self-diagnose problems within her marriage and parenting according to clear biblical principles; and it follows her into the pew to inform her worship and grow her devotion for her Lord.

Conclusion

Since reciting A Catechism for Christian Growth in the services of our church, God has used it to protect, strengthen, and encourage church members’ faith. One such example occurred the week after we recited catechism question 104,

Question: Can we separate repentance and saving faith?
Answer: No, repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of God’s grace because saving faith is always a repentant faith. We cannot truly believe without turning from sin and we cannot truly turn from sin without believing (Mark 1:15; Luke 9:23).

A few days after reciting this at church, a church member’s friend told him that he had believed in Jesus when he was young, but still wasn’t ready to give up living his sinful lifestyle. The friend was a drunkard and maintained multiple sexual partners, all while saying that he loved Jesus too. The church member quickly pulled out the catechism statement and verses still folded in his Bible, and he helped his friend to see the truth of God’s sound doctrine on repentance and faith. Sound doctrine is essential to godly living and catechisms propel us toward that goal.

The good doctrines taught in a catechism can have a profound impact on all of life, as Christians realize their “hope is set on the living God, who is the Savior of all” (1 Tim. 4:10b). My prayer is that God will reawaken Christians to the eternal value of catechisms so that every household (biological and ecclesiological) can learn to glorify and enjoy Him.

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Editor’s Note: Click here to download a preview of A Catechism for Christian Growth. To see all 190 questions in the catechism, click here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author

  • Ben Tellinghuisen

    Ben Tellinghuisen is the Pastor-Teacher at First Baptist Church of Farmington, Michigan. He is a graduate of The Masters Seminary (MDiv, ThM) and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin). He organizes and leads the South-East Michigan Baptist Pastor's Fellowship and is married to his wife, Leah. They have three children.

Picture of Ben Tellinghuisen

Ben Tellinghuisen

Ben Tellinghuisen is the Pastor-Teacher at First Baptist Church of Farmington, Michigan. He is a graduate of The Masters Seminary (MDiv, ThM) and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin). He organizes and leads the South-East Michigan Baptist Pastor's Fellowship and is married to his wife, Leah. They have three children.