9. Moving In And Moving On
Christ came chiefly for this reason: that we might learn how much God loves us, and might learn this to the end that we begin to glow with love of him by whom we were first loved, and so might love our neighbor at the bidding and after the example of him who made himself our neighbor by loving us.1
St. Augustine
In this chapter we outline a model for configuring and implementing ministries of catechesis in evangelical churches today. The proposal seeks to draw together issues we have been talking about throughout the course of the book. In the first place we concern ourselves with the matter of content that was the focus of chapters 4–6. Next we aim to be attentive to the issues of spiritual development and cultural sensitivity we addressed in chapters 7 and 8. In addition to these central concerns we bring into this proposal insights concerning educational processes and practices.
The following table presents our proposal in overview. The reader can see at a glance the 3 × 3 × 3 structure we intend: three facets of the Faith, three phases of the journey, and three forms of education. We unpack all of this in the succeeding pages.
Three Facets and Three Phases
The three facets of the Faith (highlighted in the top row of the table above) we have labeled “the Truth,” “the Life,” and “the Way.” We explored these facets at length in chapter 6. These three dimensions of catechetical content, we argued, all derive from the Gospel, and we may therefore aptly speak of “the Faith of the Gospel.” The Truth concerns the sound doctrine that accords with the Gospel. The Way concerns that manner of conduct in the world that conforms to the sound doctrine. The Life concerns the life-giving power inherent in the Gospel that liberates us from our bondage to sin and enables us to begin walking in the Way.
To teach with these three dimensions as our content is to instruct God’s people in the Gospel itself. Since the Gospel is the apex and summary of the great Story of God’s redemptive dealings with humankind, these three facets also represent ongoing education in and training for our participation in that Story. And all of this is really and truly a faithful form of proclaiming Christ himself—the Truth, the Life, and the Way—the central figure of the Faith, of the Gospel, and of the Story.
In the left-hand column of our table we indicate the idea of movement, or progress, in the journey of faith. Broadly speaking we envision three phases of catechesis. The first we label procatechesis. This employs the language of the ancients in describing a vision of pre-Christian fellow-travelling toward discipleship. In this phase we offer first glimpses of the Gospel to those whom the ancients might have called inquirers and whom many contemporary churches might call seekers. The second phase is concerned with catechesis proper, or with a formal grounding in the Gospel. Later we will subdivide this phase into two steps. Phase three envisions an open-ended commitment to ongoing catechesis wherein believers experience further growth in the Gospel.
Three Types of Education, Three Types of Curricula
For the past half century or so Christian educators have been working out and articulating distinctions between three forms of education which have come to be called formal, non-formal, and informal.3 The impetus behind such distinctions was chiefly the concern that too much of what was done in the name of Christian education involved the “schooling model.” Here we see perhaps another unintended outcome of the Sunday school movement and its adoption as the major setup for teaching and learning in many of our churches. While some form of a serious schooling in the Faith and in the Scriptures is always necessary, it is unwise to view such teaching/learning experiences as the only sort of education we should engage in. We teach (and learn) the things of God in many ways. As the saying goes, much of what we really learn is better caught than taught (in the formal sense of the word).
While the lines between these three forms of education are not always clear, for our purposes we use these terms as follows. Formal education refers to our efforts to teach explicitly and intentionally in structured, designated educational settings such as a Sunday school class, a Bible study, a gathering of catechumens for instruction, and so on. By non-formal education we intend those experiences which are intentionally planned and designed, and are clearly formative but are not explicitly identified as educational. Such experiences might include, for example, worship gatherings, service opportunities inside or outside the church, gatherings for prayer, fellowship, and so on. Informal education, finally, we take to refer to the whole range of interactions and experiences we have that may be unplanned and unstructured yet are still very formative. Much of this has to do with matters of ethos and forces of socialization or acculturation that occur with or without our knowledge or intention.
A similar and related insight from the world of education is that we who teach need to always remember that there are also three types of curricula: the explicit curriculum, the implicit (or hidden) curriculum, and the null curriculum. 4 This is only one of many approaches to thinking about curricula that have been put forth by educational theorists and leaders, but we find this curricular triad particularly helpful. For our purposes we mean by explicit curriculum (sometimes called the overt curriculum) that which we actually intend to teach others—the formal content of our instruction. The implicit curriculum (the same idea is sometimes called the hidden curriculum or the covert curriculum) refers to that which is taught by the ways in which the teaching occurs—structures, practices, processes, that which teachers model or communicate by their actions, words, or attitudes, and so on. It is often the case that there is a serious disconnect between what we think we are teaching and what is in fact being learned by others. This is similar to the notion that our formal educational programs can be undercut by what happens in our non-formal gatherings or informal interactions.
The null curriculum speaks of that which we fail to teach. Like our implicit curriculum, this could be by design or could be unconscious and unintentional. Either way it is a powerful teacher in its own right. In the context of preaching or Christian education the idea of the null curriculum would come into play with reference to those passages of Scripture we never exposit, those doctrines and imperatives we never bring before our people, and so on. When we fail to address passages and themes, our failure to do so also teaches. In any given church there are doubtless many congregants who have little or no idea that the Bible addresses certain aspects of their lives that, in fact, desperately need addressing. On the other hand our failure to name and confront the -isms, idols, and perverse practices of the culture may be teaching congregants that God has nothing to say about those matters.
In our proposal we have tried to give attention primarily to matters of formal and non-formal educational settings and practices. Our content proposals focus on the explicit curriculum but we urge church leaders to try to be thoughtful, conscious, and self-critical about the null curriculum of the church and to commit themselves, by God’s grace, to declare the whole counsel of God. Finally, because we acknowledge the formative power of the implicit curriculum and know that all our informal interactions are influential, we encourage church leaders to prayerfully labor to cultivate the sort of ethos that will help ensure that these forces tend more toward good than ill.
With this supporting information before us we now turn to a brief consideration of each of the three phases of catechesis we propose.
Phase One—Procatechesis: First Glimpses of the Gospel
In this first phase of catechetical work, we are concerned with faithfully providing first glimpses of the Gospel to our neighbors. The evangelistic commitments of a church can and should take many forms. These could include particular evangelistic efforts or programs in which church members reach out to their neighbors. They should surely include as well the commitment to cultivate in church members the sense that they are always called to “be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Such a realization will mean that wherever they may be over the course of a given day or week they really do represent Jesus Christ as his appointed ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20). Through their hard work, godly living, and ethical commitments they “win the respect of outsiders” (1 Thess. 4:12 NIV), “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10 NIV), and let their “light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). It will not be a wordless witnessing, however. As witnesses we must also verbally testify to Christ, proclaiming his Gospel to others as God grants opportunity (Mark 16:15; Luke 4:18).
Our commitment to evangelizing should take another form as well. Not only are we to take the Gospel to those outside the church, we are to declare it inside the church community also, and to do so clearly, compellingly, and consistently. As we observed earlier, this was clearly an unwavering commitment of the apostle Paul (Rom. 1:15; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2; Gal. 3:1). In the gatherings of the church community for worship, for example, it is the Gospel that we preach and teach. By the grace of God this Good News will not only fall regularly upon the ears of the believers who gather each week but will also engage nonbelieving friends, relatives, and neighbors whom God sends our way. We should fully pray and expect that nonbelieving visitors will regularly be among us on Sunday mornings. And when they come, we should be ready for them. How so? By being sure that the Gospel is always our central concern and by cultivating a culture of hospitality, an ethos that communicates “come and you will see”—the very sort of invitation that Christ himself extended to others (as in John 1:39).
On the level of formal education, we may offer first glimpses of the Gospel to our neighbors through implementing ministry strategies like Alpha or Christianity Explored. Such programs, which we introduced earlier in this book, have been widely used and often found to be wonderfully fruitful. The focus of these ministries is on introducing the Faith to those who have expressed interest in learning more about the Bible, Jesus, or the church. Typically the instruction is set in the homes of church members. A meal is served, teaching is offered (in some cases, by means of video presentation), and discussion follows. While the setting is intended to be inviting and informal, this is an explicit teaching effort and we categorize it as formal education in our design.
Such formal efforts as this can be supported non-formally by inviting persons to regularly attend our worship services and to observe us, or even to join us at times, in our efforts to serve others. With concern for matters of informal education and the implicit curriculum we commit ourselves to cultivate an ethos of hospitality and xenophilia. We seek to be a community that intentionally and wholeheartedly welcomes the stranger (Matt. 25:35), whoever he or she may be. It is, in other words, a matter of obedience to one of the fundamentals of the Way: namely, that we love our neighbors as ourselves.
Phase Two—Catechesis Proper: Formal Grounding in the Gospel
The second catechetical phase is catechesis proper. In some church communities catechesis is used solely to refer to this phase of formal preparations for baptism or confirmation. Our focus now is on a formal grounding in the Gospel. As we suggested above, we are dividing this phase further into two steps as sketched out on the table below.
Step
Content Emphasis
1. Preparing for baptism or confirmation
Christian Consensus Evangelical Essentials
2. Preparing for official membership in, or leadership within, the local congregation
Christian Consensus Evangelical Essentials Denominational Distinctives Congregational Commitments
Step 1 of this phase is preparing candidates for baptism or confirmation. Clearly this is the piece of the catechetical puzzle that most closely corresponds to the historic practices. The length of this phase can vary from setting to setting. It is incumbent upon church leaders to make wise choices in this matter, basing their decisions upon a number of factors, including a sense of the culture in which the church lives. How near to or far from the biblical vision of the Truth, the Life, and the Way, they must ask themselves, are those who have been formed in this alien cultural context?
We recall that in the ancient catechumenate the final intense preparations for baptism were conducted through the six weeks of the Lenten season. But we also recall that before one even became a candidate for baptism one may already have been a catechumen for many months, or even several years. As leaders wrestle with the question of how much instruction candidates will need in their own context before baptism, we would stress how important it is that they honestly and openly evaluate cultural realities where they live, and seek the Lord’s wisdom about how best to proceed. Corners must not be cut here.
For the sake of argument we will propose that a six-week, intensive period of time represents an appropriate minimum for such preparations. Within these parameters we would further urge that wherever possible, and without compromising conviction or conscience, efforts be made to follow principles and practices evident in the ancient pattern. By doing this we remind congregants that they are being baptized into that innumerable throng that is the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church,” an assembly that spans the globe and reaches through the ages (Heb. 12:22–24; Rev. 7:9–10).
Formal catechesis in this step will focus upon the three historic summaries of the Faith—the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Decalogue—together with instruction on the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It may be very useful to utilize at this point one of the Reformation catechisms such as the Heidelberg Catechism.5 As they do so, however, catechists will need to demonstrate wisdom. They will do well to use the questions and answers contained in the catechism as starting points for their instructions, rather than as ending points. Ideally, those questions and answers—written originally in the sixteenth century—will give rise to many more questions that reflect life situations in the twenty-first century contexts in which we live. The aims in our instruction must include clarity of understanding, cultural congruence in application of the truths we are interacting with, and above all, pointing candidates to Christ and the Gospel.
During the period of preparation for baptism or confirmation candidates should also be engaged in a host of non-formal catechetical experiences, including regular attendance at the worship services of the church. They should be urged to begin developing their own disciplines of prayer, Bible study, devotional reading, and more. They should be invited to continue participation in the various ministries and fellowship gatherings of the church, and they are to be prayed for and exhorted on a daily basis by church leaders and by sponsors who are chosen to walk alongside them—especially in this critical leg of their journey.
The church seeks to cultivate an ethos of solemnity and celebration to support these formal and non-formal commitments. Becoming Christ’s disciple and a new creature in him is a somber, mysterious, and mighty thing being undertaken and experienced. It is at the same time an occasion for joyous celebration. A discerning embrace of some of the ancient practices associated with baptism that we described in chapter 3 will go a long way to reminding us of these realities.
In step 2 of this phase of grounding in the Gospel, those who have been baptized or confirmed are to be prepared for active membership in the local church. In many church contexts this will appear as a strange idea, since baptism or confirmation will be seen as having already settled the matter of membership. However, the vision of every member being involved in ministry may not yet have taken hold. Such a vision is firmly anchored in the New Testament, and in the church, as elsewhere, everybody is, or can be, a leader to somebody. It is very fitting that (for instance) step 2 catechumens be paired off with persons coming along in the process behind them to provide them with informal help and encouragement—which will be their first taste of leadership ministry. In some cases, perhaps it will be appropriate to actually envision three steps in which individuals are prepared for (1) baptism or confirmation; (2) official membership in the local congregation; and (3) a recognized leadership role within the congregation. For now, however, we will envision only a second additional step of a formal catechizing for service which occurs after one’s baptism.
Once again, it is incumbent upon church leaders to determine how long a period of instruction will be required for this membership (or leadership) training. Let us suppose once again a minimum of six weeks is dedicated to this experience. What will the focus of the content be? Generally speaking, we would advocate the following: first, a rehearsal of the most fundamental points of the Gospel, the Story, and the Faith; second, a foundational focus on the biblical doctrine of the church, especially with a view to explaining the relationship between membership in the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church” and one’s local congregation; third, attention to what we earlier termed “Evangelical Essentials” to provide some rudimentary understanding of where evangelicalism fits into the larger church; fourth, attention to Denominational Distinctives (or another affiliation that may better help situate this particular congregation); fifth, attention to Congregational Commitments, that is, the burdens and tasks that are unique to this local church. All throughout there will be an accompanying concern to explain the meaning, privileges, expectations, and service responsibilities of official membership in the church.
Our formal instruction in these things then will include further instruction in those aspects of the Truth, the Life, and the Way that have been distinctively emphasized by evangelicals within our own denomination or in our own particular congregation. For example, we can introduce the Reformation solas. We can instruct our members in our denominational understandings regarding the sacramental ordinances, or spiritual gifts, or ecclesial polity. And we can explain the unique sense in which we as a congregation feel called to live out God’s way in the community to which God has called us.
The formal education that occurs in these sessions is supplemented and supported by continued and deepening participation in the worship gatherings, fellowship meetings, and service and outreach opportunities that are regularly part of the church.
Alongside the periods of instruction that are central to this grounding-inthe-Gospel phase of catechesis proper, we would suggest that a discerning use of some historically affirmed rites of passage be employed. Webber’s work, which we referenced in the previous chapter, can prove very helpful here. If the word rite is off-putting to some we can simply use a more familiar term such as service, as follows:
• A service of enrollment for those who are now to begin their baptismal preparation
• A service of holy baptism (or confirmation) after the baptismal preparation is completed; as part of this service, the newly baptized partake of, for the very first time, the Lord’s Supper6
• A service of membership in which those who have completed membership training are formally welcomed as official members of the church
• A service of commissioning in which those who have completed leadership training are commissioned (or installed, or ordained) for recognized service in the church
We would be wise with regard to such things to reject the knee-jerk tendency of many evangelicals to simply dismiss anything that smacks of ritual. Empty ritualism is certainly unhelpful and even dangerous. But our rituals need not be empty. They can be biblically informed and kept full of meaning through regular words of reminder and instruction. The fact is we all have our rituals. Most of the time we are simply not conscious of them. Further, ritual is a common feature in Scripture. In the Old Testament we find ritual central to the celebration of the holy festivals God ordained as well as to heartfelt episodes of remembrance for God’s gracious acts of intervening on behalf of his people. Joshua had the people place twelve stones in the Jordan river to remember how God faithfully and graciously led his people into the land of promise (Josh. 4:1–7). Samuel set up a stone, calling it Ebenezer (“stone of help”) as a perpetual reminder of God’s waging war against the Philistines on behalf of Israel (1 Sam. 7:12). In the New Testament too ritual is actually commanded by the Lord, most notably in the sacramental ordinances of baptism (Matt. 28:18–20) and the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23–26).
By adhering to even the simple, brief procedures of catechesis proper that we have outlined above as Phase Two, church leaders can have some sense that they have actually grounded their people in the basics of the Faith of the Gospel. No one will become a leader in the church who is not a member. No one will become a member without having passed through formal training for membership. No one will be eligible to begin membership training who has not been baptized or confirmed. No one will be baptized or confirmed who has not been prepared for this through a period of catechesis. By such steps some grounding in the Gospel for all is assured. A system is put in place that has some “teeth” in it; that is, there is a compelling component to the catechesis.
Ordinarily, of course, pastors will inherit a certain number of leaders and members when they assume a position in the church. Many of these who have already been baptized or confirmed will not have participated in the catechetical journey we are envisioning. What is to be done in such instances? Undoubtedly as we begin to put in place a new vision for catechesis we will have to “grandfather” some in, in light of church by-laws and the history of the local congregation. We probably must say therefore that to fully implement the ideas we have been proposing in this book will probably be possible only with a generation-long ministry, or a new church plant. In the latter case these commitments to catechize can become part of the cultural fabric of the congregation from the outset. In established congregations, the process will take longer.
Nevertheless even existing cultures can be changed, at least to some extent, with serious efforts. As Andy Crouch has argued, we do not change a culture by analyzing it, critiquing it, withdrawing from it, or simply setting up alternatives to it. We change culture when we create new culture.7 When we commit to creating a new culture of catechesis in our congregations we can—over time, with sustained efforts, and by God’s grace—begin to change the culture of these churches. As something emerges that is self-evidently biblical and life giving, many of those who have not experienced it in the past will find it compelling and will want to join in. This has often proved to be the case in churches that have adopted Christianity Explored or Alpha. These programs, though designed for those who are not yet believers, have often attracted the participation of large numbers of church members and regular attenders. These believers come to recognize that they themselves have not been adequately catechized and they long to experience the very good thing that they hear others are experiencing.
Furthermore, we can offer our pastoral pleas that even though existing members will not be stripped of their membership, they ought to take advantage of the new opportunities for learning and formation that are afforded by our new commitment to catechesis. In the ancient church the final stages of catechesis were reserved for the baptismal candidates. “Ordinary catechumens” were not to join these sessions. But the doors were open to members of the faithful who were invited, and even encouraged, to participate alongside those who were preparing to be baptized. We can and should warmly welcome all our baptized members to a time of refreshing and remembrance by encouraging them to join baptismal candidates during their experiences of catechesis proper.
Phase Three—Ongoing Catechesis: Further Growth in the Gospel
From the time of the Reformation, as we saw, “higher” catechisms began to be published alongside the introductory catechisms of the day. Such were Luther’s Large Catechism, Nowell’s catechism, and the Westminster Larger Catechism. The goal of such catechisms was to furnish both clergy and mature laypeople with a clear, accessible summary of the Scriptures and of the Faith. In addition to this, many wrote commentaries to accompany the shorter or smaller catechisms, expanding upon those brief epitomes of the Faith. Here again help for clergy and mature laypeople was in view.8
In our own day it is far more common for professional theologians to devote their time and energy to writing theology for the academy rather than for the church. Often this means that they write theology for other theologians. The result of course is that what they write can often be relatively difficult for the average layperson to access. Indeed, their work can seem inaccessible to all but the most highly trained and highly motivated pastors. Is it any wonder that for many “ordinary Christians” there seems to be so little capacity for theological depth? Can we blame our church members if they seem only to be able to handle bumper-sticker or T-shirt-sized “sound bites” of theology? Must we who have been appointed by God to provide theological and spiritual leadership of the church not bear much of the blame in these matters? Have we forgotten that the best fruit needs to be found on the lower branches of the tree if our people are to have benefit of it? Have we imposed unreasonably low expectations on our people and then lamented when they lived down to our expectations?
In the spirit of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Baxter, Owen, Spurgeon, and many others, we urge a renewed commitment to making the deeper things of theology and of the Christian life accessible to the whole church community. Of course, we must meet people where they are. And where they are may not be where we wish they were. But if we will take action with a biblically lofty vision of where we ought to be and a commitment to lovingly lead others, we can—by God’s great grace—move forward. Like Paul we all actually long to know Christ better, to know him so well that we become conformed to his likeness, both in resurrection power and in sacrificial suffering (Phil. 3:7–11). Through the Holy Spirit we can actually press on toward the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus. All who are mature will take such a view of things (Phil. 3:12–16). For “if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Cor. 8:2). In fact, all of us “know in part” (1 Cor. 13:9).
Phase Three envisions such commitments to a perpetual, persistent, and passionate pursuit of the knowledge of God and his ways. Those who have become members of the church are encouraged to keep on growing, to never stop learning. We strive to cultivate in the church a culture of humility and teachability. Teachability, Calvin argued, is at the heart of Christian piety. We work toward such an ethos when the pastors and teachers of the church prove to be role models of such a spirit.
This spirit also pervades our ongoing participation in worship, prayer, small groups, fellowship, and service. Aside from this matter of ethos and our nonformal experiences of ongoing catechesis, we also need to put in place formal structures for further training. Among these must be some structure designated for serious and sustained teaching and learning of the truth. If the Sunday school setting is viable for such a task, then it can be used for it. If the small group structure does the job, then that’s fine. Perhaps the church, evaluating its culture, determines that another time during the week would work better, or perhaps that a weekend seminar format is best. Whatever the case may be, church leaders must determine their venues and make unapologetic and unceasing use of them. Such a commitment should be made across the age span. Our children and youth, in particular, can and must also be taken ever deeper into the things of God.
Alongside such instructional opportunities for groups of learners, churches should provide more personal instruction in smaller, and even in one-on-one, settings. In this case leaders will be seeking out and servicing individuals who seem to have a unique call upon their lives, as manifested by an unusual hunger and thirst to go deeper in their study of God’s Word and God’s ways. This is a wise and necessary supplement to larger congregational commitments.
As we envision this further, ongoing training in the Faith we recall that not all our setups ought to be of the schooling variety in the traditional sense. We can learn the Truth in wonderful ways as God’s Word is read and exposited at our gatherings for worship. We will best learn the Life through our experiences in prayer, worship, and evangelistic outreach. We best learn the Way by participating in fellowship and in service of others. But we will still need venues that permit sustained presentation of and significant interaction with the various dimensions of the Faith.
Doctrinal Frameworks for Our Ongoing Catechesis
In order to help with conceiving and designing courses for our ongoing training in the Truth, the Life, and the Way, we offer some possibilities for a doctrinal framework for such instruction. On the following pages, we present three potential configurations.
Framework One
As J.I. writes elsewhere, the key truths in which we must catechize seem to be as follows:
In the Bible, the Gospel is the entire saving plan of God revolving around the Person, place, and power of our Savior Jesus Christ, the incarnate, crucified, risen, reigning, returning Lord. Preaching and teaching the Gospel requires us to show how Jesus Christ relates to every part of God’s plan and how every part of that plan relates to us who are savingly related to the living Christ through faith.9 This means dealing with six main topics.
1. The truth about God. The one God who made and rules everything is revealed as three coequal, coeternal persons in and through his plan of salvation. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who love each other also love us and work together to save us from sin and make us holy. Jesus Christ, the Son of God now and forever incarnate, is at this time Lord over all the powers of evil as he is over every other created reality and is at work through the Holy Spirit building his church by drawing sinners to himself. Any other view of God would be idolatry.
2. The truth about ourselves. We were made for God, to bear his image and be like him in moral character. But sin now controls and spoils us, leading us to defy and deny God so that we need to be brought back to God to be forgiven and remade. Jesus Christ, who brings us back, is himself the model of true godliness. Any other view of him or of us would be deception.
3. The story of God’s kingdom. Step by step, as Scripture tells, God has been working since humanity first went astray to exercise his kingship by establishing his kingdom of redemption in this fallen world. Jesus Christ is now the King and our lives are to be his kingdom at its heart. King Jesus is also appointed to be the world’s Judge, and those who have not bowed to his kingship here will not share his joy hereafter. Trusting, loving, and honoring Jesus and serving others for his sake is the core and center of true godliness. Any other form of religion would be error.
4. The way of salvation. Jesus Christ, our sin bearer on the cross, now from his throne reaches out to rescue us who are lost in the guilt and shame of sin. He calls for faith (trust in him as Savior) and repentance (turning to him as Master). He sends his Holy Spirit to change us so that we hear his call, addressed to us personally, and respond to it wholeheartedly. We are forgiven and accepted (justified), received as God’s children (adopted), moved to rejoice at our peace with him (assurance), and made to realize that now we are living a new life of co-resurrection with Christ in Christ (regeneration). Any lesser view of salvation would be deficient.
5. The life of fellowship. Christians belong in the church, the family of God, sharing its worship, work, witness, and spiritual warfare, and enjoying its worldwide fellowship in Christ. Any lesser view of the Christian calling would be sectarian.
6. Walking home to heaven. Helped by the ministry in the church of word and sacrament, prayer and pastoral care, spiritual gifts and loving support, Christians live in our constantly hostile world as travelers heading for a glorious destination. Praise and worship, personal and corporate, directed to both their heavenly Father and Jesus Christ their heavenly Friend, strengthen them to live in obedience to the divine commands and to endure whatever happens under the divine providence, in undying hope of good things to come. Led and inspired by their Savior through the Holy Spirit, they seek to do all the good they can as they go, and to battle all forms of evil they meet. Any lesser view of the Christian life would be worldly.
Framework Two
Another way of arranging the material is as follows:
1. The authority of Scripture, our true, trustworthy, God-given and Godinterpreted source of knowledge about God in relation to his world and to ourselves as part of it
2. The sovereignty of God in creation, providence, and grace undergirding the reality of our own free and responsible decisions
3. The truth of the Trinity in which all three persons work as a team for our salvation, while yet God is one and remains one; he is they, and they are he
4. The sinfulness of sin, total egocentric perversity of heart leading to total inability to respond to God from the heart, and total unacceptability in God’s sight by reason of the sins to which our sinful hearts have led us
5. The centrality of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, our Mediator and penal substitute, our Prophet, Priest, and King, crucified, risen, reigning, returning; Savior, Lord, and Friend to all who turn to him; our Companion through life, both here and eternally hereafter
6. The graciousness of salvation which is the gift of a new status (reconciliation, justification, adoption) and a new state (regeneration, sanctification, resurrection, and perfection to come), both of which are bestowed by Christ through the Holy Spirit, embraced by faith and repentance, and expressed in a life of worship, prayer, and obedience
7. The power of the Holy Spirit through whom alone faith, repentance, good works, Christian hope, Christian assurance, and Christian love and fellowship become reality
8. The circuitry of communion whereby, through the means of grace, Scripture, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, and the interchanges of Christian fellowship, Christ and the Father come to us in our personal awareness, and the Holy Spirit spurs us to respond to them in devotion, doxology, and permanent practice of the divine Presence in faith, love, hope, and service
9. The mission of the church, which is the international company of Christians who congregate together in local units to worship and work for God. Being the church—that is, doing what the church does—means praise and prayer, preaching and teaching, celebrating the sacraments, practicing discipleship and discipline, spreading the faith worldwide, warring against all forms of evil and unbelief, watching for Christ’s return, and looking forward to the life everlasting in heaven. It also means spending and being spent in outreach—making disciples, founding congregations, impacting communities for Christ, vindicating Christian truth, and opposing public sin and all that dehumanizes.
10. The glory of God, in the twofold sense of the praiseworthiness of God revealed to us in the plan of redemption and the praise we give to God for that revelation, thus beginning to glorify him here as we shall be doing eternally hereafter
Framework Three
Here is a third possible layout:
1. God. (a) God is known through his self-testimony in the canonical Scriptures, which the Holy Spirit interprets to the church. (b) God is the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in unity together (the “they” who are “he”). God is three persons, but tritheism is false. God is one being, but Unitarianism is false. (c) God is the Creator. The created order is distinct from him but dependent on him. Created rational beings are self-determined but providentially overruled. God in sovereignty governs all he has made according to his own will. (d) God is the Restorer. Facing the guilt and alienation of sinful humankind, and cosmic disorder thence resulting, God the Father sent God the Son to take on humanness within his divine identity; to die for human sins, thus making peace; to rise from death to live and reign as our Savior-Lord; and to return to judge the world, perfect his own people, and renew all creation. The Father and the Son now send the Holy Spirit to impart and sustain the life of restored fellowship with God.
2. Humanity. (a) Humans are creatures, made for loving fellowship with and grateful service to their Maker. (b) Humans are sinners, rebels against God and now guilty, defiled, degenerate, and helpless in self-centeredness. (c) Humans are saved through personal repentance toward God, personal trust in Jesus Christ as one’s Savior and Lord, and continuance of both thereafter.
3. Salvation. (a) Salvation is rescue—from sin and Satan. (b) Its tenses are: past—rescue from sin’s guilt and condemnation; present—rescue from sin’s down-dragging power; future—rescue from sin’s presence and perversions. (c) It is a guarantee: God’s promise, warranting, obliging, creating hope.
4. The Christian church. (a) The church is the family of the Father (children and heirs); the body of Christ (ministering units); the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (all alive to God); the community of the (new) covenant (with sacramental signs and seals displaying union with Christ). (b) The calling of the church is worship, work, witness, and spiritual warfare.
5. The Christian life. (a) Its character consists of obeying God (holiness and righteousness; virtue and law-keeping); pleasing God (devotion, adoration, love); and exalting God (thanksgiving, doxology, celebration). (b) Its ethical expression consists of sanctity (consecration, avoiding sin); stewardship (using possessions for God’s cause, and privileges and for God’s glory; and service (in family, church, and state). (c) Love of position for God’s kingdom); the use of powers (creativity in all forms) God (gratitude and admiration) and of neighbor (compassion and desire to help) are the motivations God requires and the Holy Spirit evokes.
Concluding Remarks
These three formulations of the syllabus for the ongoing teaching of sound doctrine are simply offered as examples. No doubt there are many other ways in which this material could be arranged, and all teachers should have liberty to fulfill what is indeed their responsibility, namely to arrange their material in what for them is the most effective way. But in teaching this syllabus, however one presents it, there are three things that must always be kept in view. The presentation must be God-centered, with God as the subject and humanity and ourselves as, so to speak, the predicate throughout. It must be doxological, showing how each action by God reveals his praiseworthiness, and calls for actual praise as well as formal acknowledgment. And it must be practical, bringing out the response God requires to each truth that we teach. All Christian instruction should have this threefold quality. In other words, we must couple to our teaching of the Truth instruction concerning what we have called the Life and the Way. We catechize, then, with concern for doctrine, devotion, and duty. And all is done that our delight in the Lord may grow ever deeper.