[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]
On Sunday, December 11, one of our church elders, Brian Gross, will guide us in our combined adult Sunday School discipleship class. He will walk through in detail, the reason for Christian confessions of faith and catechisms, why they have historically been used by nearly all denominations of believers, and how they can play a vital role in spiritual growth for us today.
I hope we will have to bring in extra chairs for that gathering in Room 4, which will be an excellent complement to this blog about our plan for churchwide daily devotional growth in 2023. In the more recent past we have used Starr Meade’s book (with a blue cover) on the Westminster Catechism. This year, we will engage with her book on the Heidelberg Catechism. Find it online here. Both come from the historic Reformed Christian framework. It is certainly notable to see how detached from our Christian heritage we are as believers, when the knee-jerk reaction most of us have to the word “catechism” is either suspicion or ambivalence, rather than interest and confidence.
I realize both Brian and I have our work cut out for us to make the case. For my part, I simply want to ask a few questions… with no requirement to make a digital show of hands! ha
- Who was chomping at the bit at the end of 2021 when our church shared the Read Thru the Bible plan for 2022? Probably not many of us. Who dove into it for at least part of the year, and maybe all of it, and found growth in God’s Word that you would not have enjoyed otherwise?
- Who thinks selecting our own personally preferred method of spiritual growth or devotional reading each year might involve some “selection bias” and actually leave us missing the challenge and encouragement of spiritual truths we might not normally seek ourselves?
- Who thinks our contemporary church, including pastors like me, and other leaders and authors, might have on cultural blinders and therefore we could benefit from voices from another era (the 1500-1600s for instance)? The “clean sea breeze,” as CS Lewis described reading from other centuries than our own?
- Which moms and dads in our church would love to have a resource you can keep by the dinner table and easily pick up 1, 3 or 7 nights a week, as time allows, and know that you will have meaningful discussion material to guide your children? Or have an $11.45 tool you can put in your child’s hand, of reading age, and challenge that child to read on their own one catechism question a week and one paragraph of commentary per day?
- Who wants to have a richer Sunday worship experience, not just buoyed by the general daily prayer and devotional pursuits of our congregation members, but even better, united by reading during Sunday worship one catechism question and answer each week, as a sort of churchwide spiritual theme for the week?
One might call all of those questions “loaded,” or “leading” and indeed they are. I’ll close with this, the Gospel is a message of grace from top to bottom. We are not saved by our daily reading pace or content or accomplishment… but we grow spiritually by means of grace and all believers should want to “Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever” (that’s a catechism question answer! Sneaky!). When we pursue the means of grace and help direct our family to do the same, we will grow.
You will hear me and others announce in the coming weeks plenty of times the Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds book. We know it will be tough in the midst of the busy Christmas and New Year’s season to remember to prepare to start this journey in January.
Would you take the following simple steps:
- If you are married, talk to your spouse about a plan as individuals or together to participate in this journey in the new year? And if you have kiddos, to talk with them about how you want them to participate?
- Would you get the book (and however many additional copies are needed for your household)? For the cost of one meal out, you can help your family learn to be spiritual self-feeders all year long.
- Would you pick up a copy of the schedule for the readings and make a note on whatever calendar system you use for your life planning, to begin the journey January 1? (actually Jan 2 cause that is our first Sunday)
