Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

Posts Tagged ‘Catechesis’

One question our Synod has fielded in the past is “Why the Heidelberg Catechism?”.

As our Synodical work progresses, we will be issuing a revision of the Heidelberg Catechism adapted for our own use. But why not begin de novo?

Hopefully our introduction we provide to a work on the Heidelberg helps answer that question.

The Heidelberg Catechism reflects the fruit not only of that generation but represents a crystallization of thought within the Western Christian tradition itself. It stands as witness to the “Catholicity” of the doctrine of Justification by Faith available to all those who find their hope in Jesus Christ alone through faith alone. In our day of increasingly “churchless” Christianity, the Catechism also bears witness to a paradigm for the Christian life that emerges from the Baptismal Covenant.

With Baptism as the starting point, our faith resides in the objective promise of God through the Church (the Body of Christ in its witness). The other alternative is that we are left disastrously to the subjective experience of the autonomous individual who considers himself free to interpret the Bible however he may will and yet claim to be a “Christian”. In other words, the Heidelberg stands as document that connects the primitive catholic tradition with the challenges of our own day.

For these reasons, our Synod builds upon this classic symbol of the faithful and hopes with it to forge a new Reformed and Evangelical consensus. We pray that such a consensus results in a vibrant contemporary mission and ministry for this day and age.

St. Andrew’s Church is the Episcopal Base of Bishop Chuck Huckaby.

Here is a document provided people who attend St. Andrew’s Church to describe the church’s – and this synod’s – vision for discipleship. Local pastors are free to express this in their own words as we see here, but all share these common concerns:

Making Disciples At St. Andrew’s Church

“Catechesis” (whether it’s called that or not) is anything we do to transmit the Christian faith from one person to another! Teaching the Christian faith to others and making disciples is what Jesus told us to do in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and what Pastors and mature Christians are required to do when planting a church according to St. Paul (2 Tim. 2:2; Titus 2:3-5). It’s our duty to teach the Lord’s Word wherever we are and go (Deut 6:4-7).

It is the Pastor’s duty to see that the saints of God are equipped to fulfill these commands (Eph. 4: 11-16). Here are the four corporate ways I plan to do that in St. Andrew’s Church: through Worship, Structured Bible Reading, the Catechism and the Psalms.

A. Our Worship is structured to teach us how to live the Christian Life… To enter God’s Presence humbly and with praise, to repent of our sins, to hear God’s promise of forgiveness, to reverently hear the Word of God, to confess the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in all our lives, to move from hearing God’s Word, to prayer, then offering ourselves to Christ and being fed and transformed by Him – and then being sent out into the World on mission.

B. Structured Bible Reading in worship means that as God’s People we will seek to read large amounts of God’s Word weekly and specifically cover the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ. My preaching will aim to help us be conformed to Christ’s Image (Rom. 8: 29) and to encourage us by God’s grace to present our bodies to Him as living sacrifices in response to His Lordship (Rom. 12:1,2). This method focuses on the story line of the Bible.

C. Catechism is a way to train Christians by way of question and answer. This method is slightly different than the catechism involved in reading the Bible’s narrative of Christ’s Life. It focuses on a summary of the Bible as a whole and “doctrine” instead of Bible stories. Ultimately we have to systematize the stories of the Bible into our doctrine. The catechism we will use focuses on the essentials of the Christian Life: Sin, Salvation, and Christian Living and the 10 Commandments, Apostle’s Creed, and Lord’s Prayer.

D. The Psalms composed the original hymn book of the Church but have been pushed out of our praise and worship. We will, by God’s grace both read the Psalms and learn how to sing God’s inspired hymns as part of our worship so that we can encourage “one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” Eph. 5:19.