Catechism is a painful ritual and procedure for most devout young Catholics. It’s a list of well over a hundred questions. Each question had an answer and a verse or two to support the answer. Good catholic boys and girls memorized all these answers and sometimes the verses as well. For most, it’s a lifeless ritual, a shell of religiosity.

However, when I saw this, my spirit starting doing back flips. What I saw was good and solid theology. In many ways, catechism is the basics of the faith, theology boiled down to the key components. I started asking myself, “how can in incorporate this into my ministry? How can I get this into the hearts of the kids?” I see so many kids who know a lot of the Bible stories, but they don’t have a healthy and holistic understanding of good doctrine. Yes, a relationship with Jesus is vital. However, so is good theology. When life get’s messy, understanding God’s nature will go a long way in keeping that friendship strong.

Yeah, theology is taught all through our curriculum, but it’s rarely intentional.

Is this ever a concern for you? How do you incorporate good doctrine and theology into your ministry?

By the way, catholics are not the only ones with catechism. Several denominatons have their own. Here is the Baptist Catechism from the year 1813. Gotta love the baptists!