Scripture tells us that Christ and the apostles went about preaching and teaching. These activities are similar but yet are not the same. Teaching is not merely telling the truth, but causing another to know the truth. Augustine testified that the wise catechism teacher labored to make sure that his student knew and understood the truth, not merely heard it.

Don't Lecture, Catechise⤒🔗

At this point we should men­tion a difficulty met by some ministers — they tend to preach instead of teach the lesson in class. But lecturing or preaching is not catechis­ing. If we return to the mean­ing of the terms "catechism" and "catechising" we may recapture the effective prac­tice of the Jewish synagogues, the early churches and the Reformation churches.

To catechise originally meant to sound down, to project words towards someone aim­ing to get a response, gauging and measuring the depth and breadth of knowledge and understand­ing. The catechist sends questions as probes into the heart, exposing, unfolding. Well crafted questions open hearts and expand minds.

Tread It In←⤒🔗

Catechising is to teach by question and answer. Although a Roman Catholic John Henry Cardinal Newman under­stood the heart of cate­chising:

Truth, a subtle, invisible,manifold spirit, is poured into the mind of the scholar by his eyes and ears, through his affections, imagination, and reason; it is poured into his mind and is sealed up there in perpetuity, by propounding and repeating it, by ques­tioning and requestioning, by correcting and explaining, by progressing and then recurring to first principles, by all those ways which are implied in the word 'catechising' ... the catechist makes good his ground as he goes, treading in the truth day by day into the ready memory, and wedging and tightening it into the expanding reason.¹

Catechising is to teach by question and answer. Let us review history. Among the Jewish synagogue schools of Christ's day the ability and readiness to ask questions fit­tingly as well as to answer them correctly were deemed an indispensable qualification of a Jewish teacher. In the early church both Origen and Augustine placed the ques­tion and answer method first as an effective means of instruction. Both the Reformers and the Puritans promoted cate­chising, teaching by means of question and answer.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

The New England Puritan preacher Cotton Mather summed it up well: "...if you will be at pains ... to instruct them in the inter­locutory way of teaching, which we call catechis­ing, you have the experience of all ages to make you hope that vast will be the consequence, vast the advantage." ²

Tough Sledding←⤒🔗

As we approach the task of catechising we must be realistic and see that it is a daunting task. The eminent seventeenth century Scottish preacher Samuel Rutherford said, "There is as much art in cate­chising as in anything in the world."³ John Murray, late professor at Westminster Theological Seminary said, "The reason why many people regard catechising as a slight and trifling exercise is that they confuse the practice with the mere rote-work of asking and answering questions in a catechism."⁴

Catechisms, that is, study manuals which set out ques­tions and answers for memory, were primarily and fundamen­tally designed as a help to the practice of catechising, not as a substitute. When catechu­mens memorize answers from the catechism book and when the teacher asks those ques­tions in class, the questioning has only begun. Do they understand what they have memorized? Do they really know the truth? This must be the teacher's passion, and if it is, he will persist in asking questions until his goal is reached.

Catechising then is the work, and although you may certain­ly disagree with Richard Baxter when he said, "I must say that I think it is an easier matter by far to compose and preach a good sermon..."⁵ we must allow that the proper cat­echising of God's children pre­sents far more formidable a challenge than many realize.

As elder and minister I have taught catechism for twenty years, yet consider myself yet far from being a wise catechist. Indeed, when I approach a class of young children, the thought easily hovers in the back of my mind, "They're only kids." But what does Christ tell me? "Take heed that you do not despise these little ones!"

In the next article we'll look at some of the means we can use in catechising. These means include proper prepa­ration by both the catechist and the catechumen, teacher and disciple. Proper prepara­tion requires reading, study and memorization. Class work — catechising in practice — requires questioning the mem­ory work, delving into the understanding, re-questioning, re-phrasing questions, review, review, review, repetition and singing. We will attempt to explore each of those elements in the next chapters and make some practical suggestions that have made catechism joy­ful and fruitful.