Why Learn a Christian Catechism? (Part Twelve)

I hope you have found our series about Christian catechisms helpful. We started this project almost three years ago for the purpose of helping parents teach solid biblical doctrine to their children.

For Our Children

I believe that Bible study – every Book, every Chapter, every Verse – is the best way to learn Christian teaching. However, I’ve worked with teens and young adults for more than 50 years and know how challenging that can be for them. Christian catechisms are one method of bringing basic Bible truths to young people.

By no means do I recommend Christian catechisms as a method to replace serious Bible study. A lifetime of Bible reading and study, especially from the original languages and under the influence and assistance of the Holy Spirit, is the best recommendation I can give you. However, especially for children, some type of interaction with their parents through oral instruction can be most helpful. As your children get older you can introduce them to a deeper study of God’s Word, rightly divided.

Most catechisms include the Bible verses that support the teachings. Parents can supplement their child’s experience with catechisms by reading those Bible verses along with memorizing them. In addition to reading the verses, parents can explain the context to enrich their child’s experience with God’s Word.

Children have a unique ability to remember things that are important to them, especially those things that are also important to their parents. Adults often remark about things they remember their parents saying or doing with them when they were young. Teaching the Bible through a loving and fun process can be an experience your children will remember and cherish all of their lives.

You may not find a Christian catechism to your liking. That’s okay. However, what’s not okay in my opinion is doing little or nothing to teach your children the basics of Christianity. Why? Because young children are curious. They have questions and they would like answers from the people they trust most – their parents. Unfortunately, many teens from Christian families don’t get answers to their questions and walk away from belief in Christ.

I did that as a teenager and eventually became an atheist. Thanks to God’s Grace, I got answers to my questions years later and became a Christian. I worked with college-age young people for more than 50 years and saw how desperately they were searching for answers to their serious questions. Based on my experience, I knew that Christianity had the answers to their questions.

Whose Job Is It?

Many parents have told me that they believe taking their children to church should be enough. It’s the church’s job, they said, to teach and disciple their children. Well, let me share something that may surprise you. One of the reasons young people leave church as young adults is because of their experience in church. A large number say church is “shallow.”

In a Barna survey from more than a decade ago, 31% of respondents said “church is boring.” 24% said that “faith is not relevant to my career or interests.” 23% said that “the Bible is not taught clearly or often enough.” 20% said that “God seems missing from my experience of church.” Keep in mind that these respondents are young people who were regular churchgoers during their teen years. Many disconnected from church life after the age of 15. Those numbers have only gotten worse since the survey and we are now at a point where at least seven out of ten (70%) of teens and young adults with a Christian background are dropping out of church. The real number may be even higher because so many young people who still attend church have adopted a ‘cultural’ Christianity that isn’t the real thing.

What the research tells us may be even more concerning for Protestant churches: there was nothing about the church experience or faith foundation of those teenagers that caused them to seek out a connection to a local church once they entered a new phase of life. The time they spent with activity in church was simply replaced by something else. Lifeway Research

Think about that for a minute – at least 70%. That means you can look at almost every church youth group across the country and know that 70% or more of those young people will drop out of church. Some drop out in high school (like I did). Others will drop out within one to two years after high school. Only a small number of those who walk away will ever return to attending church. Those that do will return only to bring their children to church. They often remain ‘nominal’ or ‘cultural’ in their beliefs about Christ.

You may be the parent of a teen or young adult who has walked away from their belief in Christ. If you are, you know the pain that causes a family. If you haven’t experienced that in your family, I pray it doesn’t happen to you. However, if I may be so bold to say, prayer is not enough. I’ve talked with so many parents who say they are praying for their “wayward” or “backslidden” child. After asking them some questions about how they raised their kids, what I often hear is a parent thinking that taking their kids to church was enough. It’s not. It never was enough and is certainly not enough in today’s secular world.

Young people are leaving belief in Christ at faster rates every year. It has, in my opinion, become a type of spiritual crisis. I worked on college campuses and talked with Christian and non-Christian students for many years and heard the same thing. Many Christian churches and families have failed in their responsibility to lead young people to Christ and disciple them. I know that’s hard to hear, but I can’t sugarcoat something this serious.

Facing the Challenge

We are losing our children to the world! Let me repeat that. We are losing our children to the world!

If you wonder whether that’s true or not, do the research. Look at your own church. What’s happened to the children who grew up in your church? Where are they now? Are they following Christ? Are they raising their own children to follow the Lord? Or have they drifted away from faith?

Some young people go through a process of spiritually deconstructing. Many of them de-convert. That’s sad for them, their families, and the churches where they grew up. It’s hard for parents to accept that after spending 16-18 years raising your child to follow Christ, they turn away and walk toward the world. I’ve talked to so many parents about their grief. They pray that God will bring their child back to faith in Christ.

We must face this challenge head on! Losing 70% of our children to the ways of the world is not acceptable. This is not what God called us to do as Christian parents and church leaders. Let me conclude this series with what God expects from all of us.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:3-5

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 6:6-8

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:1-4

May God bless you and your family is our hope and prayer.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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