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Catechism had always been a foreign concept to me. Growing up I had Roman Catholic friends who went through “confirmation” but whose lives showed little or no fruit of spiritual life. Indeed, I only heard complaints from these friends about their dreadfully boring catechism classes. Catechesis was simply not a category in my evangelical upbringing nor was it something I ever felt was a necessity. However, with the passage of time and the knowledge that nothing should be judged by its worst expressions I have come to long for that which my church never offered.

This is why I am thankful for J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett’s new book Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old Fashioned Way. Packer is the dean of contemporary evangelical theology and has authored and edited more than 50 books. Parrett is professor of educational ministry and worship at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

In the 1990s, my first years in vocational ministry, a book explaining the value of and offering strategies for implementing catechesis would have been ignored or even mocked as hopelessly irrelevant. Thankfully, things have changed. Even George Barna, one of the men most responsible for the popularization of pragmatism in the church, is lamenting the lack of biblical literacy and worldview among so-called evangelicals. So it seems that the soil is prepared for such a book as Grounded in the Gospel.

Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old Fashioned Way

Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old Fashioned Way

Baker (2010). 238 pp.

Historically, the church’s ministry of grounding new believers in the essentials of the faith has been known as catechesis—systematic instruction in faith foundations, including what we believe, how we pray and worship, and how we conduct our lives. For most evangelicals today, however, this very idea is an alien concept. Packer and Parrett, concerned for the state of the church, seek to inspire a much needed evangelical course correction. This new book makes the case for a recovery of significant catechesis as a nonnegotiable practice of churches

Baker (2010). 238 pp.

Grounded in the Bible

The authors begin helpfully by explaining the biblical foundations for catechesis. In fact, after reading the first two chapters of Grounded in the Gospel it would be difficult to argue that catechesis is anything less than the biblical norm for making disciples. “Catechesis,” write the authors, “is not concerned with novelty—certainly not in terms of content. It is concerned, rather, with faithfulness in both learning and teaching the things of God” (42).

The author’s agenda is a bold one:

It is our belief that in today’s congregations there is a need to give the same sort of training to a new generation of catechists that we now give to Bible study group leaders and Sunday School teachers. Catechists are teachers whose special task is to ground worshipers of every age in the truths Christians live by and in the ways Christians are to live by those truths. But the attention to the comparable value of catechesis—truth-in-life study, as we may fairly call it—is not appreciated; indeed, attention to doctrine is sometimes actually avoided, lest it induce contention and coldheartedness and thereby diminish devotional ardor.

Here is our starting point. In the following chapters we shall seek to correct this imbalance, showing catechesis to be complementary to, and of no less value than, Bible study, expository preaching, and other formational ministries, and urging upon our readers that congregational strategy must find room for this biblically based and historically affirmed ministry if full spiritual health among the faithful is to be advanced. And we shall offer suggestions for implementing this insight. (17)

Models of Cathechesis

So, where ought we turn for worthy models of and adequate content for catechesis? In chapter four Packer and Parrett present “sources and resources for catechetical ministry.” They suggest a model organized in a simple numeric pattern: 5-4-3-2-1:

5—The Five Founts: Triune God, Scripture, the Story, the Gospel, the Faith

4—Four Fixtures: Creed / Lord’s Prayer / Decalogue / Sacraments

3—Three Facets: The Truth / The Life / The Way

2—Two Fundamentals of the Way: Love of God / Love of Neighbor

1—One Focus: Proclaim Christ

Following an explanation of each of the elements of the fivefold pattern the authors demonstrate how Jesus Christ is the axis point of the pattern itself.

After establishing the Christo-centricity of catechesis the authors seek to establish the Gospel-centricity of the same. The Gospel is the proclamation of particular truths concerning the work of Christ. Specifically, the Gospel is the proclamation of Jesus’ death in the place of sinners and His victorious resurrection. Further, the Gospel is a message that demands a response, namely repentance from sin and faith in Jesus as both Lord and Christ. “Thus,” the authors argue, “the Gospel, which is the kerygma of the church, is also the heart of the didache as well” (96). It is in the function of didache that the Gospel becomes “fully dressed” (p. 99). That is, it is in the application of the Gospel that the fullness of its implications are brought to bear upon the lives of the catechumens. Along the way Packer and Parrett include brief but helpful responses to the emergent church and its reduction of the gospel to its implications and the New Perspective and its challenges to justification and imputation (99–107).

In chapter nine the authors present a catechetical framework of the “Three Facets” (The Truth, The Way, and The Life) and “Three Phases” (Procatechesis, Catechesis, and Ongoing catechesis). The framework is intended to serve as a “model for configuring and implementing ministries of catechesis in evangelical churches today” (165). Here they interact with issues of “spiritual development and cultural sensitivity” that they addressed in chapters seven and eight. Further, the authors interact with various educational processes and practices.

Finally, in chapter ten Packer and Parrett offer practical suggestions for introducing catechesis into contemporary congregations. They arrange a strategy for championing catechesis under seven “essentials”:

1. Clarity of Concept

2. Conviction regarding Content

3. Comprehensiveness of Concern

4. Confrontation of Counterfeits

5. A compelling Continuity

6. Cultivation of Catechists

7. Commitment to the Cause

Each of the seven essentials are supported by a series of questions and answers such as “Are congregants clear about the nature of Christian catechesis?” and “What do we as a church community consider to be essential content?”

Packer and Parrett move from history to explanation to application in their vision to see catechesis restored to the body of Christ. Anyone would benefit from reading Grounded in the Gospel for this is no dry exercise in educational theory within the church. Rather it is a thoroughly informed and passionate plea to fully comprehend the essence and faithfully apply the implications of the Gospel. Pastors, elders, and parents will benefit especially from the vision and strategy of this timely and important book.

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