Jeremy Carr, a pastor in Oxford, Ohio, shares why doing a catechism with young children is a great way to teach them the central truths of the faith.
A few months back, Michelle suggested that we use a children’s catechism to help train our girls. I didn’t grow up in a faith tradition that used catechism, but I was okay with trying something new as we had already read through a number of children’s Bibles. To summarize the experience: it has been great. We have been doing the “questions,” as my girls call them, for a couple months now. They know about 45 of them, and we have 5 left to go.
The great thing about doing this with my girls is that they learn the essential truths of the Scriptures in a story-type format. This spawns all sorts of questions in their minds. One of my favorite conversations was after going through this set of questions:
17. What was Adam like at creation? He was good.
18. Did Adam remain good? No, he sinned.
19. What is sin? Disobedience to God’s law.
20. What is the penalty for sin? Death.
21. What came of Adam’s sin? Death came to all people.
There rest here.
