When I came across Shai Linne’s Jesus Kids album, I wasn’t expecting my two-year-old daughter’s favorite song to be “Catechism Interlude 1.”
I assumed it might be the song that names all the people from Bible stories or even the one that sings the Lord’s Prayer. But one weekday shortly after I laid her down to nap, I heard her little voice reciting questions and answers about the nature of God. Though her words were unintelligible to anyone but me, I knew exactly what she was trying to say (or more specifically, trying to rap).
Over the next several weeks, we listened to the song on repeat, and I eventually memorized the words too. After that, I started asking her the song’s questions, sometimes in order and sometimes not. She always knew the answers—answers to questions I still struggled to answer concisely. Suddenly, much of her language about theology was stronger than mine had been in the first three decades of my life. And she hadn’t even completed the first three years of hers.
Born and raised a Southern Baptist, I had never thought much of the word catechism until stumbling across this album. However, discovering those songs and my daughter’s amazing toddler ability to quickly memorize changed the way my husband and I approached family discipleship. We were finding fun ways to catechize her constantly through songs, books, and dinner-table discussions. Then, we started with our one-year-old son as soon as he began talking.
One night, my husband said something I’ll never forget: “As a kid, I was memorizing everything too: sports facts, lines from my favorite TV shows, and more. Someone is always catechizing kids. So why aren’t Christians jumping to be the first?”
A catechism can be defined as “a manual of religious instruction usually arranged in the form of questions and answers used to instruct the young, to win converts, and to testify to the faith.” The church has a rich history of catechism, but the word entered the vernacular in the 15th century. Early catechism-like instruction included the Apostles’ Creed, Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, and Calvin’s catechism.
But the use of catechisms didn’t stop there, as many faith traditions continued to use them in later centuries. Take, for example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Westminster Shorter Catechism, The Heidelberg Catechism, and even one of the most recent used in many evangelical churches today, The New City Catechism.
To my husband’s point, the world is thoroughly catechizing our children in one way or another. But surmising from a study from Pew Research Center, our current catechisms—the things our children are memorizing that shape the way they see the world—aren’t producing disciples of Jesus.
It may not be through questions and answers, but our children’s worldviews are being shaped by songs and sayings they encounter daily. Our son, who watches his favorite hero-dog-themed TV show only on rare occasions, can tell you almost everything about it. His mind is a sponge, and now more than ever, there is always something new to learn.
Pew confirms what we see around us: Not as many 18-to-29-year-olds consider themselves religious—much less Christian—though more than 70 percent of adults over age 50 would say they believe in some kind of a God or higher power. Additionally, the latest State of Theology survey from Lifeway Research and Ligonier Ministries found several troubling trends among evangelicals, including the beliefs that God changes, people are born innocent, and the Bible was not divinely authored.
In a cultural context where we can’t (and shouldn’t) expect the world to pepper our children’s minds with truth, parents and church communities can help the youngest, freshest minds in our communities memorize doctrine that could change the trajectory of the next generation’s theology and perhaps even revive a generation for the gospel. Followers of God have a storied history of using memorization to strengthen theology. When we catechize our children with solid, orthodox doctrine, we give them a foundation for faith, lean into their tendency to ask questions, and help them rehearse the gospel story.
My daughter can answer a few questions I’ve known adults who cannot answer: “Is there more than one God?” No, there is only one God. He is three persons. “Who are the three persons of God?” God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These are from my toddler theology book. Now, does my daughter understand the complexities of the Trinity? Of course not. (Although I’m convinced that children who don’t worry about those complexities are better off than many adults who do.)
But prayerfully, when the Holy Spirit ignites in my daughter’s heart and beckons her to follow Jesus, she will already have language to describe what’s happening. While memorizing questions and answers about theology doesn’t ensure that a child will grow up to love God, these questions can do two foundational things: be used by the Holy Spirit to drench kids’ hearts in gospel truths and give them a starting place to dive deeper into the knowledge of God.
Catechism also leans into a child’s natural tendency to ask questions. Anyone who has spent any amount of time around a child knows that a big way children make sense of the world is by asking questions. When we teach our kids the core truths found in God’s Word through a question-and-answer format, we meet them at their level and communicate in their language. We let them know their inclination to ask about God is good—and there are answers which have stood the test of time.
There will come a time when children begin asking questions about God of their own accord—ones we haven’t introduced them to. And while not every answer can be found in your favorite set of catechism questions, many of them are. “Why did God make people?” To know him, love him, and glorify him. “Why was it necessary for Christ to die?” Because only his death could bring us back to God. “How do we pray?” Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy …
The answers may not fully satisfy the curiosity of everyone reciting them, but again, they provide a starting place and remind kids that asking questions about God and bringing them to him is a good and helpful practice.
Lastly, catechism helps children rehearse the gospel story. There’s nothing more nerve-racking than being in a small group or Sunday school class when the leader asks everyone to find a partner and practice sharing the gospel. We have thoughts like What if I miss something or do something wrong? We rack our minds to pull up every part of the gospel story we can remember in that moment.
Instead, what a gift it will be to our children if, when it comes time for them to share the gospel with their friends or whenever they just need to be reminded of it themselves, it’s already embedded in their minds. “Who created the world and why?” “How did sin enter the world, and who is the only one who can save humanity from that sin?” How precious it will be for them to instinctively remember, through the words written on their hearts, how the gospel unfolded and what it means for them.
When God instructed the Israelites on his most important commands, he said this:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut. 6:4–9)
Since Israel’s early history, God has been calling his people to impress his commandments on the next generation in everyday life, providing structured, memorable ways of teaching children the truths of Scripture. Just as these words encourage repetition and visible reminders of God’s Word, catechisms train young hearts and minds to know and love God and his Word, anchoring children in truths from the earliest age.
So how and where should we start?
The first place children will come into contact with the church as the family of God is through their parent’s own faith—which means our homes are the best place for us to begin. Parents can help their children learn catechisms by weaving them into fun, daily rhythms. Perhaps that’s through catechisms found in books or The New City Catechism, which anyone can access through the app. Bring catechisms to your breakfast or dinner table. Blast them from a stereo in your home if that’s what resonates with your kids. Make it a game, not an assignment. And then watch your child’s mind take hold of truth.
At some point, there will be follow-up questions. Children will wonder, for instance, why God couldn’t have made another way for people to be saved without Jesus having to die. Your child may double-click on the whole “one God, three persons” thing. And if you don’t have an answer as clear and concise as your favorite catechism, you can wrestle through it with your kids. Set out together to find the answers in Scripture and the writings of past saints who have wrestled with the very same questions. Then praise God that you have created a secure environment where your children can bring up those questions—that you’re opening the door for their natural curiosity in the safety of your home.
Finally, local churches can utilize catechisms in their liturgy, classes, and small groups. Churches can consider weaving questions and answers into particular sermon series and encourage members, including children, to answer the questions aloud together. Perhaps the church can give catechism books to families when they dedicate their children or when their children are baptized. Sunday school classes could commit to learning one question and answer each month—and as kids get older, they can join their parents in small groups to learn catechisms together.
No matter how catechisms fit best into a family’s or local church’s rhythm, commitment to teaching kids orthodox theology is an act of joining with the Holy Spirit as he counsels God’s people. For as Jesus said, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26).
My daughter is now six, and like many kids her age, she is a question-asking machine. When we started our catechizing journey, we had no idea how it would affect her discipleship. We still don’t know the end of that story. But there is a foundation to her questions, a knowledge she holds, that she wouldn’t have if it weren’t for faithful saints—those like Shai Linne—who have constructed catechisms for her mind to memorize and, more importantly, for her heart to hold.
Lauren Groves is the acquisitions editor of Lifeway’s B&H Kids. She has authored several books for kids and teens, including New Year, New You, Easter Changes Everything, and Hey Friend, and is the creator of a series of catechism board books called Toddler Theology.
