Over the past year (and a bit!) we have been working to memorize the New City Catechism with our children and it has been such a blessing to all of our family in so many ways! I thought I’d share with you a bit of our journey with the catechisms and why teaching catechism to children can be an incredible blessing in our families.
I didn’t grow up learning the catechisms or really even knowing they existed. It wasn’t until I had kids that I began seeing fun catechism activities, podcasts, and other resources popping up all over the internet. I began to see the value in them but always went back and forth whether it was worth the amount of time to work through them as a family. I felt like it was going to detract from memorizing scripture together and so I wrestled through whether we should dive in or not. Because, let’s face it, some of the different catechisms take a long time to work through!
Two things changed my mind: I began to understand the purpose of the catechisms and to see the potential benefits of catechism in our hearts and lives. Let’s break these down a bit first and then I will go into what our experience was like teaching catechism to our children.
What is a Catechism?
While this word might sound foreign to many, it is actually a very simple word with a simple meaning once you understand it! I thought John Piper’s definition was helpful:
“the Greek word for “instruct” or “teach” is katecheo. From this word we get our English word “catechize”. It simply means to teach Biblical truth in an orderly way. Generally this is done with questions and answers accompanied by Biblical support and explanation.
John Piper, A Baptist Catechism
Simple, right? The catechism is a systematic teaching based in biblical truth. It is not meant to replace biblical truth but to support it and cause us to meditate on it deeply. It goes hand-in-hand with scripture and puts it all together in an orderly manner to help us to understand it and communicate it.
This was so helpful for me to learn as I made the decision to commit to memorizing them together as a family. Understanding that they are meant to draw us deeper into God’s Word was one key for me in deciding to move forward with them.
For more info on the background of the catechisms, check out the New City Catechism Introduction.
What do you learn in the catechism?
There are many different catechisms depending on your church background, so be sure to look those up, but there is a basic structure used in all of them. Each set of catechisms are in a question and answer format, making it easy to guide discussions as well as use when these questions come up in life.
The main aspects of doctrine are covered in each, just in a bit of a different way. But each of them cover the understanding of the basics of the whole of scripture and the gospel. Specifically, the New City Catechism (which we memorized) covers these topics:
Part 1: God, Creation & Fall, Law
Part 2: Christ, Redemption, Grace
Part 3: Spirit, Restoration, Growing in Grace
Going in depth on these different aspects was incredibly helpful for our family as we discussed questions like: Who is God? What is prayer? How can we glorify God? Who is the Redeemer? What is sin? How can we be saved? What hope does everlasting life hold for us?
So many questions we all have in life and also face in discussions with others! The question and answer format gives words to help us understand these doctrines for ourselves and also to explain them to others. What an incredible foundation it lays for us!
Why is catechism important?
10 Benefits of Catechism
There are so many great reasons why learning, memorizing, and understanding the catechisms are beneficial, but let me share a few that stick out to me.
1. They help us get the larger picture of the meanings of scripture and what we believe.
2. They build the foundations of our faith about what the Bible says and means for us.
3. It brings the whole teaching or counsel of God together in a way we can easily articulate.
4. They are concise explanations of doctrine and what it means to live in God’s Kingdom that are anchored in scripture.
5. They give words to understand and articulate our beliefs to others.
6. They help us to think deeply on truth and discuss it together.
7. They aren’t just for growing in knowledge, but are meant to give us more of a desire for God, His Word, and for Him to transform our hearts. Memorization leads to meditation!
8. They create categories to understand our faith as we grow in knowledge and understanding.
9. They naturally lead to discussion because of the question and answer format.
10. Lastly, they are not just deeply theological, but are highly practical as we work out what it looks like to live a life in worship of God.
That might have been a lot of reasons, but I hope it has convinced you of how helpful they can be to build a strong foundation in our hearts and lives.
How to Teach the Catechism to Children
The New City Catechism for Kids
There are many great resources out there for teaching catechisms to children, but our favorite is the New City Catechism! You can get it for free on their app or website which includes the children’s catechism songs or you can also purchase books and curriculum to go along with them on their site. Here’s the layout of how it works:
- There are 52 questions and answers, which makes it easy to do one for each week of the year! This sounds much more attainable for our family than the over 100 questions and answer of most catechisms, but definitely do your research to which catechism best follows your family’s beliefs!
- A Bible verse to back up each.
- A short commentary to go a little deeper if you’d like. These are great for your own growth and can be great to read with your kids depending on their age.
- A prayer to go along with the topic.
- A song to aid in memorizing each question and answer.
Memorization Tips
Our family took one catechism for each week and spent time memorizing and discussing it each day on our way to school. Another time to do this might be over dinner or before bed. Here’s one way to go about memorizing it:
Day 1: Read the question and answer. Discuss the meaning and read the accompanying verse for deeper biblical understanding. Let it guide you in prayer.
Day 2: Listen to the song a few times and see how much you can say on your own.
Day 3: Ask your kids the question and see if they can get the answer right. Practice by repetition whether with the song or by simply repeating it over and over.
Day 4: Do a little quiz on the meaning. Continue reviewing and discussing how it impacts our lives and relationship with God.
Day 5: Spend time reviewing all the previous ones you have already learned. We did this by letting the kids click on the song and be the ones to choose which ones to review. Our kids loved the songs and they were constantly getting stuck in our heads! What great truths to be singing about all day long!
Repetition, repetition, repetition! Much of the tips I have for this are similar to my post on spending time memorizing God’s Word. The more repetition, the more it permeates your thoughts, heart, and actions throughout the day.
Other Catechism Resources
There are SO many great resources accompanying the different catechisms, but here are a few that we have loved in our family!
- Songs for Saplings: They have great children’s catechism songs based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, plus they have other great scripture to music for kids!
- The Reformed Kidcast: A great podcast of a dad and his kids going through the catechisms together and discussing them. Our kids LOVED this! I talk more about it in my post: Audio Bible Resources for Kids
- Sound Words for Kids: This is an entire curriculum if you want to go deeper or use it for your homeschool Bible curriulum! There are worksheets, coloring sheets, and more to help you dig into these big truths with your kids.
- Reformed Mama– She has TONS of resources for teaching catechism to children. Head to her site to check out her list of resources all in one place.
What impact did memorizing the catechisms have on our family?
I can’t tell you how encouraging the past year was as we memorized each of the 52 New City Catechisms together! I have story after story of how I saw us all grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God. We had so many great discussions about some really hard things that may not have come up in our discussions otherwise. We opened God’s Word together and dug in deeper when things didn’t make since or our kids had more questions.
We also noticed that as we read God’s Word in our family Bible time each night, that a lightbulb would go off as they saw one of the catechisms comes to life in what we were reading. Often, in this time, we’d ask a question about what we were reading and they would respond with some part of a catechism we had learned on the topic. It was really sinking in and was helpful to create a framework for discussing our beliefs together.
I also noticed how often they ended up being weaved into our prayers. One of my favorite memories that helped me press on with memorizing the catechisms was when my daughter spent time praising God in prayer using the answer to the “What is God?” question. This was only question two, so it was early on in memorizing. I was so encouraged to continue on after she prayed the answer saying, “Thank you God that you are ‘the creator of everyone and everything.'”
Not only did I see a big impact in my children’s lives, but it truly made a big impact in my own life. I found myself using the answers when discussing things like “What is prayer?” or “What is faith in Jesus Christ” with those I’m discipling or others in my life. I couldn’t believe how applicable and helpful they were in my daily life! I was also so encouraged as they drove me to the Word as a wonderful supplement to help guide me in understanding. They didn’t distract us from God’s Word, but gave us even more desire to dive in and know His Word deeply.
All in all, I’m so thankful we did this and can’t wait to continue reviewing over the years and seeing how God builds on this foundation! As we continue to firstly read the Bible and discuss that together, I’m thankful for the chance to use this incredible resource that is anchored in scripture to allow the Word to dwell in me richly.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:16-17
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