Before leaving this earth, Jesus commissioned his apostles: “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). As one pastor has put it, “We are doing a pretty good job of baptizing people, but we are falling short in our obligation for teaching them to obey everything that the Lord commanded.” Catechesis is the ancient practice of instruction in “the basic teaching ...
Before leaving this earth, Jesus commissioned his apostles: “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). As one pastor has put it, “We are doing a pretty good job of baptizing people, but we are falling short in our obligation for teaching them to obey everything that the Lord commanded.”
Catechesis is the ancient practice of instruction in “the basic teaching of Christ” (Heb 6:1-2). It has historic roots in the claim by Tertullian of Carthage that Christians “are made, not born.” Instruction in these elemental matters is critical to ensuring that the faith is faithfully handed on to faithful followers of Christ (2 Tim 2:2).
In this workshop, participants will learn how for centuries Christians passed on the basic teaching of Christ, and explore how retrieving the lost practice of catechesis might equip the church to be more faithful and effective in following the call to make disciples. Pastors, teachers, catechists, parents and others interested in learning more about catechesis are especially welcome.
Resource: Curtis W. Freeman, Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teaching of Christ. Fortress Press, 2021.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Curtis Freeman (Duke Divinity School)
Dr. Curtis W. Freeman is Research Professor of Theology and Baptist Studies and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, and a Research Fellow with the IRCC. His research and teaching explores areas of Free Church theology.
His most recent book, Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teachings of Christ (Fortress, 2021) is a work of catechetical instruction written as a series of letters providing instruction in the basic teaching of Christ (read an IRCC review here). He is also the author of Undomesticated Dissent: Democracy and the Public Virtue of Religious Noncomformity (Baylor University Press, 2017), Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists (Baylor University Press, 2014), A Company of Women Preachers: Baptist Prophetesses in Seventeenth-Century England (Baylor University Press, 2011), and Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People (Judson Press, 1999). He is an ordained Baptist minister and serves as editor of the American Baptist Quarterly and serves on the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity.
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