The children I serve often ask amazing questions, like “What language did Adam and Eve speak?” and “Where are the 10 Commandments now?” Some families have started encouraging their curious kids to write these questions in a journal to discuss during family dinners on Fridays. This reminds me of the TV show Kids Say the Darndest Things, which holds a special place in my memories.

Throughout history, Christians have used questions and answers to teach the Christian faith through a method called catechism. The word comes from the Greek katecheo, meaning “to instruct” or “to teach.” Catechisms provide a clear summary of a church’s teachings, often in a question-and-answer format, to help people of all ages understand the essentials of the Christian faith. This practice dates back as early as Augustine (AD 353–430) and is experiencing a revival today—and I’m all for it!

“Questions are natural ways to find out the basic answers to life. Questions are also an essential part of growing in your faith. They help us discover the mysteries of our faith. They are how we learn, grow, and ultimately come to believe. Once you stop asking questions, you stop learning, growing, and believing.” ~ Dr. Winfield Bevins, Grow At Home: A Beginner’s Guide to Family Discipleship

Catechisms are a proven way to teach littles and bigs about their faith in a simple, engaging format. They help families learn together at home and provide a way to love God with not just our hearts but also our minds.

When the Global Methodist Church launched in 2022, I was thrilled to see their partnership with Seedbed publishers to produce A Catechism of Christian Faith and Doctrine for the Global Methodist Church. This 32-page booklet uses a question-and-answer format, includes scripture references, and is perfect for all ages. In our church, we use it in New Member Classes, weekly worship services, and as a resource on our information table.

Rev. Jeffrey Rickman shares on his PlainSpoken podcast a precious model for teaching a catechism for the Global Methodist Christian faith with his 7-year-old daughter in several episodes. These are absolutely delightful!

Many catechisms are affordable and convenient for families to use during car rides, while waiting at appointments, or during family worship times. However, it’s important to ensure the catechism aligns with your church’s theology. I learned this firsthand after ordering what seemed like the perfect nursery Christmas gifts, only to find they didn’t match Wesleyan theology. Thankfully, Amazon’s return policy saved the day!

Catechisms are making a comeback and offer solid teaching of the basics of our Christian faith. As we embark on prioritizing apologetics (equipping to defend your Christian faith) and promoting a Biblical worldview a catechism system of questions and answers make for incredible discussions for disciples of all ages and stages. 

What are the resources your church offers to families to teach and equip to defend the Christian faith?

“I am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times.” – Charles Spurgeon

Little people can make the traditional Christmas season gingerbread house OR we can get our “Jesus is the reason for the season” on and do a little something different: edible gingerbread nativities. 

Prepare ahead of time to line a lid or box bottom of some kind with a low edge with aluminum foil.

Prepare the ‘glue’ for the graham cracker stable the day of, put in cups with craft sticks:
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tbl meringue powder
5 tsp water (more until desired consistency)

Must haves for decorating:
Mini M&Ms for a pop of color
Mini candy canes
Gum drops
Animal crackers
Fruit tape
Raisins/chocolate chips
Star, ginger people, cookies
Jumbo shredded wheat blocks
Coconut (mixed with shredded wheat for hay)
Pretzel sticks/star pretzels
Marshmallows – mini & large

When all the decorating is finished, top it off with a good crunching of a Shredded Wheat bar and a sprinkling of coconut all over it for hay.

We’ll save this for the Sunday morning before Christmas and follow it up with a Christmas right-left game with Mini Christmas Squishmallows I picked up at Costco though I typically use crazy-flavored candy canes.

What are the ways you’ll tell the Christmas story this Advent?

“You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.” Psalm 128:2

Spirit & Truth is a global movement helping local churches experience renewal in purpose through faith, the Holy Spirit, and living intentionally to make disciples of Jesus. My church partnered with four others to bring this weekend conference to North Georgia, and as someone who loves collaborative ministry, it was incredible to see us work together on this meaningful event.

Friday Evening: Worship and Word
We began Friday night with worship and a fresh message shared by a young woman in her twenties who spoke about the power of staying close to Jesus. She walked us through Mark 14, reminding us that “we are a peculiar people.” Several youth attended with their parents, which made it a particularly inspiring start.

Saturday: Teaching, Listening, and Going Out
Saturday morning involved a session on listening to the Holy Spirit, followed by an exercise in listening.

It was on Saturday afternoon we were taught then sent out in groups of three or four to share our faith through prayer (Jesus never sent out His disciples alone, but in groups of two, three, or up to seventy) in our own community. And no one died. Really. By being available and obedient to love my neighbor through prayer we asked, “I know this may sound off the wall, but is there something I can pray about for you?” And no one died. Really.

My team of four headed for Dairy Queen in our downtown area. In full transparency, I didn’t even know there was a Dairy Queen downtown. Now I do. And now I know about the folks who work there. Within the forty minutes we were there, we ordered some sweet goodness, prayed for a family in a car and just about every staff person on the line, including the manager. As we left the manager invited us to come back in a couple of hours to pray over the next shift.

Stories of Connection
One introverted team member, wearing a church name tag, even had someone approach him to ask for prayer, proving that visible signs of faith—like a simple T-shirt—can begin a conversation and prompt to pray. God’s tenderness showed up, encouraging us all to trust and obey in new ways.

A Weekend of Worship and Testimony
Saturday night ended with a worship service of gratitude and thanksgiving. Pastor Matt shared the message on Sunday morning leading with several telling the stories of God’s people being taught then practicing what it looks like to live on mission of making disciples of Jesus all day, every day.

Teaching Confirmation: The Wesleyan Way
This weekend, I’ll wrap up our Confirmation class, moving from “The Absolute Basics of Christian Faith” to finish with “The Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way.” I’ll be answering the question, “What do Wesleyans do?” Even 8th & 9th graders know the internal and external practices of the faith through holy habits and community. But what really sets Wesleyans apart?

The Wesleyan way of holiness isn’t meant to be traveled alone, because our relationship to one another is connected with our relationship to God. The Wesleyan way is a way of friendship: building friendships centered on common love, worship, and service to God. When Methodism started out, it wasn’t a new church. It was a group of church-going Christians seeking to grow closer to God through fellowship. They were a group of friends. (pg 68-69).

A Methodist Method

May we be faithful in making friends wherever we go, even if it’s just offering to return someone’s shopping cart and asking if we can pray for them—a simple yet powerful way to live out our faith in the Methodist tradition.

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23

Family Ministry involves the discipleship, care, and resourcing of families of all ages and all stages to love Jesus with their whole hearts for their whole lives in Christian community. It’s not just the developmental stages either. Life happens. Challenges come from all directions to distract and attack the family which is the nurturing vehicle for littles and bigs to become more like Jesus. Challenges like addiction, facing infertility, prodigal children, a difficult marriage, family finances, raising a child with special needs, empty nest, exploring adoption/foster care, your child’s schooling options, hoping to marry, and more.

At the 2024 Children’s Pastors Conference, I discovered a fantastic tool for families: Homepointe. Homepointe is an equipping resource from a Biblical worldview. The pieces I saw came in a hardcopy and digital format to help families drive faith home as children aged as well as equipping ideas for celebrating holidays.

The Homepointe strategy is to set the table for intentionality to fulfil the Deuteronomy 6 call to family discipleship by making it easy, likely, and making it happen.

Last summer I learned the team who designed the resources partnered with D6 to include resources for special circumstances. Special circumstances families face every day where the local church with trained pastoral direction should be the ‘go-to’ for navigating well, but typically don’t. Jesus is the answer to all the world’s ‘special circumstances’. The Holy Bible is the basis for walking through all ‘special circumstances’ because there is nothing new under the sun.

Our local church has partnered with Homepointe to equip our congregation for both the joyful moments and the tough times. We also see this as a tool to help us begin meaningful, faith-centered conversations with people we already know—our extended family, coworkers, and people we interact with regularly (like hairdressers, medical staff, and childcare providers).

We spoke about the Homepointe partnership during the Christian to the Core: Family sermon series a couple of months ago. Last Sunday we rolled out the Homepointe partnership at an after-church picnic.

The printed resources are digitally provided which can be customized with your logo and space to offer connection through a QR code for the website and more. The printed resources for birthdays can be purchased separately since there is much more to share to make it super easy to roll out as our littles celebrate specific birthdays. We did this, too. We’ll start with the beginning of the church liturgical year, Advent.

Find out more information here or contact me directly. I receive no financial benefit. Homepointe is just a really great resource to guide us to disciple, care, and resource our families through life with Jesus at the center. D6 provides a free assessment your local church can use to aid families to know from where they’re starting here.

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:10