In my previous post on this subject, I outlined how crucial the practice of catechesis is for the church, particularly when it is surrounded by a culture antagonistic to Christian teaching and truth. But, we may ask, “Why write new catechisms? What’s wrong with the older ones?”

After the high tide of the early centuries, the ministry of catechism diminished until the Reformation, when there was literally an explosion of catechism writing. T.F. Torrance edited a book that contains only catechisms that were used widely in the Reformed Churches of Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries, and he provides ten. (See The School of Faith: The Catechisms of the Reformed Church, James Clarke, 1959.) A first thought of a reader of this volume may be, “They all agree on basic doctrine—then why so many?” The answer is in the first lines of Torrance’s introduction: “The Catechisms set forth Christian doctrine at its closest to the mission, life, and growth of the Church from age to age, for they aim to give a comprehensive exposition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of the whole Counsel of God and the whole life of the people of God.”

On October 15, The Gospel Coalition in partnership with Redeemer Presbyterian Church will launch New City Catechism—a joint adult and children's catechism consisting of 52 questions and answers adapted from the Reformation catechisms, available on iPad and online.

The church in western culture today is experiencing a crisis of holiness. To be holy is to be set apart, different, living life according to God’s Word and story, not according to the stories that the world tells us are the meaning of life. The more the culture around us becomes post- and anti-Christian, the more we discover church members in our midst, sitting under sound preaching, yet nonetheless holding half-pagan views of God, truth, and human nature, and in their daily lives using sex, money, and power in very worldly ways. It’s hard to deny what Gary Parrett and J.I. Packer write:

So what did I do on my  summer vacation? I continued to do something that I started January 1 of this year. Late last fall I came upon a plan for reading through all of John Calvin’s Institutes—his four volume, 1500 page or so systematic exposition of the teachings of the Christian faith—in one year. Calvin and Martin Luther together were the two leading lights of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Calvin being the founder of the “Reformed” branch of the church of which Presbyterianism is a major part. Today, however, Calvin has a dismal reputation as a pinched, narrow-minded, cold and cerebral dogmatician. 
 

One reason I wrote my new book Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City is that I believe there is a common misunderstanding of the relationship between doctrine and ministry.

Let me illustrate. A puzzling but common sight today is that many churches share the same doctrinal foundations, yet go about ministry in radically different ways. For example, consider two Presbyterian churches that both subscribe wholeheartedly to the Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms. The first church uses contemporary music and very little discernible liturgy, employs lay ministers to lead meetings and ministries as well as pastors, and deploys the latest marketing and media strategies. The second church operates in almost the opposite way, using classical music, traditional liturgy, and emphasis on the ordained clergy. They also vigorously criticize the methods of the other church as a betrayal of the Reformed faith, and perhaps even of the gospel itself.

This article first appeared in edited form on CNN and is printed below in its entirety.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, the question "Why me?" was a natural one. Later, when I survived but others with the same kind of cancer died, I also had to ask, "Why me?"