Paul wrote the letters we refer to as 1st and 2nd Timothy to his young colleague Timothy, who had been tasked with organizing house churches into functioning congregations. Paul hoped to be there to assist Timothy in person, but just in case he was delayed he wrote: Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the churchof the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:14-15)

Recently, a couple of books and websites have referenced me as a good example of how to exegete and “engage culture” in the task of preaching. They include citations of certain cultural references in my sermons. While I know this is meant as a compliment, for which I am grateful, I also have some concerns about the way this practice has been described. I can easily imagine that some (especially younger) preachers will aspire to imitate the method and miss the underlying principle. 

For years I’ve been haunted by one of John Newton’s letters, which was later titled “Blemishes in Christian Character.” Newton was an 18th century Anglican minister who had once been a slave trader. After a dramatic conversion, he went into the ministry and became one of the wisest and most insightful pastors of his time. His hundreds of pastoral letters are masterful and many are in print to this day.

In the letter I’ve referred to, Newton points out that while most Christians succeed in avoiding the more gross external sins, many nonetheless overlook blemishes on their character by passing them off as mere “foibles.” They “may not seem to violate any express command of Scripture” and yet, they are “properly sinful” because they are the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit that believers are supposed to exhibit.  While our faults always seem small to us due to the natural self-justification of the heart, they often don’t look so small to others. As a result, these “small faults” cause large swaths of the Christian population to have little influence on others for Christ. Newton lists these faults that we tolerate in ourselves, and which do great damage to our public witness as well as to our relationships within the Body of Christ.

First, it is important to understand the purpose of NCC—its goal is to introduce the almost-lost pedagogical method of catechesis to a new generation, and to direct and motivate far more people to study and learn the longer and historic catechisms than are doing so now. There are three features of NCC that we hope will accomplish this. One is its form as a free app. It means that people will be able to study and memorize the catechism within the fabric of their current, overly busy daily lives. It means that pastors and leaders who want to take a group or class or church through it will not need to make any purchases at all, but will only need to work out ways to use the catechism within their church's pathways of discipleship and training. A second feature is the language. We carefully sought to use modern but not colloquial language, seeking to be accessible but also graceful in style, but also harking back and using the style and language of the historic catechisms where possible.