Catechesis and Evangelization

Growth by Faithfulness to the Historical Theology of Christ’s Church

The Church Situation Today

Today’s Church setting is increasingly similar to that of the first four centuries of the Church’s life- the time of the Catacombs.

There were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined.

The 21st century looks like it will give the last century a run for its money. Before the rise of ISIS, the average number of Christian killed for their faith worldwide was about 465 persons per day, which is about 19 new martyrs per hour, or three a minute. It is higher now. Men, women, and children- confessors who refuse to reject Jesus who are 5 or 8 or 12 years old- are being beheaded with knives, crucified, burned alive, or shot. Movements in the US wants to make rejection of deeply disordered acts criminal. “Hate crimes” and “faith crimes” are new categories of tyranny.

Reasons: Primary Dangers

The latest Pew Research data shows a decrease in self-identified Christians in the US. In 2007 it was 78.4% In 2014 it was 70.6%, down almost 8 points in 7 years. Those whose affiliation was “none,” including atheists, agnostics, and so on moved from 16.1% to 22.8% in the same period.

Of those young people, ages 18 to 29, with a Christian background, 59% have, at some point, dropped out. Some will return to some form of Christian practice. Many may not.

Of those turning 18 around the year 2000 and afterward, 25% claim no religious affiliation at all.

Why is this?

A Hostile Public Environment

The obvious surface level reason for this change is the militant imposition of various atheist views in the public arena. The core elements of materialism, individualism, subjectivism, and a rationalism unhinged from reason and tied to tyranny, are the core heresies of our age.

This includes increasingly hostile government intervention at numerous levels, including manipulation of the courts and security agencies, and, through government policies, all areas of the economy.

It also includes the mass media, educational institutions, and entertainment industries.

Thus it embraces and penetrates all aspects of current life.

The Enemy?

The primary enemies- the world, flesh and satanic armies- fight against goodness, and against the standards of goodness, both revealed in the Natural Moral Law, and in Revealed truth (Holy Tradition), rooted in the Family and the historic Church.

Natural Law, Revelation, Family and Church take the position of moral judge over groups in power, and limit them.

The elimination of the Family and the Church are the main objectives- and have been explicitly so for Marxism and all satanic movements in history.

The Family and the Church, when healthy, both catechize against major errors, replacing them with Truth.

“Catechesis?”

Catechesis means the formation of not only the intellect or mind, by the learning of truth, but also the entire way of life and thinking which “echoes back” the life of God to God and to one another.

Catechesis means to “echo back” in thoughts, words (the Creeds, Scriptures, etc.) and actions (practical morality).

We must know Whom we have believed.

“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.”

1 Timothy 1:12-13

The Enemy’s Catechesis

The primary focal point, and success tactic of the Enemy has been catechesis. That is, both formal and informal instruction by all these groups, and pressure or coercion in terms of practice.

Both children and adults have been formed in this whole way of thinking by militantly atheist agendas, which are religious but not identified as such.

Atheist Religion

Religion is a system of thought and value oriented around something ultimate. There are a number of different scholarly definitions for religion in use, but they are all very close to one another in meaning. That used by Paul Tillich- religion is "one's ultimate concern" - is very helpful in keeping the focus where it belongs, and being comprehensive. This means that religion isn't simply about beliefs, but about beliefs which orient one's whole life (they provide what is called a "worldview"). Religion has to do with something which is ultimate- which is more important than anything else.

This includes a number of non-theist religions, and that it isn't just scholars of religion which classify non-theist religion AS religions (though the American press, some parts of governments, and some other institutions seem to ignore this on a routine basis). Secular Humanism and Atheism are both officially recognized as religions.

Atheist Religion (cont.)

Humanism has its own organized belief system, publications and preachers. Like other religions, it also has a goal: the supplanting of all other religions with its own. It also receives a religious tax exemption. (Free Inquiry, winter 1986/87)

It even calls itself a religion. (The Humanist, Sept. 1984) The title of an article in The Humanist, Feb. 1983, for example, describes the movement as "A Religion for a New Age." In the article, teachers are charged with the role of "preachers ... ministers of another sort."

And, all the way back in 1961, the Supreme Court classified Secular Humanism as a religion. "... among religions ... are Buddhism ... and Secular Humanism." The Supreme Court, in Torkoso v. Watkins (1961)

Atheist Religion (cont.)

A 2005 federal court of appeals ruled that Wisconsin prison officials violated an inmate's rights because they did not treat atheism as a religion.

"Atheism is [the inmate's] religion, and the group that he wanted to start was religious in nature even though it expressly rejects a belief in a supreme being. Without venturing too far into the realm of the philosophical, we have suggested in the past that when a person sincerely holds beliefs dealing with issues of 'ultimate concern' that for her occupy a 'place parallel to that filled by …God in traditionally religious persons,' those beliefs represent her religion. …Atheism is, among other things, a school of thought that takes a position on religion, the existence and importance of a supreme being, and a code of ethics. …We have already indicated that atheism may be considered, in this specialized sense, a religion. See Reed v. Great Lakes Cos., 330 F.3d 931, 934 (7th Cir. 2003) ('If we think of religion as taking a position on divinity, then atheism is indeed a form of religion.') …The Supreme Court has recognized atheism as equivalent to a 'religion' for purposes of the First Amendment on numerous occasions."

Atheism’s False Claim

All this needs to be kept in mind when people start debating over the idea of keeping religion out of education, government, the workplace, etc. It is not a matter of religion versus non-religion (as if Secular Humanism or Atheism were not religions), but of which religions will be accepted in public discourse, and which are being rejected. Atheists and Secular Humanists often THEIR views presented as fact, and all other religions to be suppressed. It is, ultimately, ironic that Atheism, dedicated to the extermination of religion, is itself a religion.

The growth of numerous religious tax-exempt Atheist groups, and even “Atheist Churches” show the common claim that atheism is not religion but “science” to be a crass lie. Such organizations include the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the American Humanist Association, the American Ethical Union, and HUUmanists, and a growing number of Atheist Churches.”

The Focal Point

The focal point has been on sexual matters. The so-called “Sexual Revolution” is pushed, and has been, for decades in all forms of TV, movies, educational instruction (which has focused not on academics, but “Progressive” – i.e. Marxist- socialization, especially following John Dewey), and government programs.

This attach was originally on marriage and on procreation, both by artificial birth control and by abortion, and the pushing of “free love” (which was neither free nor love).

This attack has now extended to the is now being extended to infanticide, euthanasia, genetic engineering, homosexual pseudogamy, and the compulsion of acceptance of these.

Distortion of Sex and Gender

One aspect of this is the distorted and mentally imbalanced idea that “gender” (a matter of grammar, not biology anyway) is now an open category. So Facebook lists 56 “genders.” No rational person believes there are anything but two sexes: male and female.

Ideas being pushed include not only homosexual pseudogamy, but “self-marriage,” people “marrying” pets, “marrying” inanimate objects (“objectum marriage”), polygamy and various forms of “group marriage.”

The sacred (and intended sacramental nature) of Holy Marriage, and the Marital Embrace as the expression of this, are simply rejected. We are taught to lie with out bodies- to say “I am yours and you are mine” and not mean it.

Catechesis as Key to Faithfulness

Catechesis has always been the center of the Church way of life. The goal of the Christian life is formation in the image of God, and growth in His likeness.

This is not limited to one area of life, but is holistic, and includes absolutely everything.

This is not temporary, but life-long. It involves everyone, not just clergy.

The Antidote Against Death

The answer to the Enemy’s attacks is Jesus, the God-man. No program is any kind of substitute for the Triune God Himself, made known in the real Jesus, made known in the Scriptures and whole Tradition of the Church.

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. 2 Tim. 1:12-14

Catechesis means we are grafted and grow in Him.

Realms of Catechesis

Liturgy: both the Divine Liturgy AS catechesis and catechesis about the Liturgy.

Also the entirety of life as Liturgical, a inaugurated participation in the life of God and heaven.

Daily Vocation is thus liturgical, and a realm for echoing back who we are.

The Christian Family and its structures is a basic framework, with parents being catechists for their children.

Church life is itself familial (covenantal), and involves the whole mystical body of Christ in each place.

True Catechesis is:

Being joined to the fullness of the Church. Transmitting and receiving the Truth of the Faith, with

humility and faith. Not fleeing from but rather to Truth, looking for refuge

from all false claims of life and human flourishing presented by the culture. This is not limited to some aspects of life.

Acting in the agape of God, poured out into and through us for the life of the world, to radically transform it by setting it free from sin and death.

False Catechesis is:

An exercise of pride and self-sufficiency, focused on our wants rather than on Christ.

A compartmentalized way of thinking about God and His Church.

A temporary activity from which we graduate.

“Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” - Matthew 23:15

Concessionary False Catechesis

• Another form of false catechesis concedes truth, in the hopes of winning people by being conciliatory.

• One cannot concede an inch to the old sinful self (the Old Adam), the sinful world, or Satan, and still win the victory. This is absolute war, and only the weapons of absolute unbending, divinely stubborn Truth will do. One does not pour gasoline on peoples’ disordered desires and at the same time help them escape from them. This is what the “Church Growth Movement” and all mere marketing approaches can never understand.

• This results in false teaching- both for church members and for those outside the Church.

• For a multitude of examples, see unChristian by David Kinnaman, (Baker Books, 2007) where misuse of data leads to all kinds of false ideas.

False Models:

Catechesis as mere marketing. People are not objects or commodities, and neither is the Gospel. Words like “market share” and “branding” are symptomatic of a major distortion in perspective.

Catechesis as “updating” the teaching of the Church. The premise is false- nothing God has instituted for all time is “out of date.” This produces heterodoxy.

Catechesis as “somebody else’s responsibility.” Catechesis as something we complete and leave

behind. This expresses the root sin of pride.

False Model Example

Rolling Hills Community Church in 2008 launched a new “evangelism” program: “Confessions of a Sinful Church.” They advertised a five-week program centered around five apologies:

1. We’re Sorry for Our Self-Righteousness and Hypocrisy

2. We’re Sorry for Our Endorsement of Slavery

3. We’re Sorry for Our Mistreatment of Homosexuals

4. We’re Sorry for the Medieval Crusades

5. We’re Sorry for Saying the Earth is Flat

A more asinine and deficient approach could hardly be imagined, since, setting aside their judgment of themselves in number 1, all the remaining points are simply falsifications of history.

This program is being imitated elsewhere, in what is being labeled as a new kind of “confessing church,” “begging the culture’s pardon.” See < http://www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/the-new-confessing-church-11583323.html >.

Problems in Diagnosis

Diagnosing the problems as something other than, at their root, spiritual, is a mistake. The primary issue is a worldview which rejects historic Christianity, and has never heard it defended - ever.

Recent research from Barna Group found that 67 % of millennials prefer a “classic” church over a “trendy” one; 77 % choose a “sanctuary” over an “auditorium.” The word “traditional,” however, does not find favor (only 40% preferred it over “modern” [whatever that means]. They are “frustrated with slick or shallow expressions of religion,” and are not looking for the “sensational, flashy, or particularly ‘relevant.’” One said, “I can be entertained anywhere. At church, I do not want to be entertained. I do not want to be the target of anyone’s marketing. I want to be asked to participate in the life of an ancient-future community.” Among those who don’t go to church, 87 % see Christians as judgmental, and 85 % as hypocritical. Only 8% say they don’t attend because church is “out of date.” But many see many moral issues through thoroughly secular eyes, and so gauge authenticity falsely.

Addressing Root Problems

This means that historic Christianity is rejected because youth are brainwashed (or brain-defiled) by popular culture, the educational system, and so on, and are incapable of seeing Christianity through non-secularist eyes. The only medicine given to us to undo the damage is found in catechesis and the Means of Grace- patient, consistent application of these from the earliest possible time.

We cannot compromise with the world, flesh and demons. Until we actually see secular presuppositions and culture as the major problem, which cause the death of civilization, and therefore shut it off, and destroy its arguments with a clear articulation of truth, no progress should be expected.

We only fool ourselves if we do not take this as a deadly serious reality, or hope it will go away.

The Positive Remedy

The only real remedy is the Triune God, the God-Man Jesus Christ, the Church, and her Liturgy and Sacraments. We must not confuse this as a matter of taste, and must remove it from all consideration of it contaminated by that way of thinking. What matters is not this specific book, whether the 1928 BCP or whatever else, but faithfulness to Christ.

The real connection to God’s remedy is what Catechesis means and is.

Steps in Catechesis

Guest Inquirer Catechumen Reception Integration Perpetual Growth

Elements of Initial Outreach

Be visible in the community, so people can find you Use communication tools (websites, but also

personal contacts) Families bring in families Pray Be open to questions and concerns when they come Programs vs. Agape Reject a “gatekeeper” mentality Put an integrated system of sponsorship in place

Some Useful Tools for Guests

Use Visitor Cards Do not single out people Have substantive material for people to take

home Use Greeters at the door(s) Invite people to “coffee hour” Provide services for people in need of

counseling or other help

Inquirers

Prepare a simple Introduction- people may know nothing. People may not even know they don’t know. Watch for theological and philosophical baggage!

Spend time and get to know them- so catechesis can be tailored to meet their real needs. No “cookie cutter” approaches!

Invite inquirers to Liturgy, Offices, as well as parish events. Be willing to answer questions, and supply material to read or

watch, both on Liturgy and its meanings. Assign potential sponsors to those willing to have them. Saturate the parish’s life with catechesis and liturgy as a matter

of course. Pray for all who are searching for Christ (but not by name unless

asked!). “Flog our enemies with the Name of Jesus.”

Catechumens

Officially receive them with the prayers of the Church.

Take your time- rushing this is always a mistake. This is true no matter who does the rushing.

Be sure they come to services, not just “classes” (so the perspective isn’t distorted).

Integrate them into the community, and use sponsors.

Essentials of Catechesis:

Jesus Christ The Trinity The Church Holy Tradition (Scripture properly used and

understood) The Divine Liturgy/Mass and Daily Offices Sacraments The Ecumenical Creeds The Ten Commandments The Our Father

The Ancient Catechesis Model

Basic Elements: The Gospel, Scripture, the Trinity, Christology, Creation and Anthropology, the Ten Commandments, The Creeds, the Sacraments, the Our Father, and the Liturgical context and connections.

Take questions and concerns seriously. Include hands-on activities that show the various

elements of Church life, both at the parish building and elsewhere.

Reception into The Church

Follow the guidelines of the ACA and rubrics in the BCP and related liturgical sources, as appropriate for the age and background of each catechumen.

Use the seasons and feasts of the Church. See Missione Ecclesiae: Catholicae Evangelio.

Do not rush this! Be certain that reception is always in connection

with the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the gathering of the whole community.

Preparing for Reception

Baptism vs. Confirmation First Confession as age appropriate. Involve sponsors! Give plenty of notice beforehand. Walk through the Liturgy beforehand- just like you

would do for a wedding. Plan a parish reception.

Actual Reception

Involve the whole parish. Make it special. Include a meaningful gift from the parish Invite family members of those being

received, as appropriate. Again, always receive new members in

conjunction with the regular Sunday or festival Divine Liturgy/Mass.

Integration into the Parish

Keep them involved. Remember that sponsors do not stop being sponsors! Make it clear that no one is “done.” Show

opportunities for continuing catechesis. Remember that new members won’t see this as important if the parish as a whole doesn’t.

Specifically go though opportunities for service and involvement based on their abilities, background, personalities, and so on.

Continuous Growth

Remember that the ongoing goal is to build up the Body of Christ by faithfulness to Him and to one another.

This is NOT a “numbers game.” Our focus is persons. Emphasize quality over quantity, realizing that the growth and

sustaining of the Church is a matter of God’s oath and covenant faithfulness, that “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against” “My Church” (Matt. 16:17-19). Either we believe Him or not.

We are not called to be successful by any other measure than faithfulness of Christ.

This means we must each take up our cross and follow Him. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church" (Tertullian,

Apologeticus).

An Initial Resource

• Missione Ecclesiae: Catholicae EvangelioTheology & Practice of Gospel Proclamation, Catechesis, and Growth

in Anglican Parishes and Missions is offered to the Church as a very imperfect, but beginning resource for Catechesis and Proclamation of the Gospel in an historic way.

• Improvements and additional materials will be needed, but we must begin our return to the ancient model .