This is a modern classic of pastoral theology on the topic of regular, family “home visitation.” A must read for every Reformed and Presbyterian elder. Want to listen to it? Try Natural Reader.
Archive for the ‘Care for the Youth’ Category
A modern classic on family visitation
Posted in Care for the Youth, Pastoral Theology on September 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
God’s Providence and a New Home for Westminster Christian Academy
Posted in Care for the Youth, Education, Transgenerational Faith on August 31, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it.” — Psalm 127:1
For several years, the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Corbin City has prayed and searched for an opportunity to acquire a school property and strengthen the work of Christian education. This summer, the Lord answered that desire through a remarkable series of providences that none of us could have arranged beforehand.
As Presbyterians, we believe the education of our covenant children cannot be separated from the lordship of Christ. God commands parents concerning His Word, “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children” (Deuteronomy 6:7). Education is therefore more than preparation for employment. We desire to assist parents in raising children who know Christ, understand His world, love His Church, and are prepared for useful Christian service.
Westminster Christian Academy (WCA), a fully confessional Christian school, was established in 2009 and for 17 years met at First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City. The PRC of Corbin City has long supported WCA by supplying teachers and sending students.
WCA serves grades K–12 and has a special relationship with Rowan College that permits qualified students to begin college coursework while still enrolled at WCA. Some students can earn substantial college credits and even an associate degree while completing high school.
WCA traditionally met Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:00 a.m. until noon. This allowed families to combine classroom education with homeschooling and made it possible for gifted volunteers to teach without assuming a five-day commitment. Under this model, enrollment grew to approximately 125 students.
(more…)Calderwood on Protestant promotion of learning
Posted in Audio Resources, Care for the Youth, Church of Scotland, Education on August 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The following is a passage from David Calderwood’s The Pastor and the Prelate (1628), a short and very punchy treatise contrasting the godly Presbyterian pastor’s mentality over and against the worldly, time-serving prelate (bishop, etc.) of the episcopal Church under the Stuarts. In this chapter, he shows how the “pastor” far better serves the interests of the commonwealth and the good of the social fabric of society, while the “prelate” is a barnacle if not a blight upon the kingdom. One particular area is in their two very different approaches to education—or shall we say, Christian public education! I’m almost done audio-recording the book; present uploads here for your listening pleasure.
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The PASTOR would have learning to grow, and, considering that schools and colleges are both the seminary of the commonwealth and the Lebanon of God for building the temple desireth earnestly that there might be a school in every congregation, that the people might be more civil, and might more easily learn the grounds of religion; he would have the best engines chosen and provided to the students’ places in universities, the worthiest and best men to the places of teachers, who might faithfully keep the arts and sciences from corruption, and especially the truth of religion, as the holy fire that came down from heaven was kept by the Levites: he desireth the rewards of learning to be given to the worthiest, and, after they have received them, that they be faithful in their places, lest by loitering and laziness they become both unprofitable and unlearned.
The PRELATE is not so desirous of learning in himself as of ignorance in others, that he only may be eminent both in kirk and commonwealth, and all others may render him blind obedience and respect. He devoureth that himself which should entertain particular schools: he filleth the places of students without trial of their engines, to please his friends and suitors, contrary to the will of the masters and the acts of the foundations: he filleth the places of learning not with the most learned, but the wealthiest sort, who, for any vigilance of his, might both corrupt the human sciences and bring strange fire into the house ofGod. If a learned man happen to attain to one of their highest places, which they call the rewards of learning, incontinent, their learning beginneth to decay, and their former gifts to wither away. So that their great places and prelacies either find them or make them unlearned.
“What is Catechism?” by Ursinus (1534-1583)
Posted in Care for the Youth, Catechesis on March 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I. WHAT IS CATECHISATION?
The Greek word katechesis is derived from kataecheo, as kataecismos is from kataechizo. Both words, according to their common signification, mean to sound, to resound, to instruct by word of mouth, and to repeat the sayings of another. Kataecheo more properly, however, means to teach the first principles and rudiments of some particular doctrine. As applied to the doctrine of the church and as understood when thus used, it means to teach the first principles of the Christian religion, in which sense it occurs in Luke 1. 4, Acts 18. 25, Gal. 6. 6, etc. Hence, catechisation in its most general and comprehensive sense, means the first brief and elementary instruction which is given by word of mouth in relation to the rudiments of any particular doctrine; but, as used by the church, it signifies a system of instruction relating to the first principles of the Christian religion, designed for the ignorant and unlearned.
The system of catechising, therefore, includes a short, simple, and plain exposition and rehearsal of the Christian doctrine, deduced from the writings of the prophets and apostles, and arranged in the form of questions and answers, adapted to the capacity and comprehension of the ignorant and unlearned; or it is a brief summary of the doctrine of the prophets and apostles, communicated orally to such as are unlearned, which they again are required to repeat.
(more…)RPM: Sample class on catechesis
Posted in Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Español, Reformed Parish Mission (RPM) Posts on July 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Un Método Sencillo de Catequizar, por Thomas Doolittle
Posted in Antigua Kirk, Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Church Order & Discipline, Diets of Catechizing, Español, Evangelistic Catechesis, Family Religion, Ordinary Means Ministry, Pastoral Theology, The Sacred Ministry on June 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Este tratado de Thomas Doolittle, escrito por el pastor de la infancia del gran comentarista de la Biblia Matthew Henry, es una obra maestra muy olvidada sobre el tema de la naturaleza, la justificación y los métodos de la catequesis. Es una lectura obligada para cualquier pastor reformado.
Curso de catequesis
Posted in Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Church Order & Discipline, Confessional Subscription, Español, Reformed Parish Mission (RPM) Posts on June 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Inscríbase en un curso del seminario sobre la teoría y la práctica de la catequesis. El costo del curso es de sólo $10 USD; y hay vacantes disponibles gratuitamente para un número limitado de quienes deseen auditar el curso.
Más información sobre el curso: https://www.facebook.com/str.iprbolivia.org
Comprensión teológica: Los estudiantes adquirirán una sólida comprensión de los principios básicos y las ventajas de la catequesis como disciplina teológico-pastoral dentro de la Iglesia. Serán capaces de analizar y aplicar estos conceptos fundamentales en su vida y práctica cristiana.
Formación doctrinal: El curso capacitará a los estudiantes para formar a otros en las doctrinas fundamentales de la fe cristiana. Aprenderán a transmitir de manera clara y efectiva estos principios, tanto a adultos convertidos como a menores bautizados, fomentando una comprensión profunda y significativa de la fe.
Profesión de fe personal: Los estudiantes desarrollarán la habilidad de realizar una profesión de fe personal y creíble. A través del conocimiento adquirido en el curso, podrán articular su fe de manera coherente y convincente, fortaleciendo así su relación con Dios y su plena pertenencia a la Iglesia.
Página web del seminario: https://iprbolivia.org/strinfo/
Alcuin of York on catechesis
Posted in Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Medieval Church, Missiology, Pastoral Theology, Sacraments on March 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The following selections are from Alcuin of York (c. 735-804), some of which were directed to the Emperor Charlemagne. Drawn from The History of Christian Missions, by George Frederick Maclear (1863).
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“The Apostolic Order . . . is first to teach all nations, then is to follow the administration of baptism, and further instruction in Christian duties. Therefore in teaching those of riper years, that order should be strictly maintained, which the blessed Augustine has laid down in his treatise on this special subject.
First, a man ought to be instructed in the immortality of the soul, in the future life, in its retribution of good and evil, and in the eternal duration of both conditions.
Secondly, he ought to be taught for what crimes and sins he will be condemned to suffer with the devil everlasting punishment, and for what good and beneficial actions he will enjoy eternal glory with Christ.
Thirdly, he ought most diligently to be instructed in the doctrine of the Trinity, in the advent of the Saviour for the salvation of mankind, in His life, and passion, His resurrection, ascension, and future coming to judge the world. Strengthened and thoroughly instructed in this faith, let him be baptized, and afterwards let the precepts of the Gospel be further unfolded by public preaching, till he attain to the measure of the stature of a perfect man, and become a worthy habitation of the Holy Ghost.”
Alcuin in another letter exhorts the emperor to provide competent catechists for his newly-conquered subjects: “They ought to follow the example of the apostles in preaching the Word of God; for they at the beginning were wont to feed their hearers with milk, that is, gentle precepts, even as the Apostle Paul saith, ‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.’ And thereby that great Apostle of the whole world, Christ speaking in him, signified that newly converted tribes ought to be nourished with mild precepts, like as children are with milk, lest if austerer precepts be taught, their weak mind should reject what it drinks. Whence also the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Gospel replied to those asking
Him why His disciples fasted not, ‘Men put not new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.’ For, as the blessed Jerome saith, the virgin purity of the soul which has never been contaminated with former vice is very different from that which has been long in bondage to foul lusts and passions.”
“In this sacrament . . . there are three visible and three invisible things. The visible things are the priest, the person to be baptized, and the water; the in visible are the Spirit, the soul, and faith. The three visible things effect nothing externally, if the three invisible have no internal operation. The priest washes the body with water, the Spirit justifies the soul by faith. He that will be baptized must offer his body to the mystery of the sacred washing, and his mind to the voluntary reception of the Catholic Faith. These points ought a teacher to consider most diligently if he desire the salvation of the neophyte, and he must beware of slothfully or carelessly celebrating so great a sacrament.”
The duty & art of pastoral catechizing
Posted in Audio Resources, Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Church of England, Locality & the Law of Residence, Parish Theory & Practice, Puritans & Puritanism, Richard Baxter, Transgenerational Faith on April 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »
The following chapter entitled, “The Parson Catechizing,” is taken from George Herbert’s (1593-1633) classic of pastoral theology, A Priest to the Temple, or, The Country Parson his Character and Rule of Holy Life. Herbert, a celebrated English poet, was a minister in the Church of England. Though a conformist, his work surely merits serious attention by the heirs of nonconformity – a definitely pre-Baxter Baxterian. May the lost duty & art of pastoral catechizing be revived and stimulated by this rich contribution! [Recorded in audio here.]
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The Country Parson values catechizing highly: for there being three points of his duty; the one, to infuse a competent knowledge of salvation in every one of his flock; the other, to multiply, and build up this knowledge to a spiritual temple; the third, to inflame this knowledge, to press, and drive it to practice, turning it to reformation of life, by pithy and lively exhortations; catechizing is the first point, and but by catechizing, the other cannot be attained. Besides, whereas in sermons there is a kind of state, in catechizing there is an humbleness very suitable to Christian regeneration; which exceedingly delights him as by way of exercise upon himself, and by way of preaching to himself, for the advancing of his own mortification; for in preaching to others, he forgets not himself, but is first a sermon to himself, and then to others; growing with the growth of his parish.
He useth, and preferreth the ordinary church catechism, partly for obedience to authority, partly for uniformity sake, that the same common truths may be every where professed, especially since many remove from parish to parish, who like Christian soldiers are to give the word, and to satisfy the congregation by their catholic answers.
(more…)Puritan catechesis
Posted in Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Diets of Catechizing, Evangelistic Catechesis, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Ordinary Means Ministry, Puritans & Puritanism on September 13, 2019| 1 Comment »
The second installment of my recording of Doolittle’s treatise on catechizing. With each page, I am more and more convinced that this is truly a masterpiece of pastoral and pedagogical wisdom. In this most recent installment, I’m stuck once again with how truly evangelistic catechesis should be. Hardly a clinical exercise! And he pleads with ignorant adults to come under the yoke as well.