Nazarene Catechism - Have any of your used it?

[Cynthia Prentice]

We would like to begin a catechism class at our church and I was wondering if any of you have used the Nazarene Catechism. I looked it up online and noticed it is only a twelve week program. I was hoping for something that was a one or two year program. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Cynthia

[Jim Franklin]

I know it used to be part of the Caravan program. If it hasn't been updated since the 40s it should have. If not, I have faith that you could write such a program yourself.

[Michael Flowers]

I know it used to be part of the Caravan program. If it hasn't been updated since the 40s it should have. If not, I have faith that you could write such a program yourself.

It has been updated (I think completely redone) in the past five years.

Cynthia, Dr. Leon Blanchette at ONU could give you the best information regarding the catechism program (he used it at his last children's pastorate in Marion, OH). If you want I could send you his email address.

[Dan Henderson]

if its not long enough, I'm sure you could use the UMC one with not much modification.

[Jonathan Sparks]

I remember as a child that a six year old neighbor worked diligently at memorizing the Roman Catholic catechism. I was in Caravan and do not remember it being used there. I believe that if we used any Wesleyan catechism with our children, we would certainly have more real knowledge of our theology than is present now and have less falling away of our teens & young adults.

[David Snodgrass]

Here is a catechism that Dr. Steve Hoskins, Professor at TNU, help produce at Nashville First several yeas back.

http://www.nfcn.org/templates/_1stch...458&PID=619955

[Cynthia Prentice]

Thank you all for your feedback. Last night I encountered a 12 year old boy who will be confirmed in 2 weeks at a Lutheran church in Arlington. Because we have our worship service on Saturday evening the boy was able to come to our church with some of his friends. As he and I talked I was truly amazed at how much he had learned in his catechism class. The class he is in lasts for 2 years and right now he is the only one in the class. He was a very humble young man and as I asked him what all he had learned and as he shared with me I was very impressed. Some of the kids and I walked him home to his apartment and I met his parents. They invited Paul and I to their son's confirmation on May 6th. Because we have moved our service to Saturday evening we will be able to attend. I have just recently switched my teaching role from that of Women's Bible Study leader to working with our neighborhood children. I really liked what I saw in this young man...he not only knew his material but he understood it.

[Roy Richardson]

I have used the old one and the new one. It is a worthwhile exercise, and 12 weeks is pushing it if you allow time for questions. My foray with it took several months when I was a children's pastor.

[Meghan Schoonover]

I was confirmed in the Lutheran church and years later I realize how much I actually absorbed from those classes! I had a two year program. My husband has looked into using the curriculum the Nazarene church has and said he thought it looked really good but has never actually used it with students. (He taught that age group for quite some time.)

[George Wallace]

Wesley's abridgment of the Westminster Shorter Catechism can be found in Vol. 14 of his Christian Library and can be found here . If one wants to view what the revisions/abridgments (that is, the red-line version) then that is available on Google Books and can be found here

Blessings
George

[Melissa DeBono]

My church has used the Nazarene Curriculum twice. We primarily used the old curriculum, the newer one arrived when our course was nearly over. Our plan from here on out is to do confirmations every two or three years, trying to target a group of students in 7th grade. We used the curriculum weekly from Sept -December and then switched to content more about Christian practices for the second half of their confirmation education. The curriculum is ok, I recommend it as a good starting point. It may be geared a bit younger than our target audience. We required a paper from our students as well. We use the same process as either confirmation of infant baptism (the norm in our congregation) and as baptism prep for students who were dedicated (or otherwise not baptized.)

We did confirmation and baptism on Easter Sunday. It was a wonderful service!

[Cynthia Prentice]

Wesley's abridgment of the Westminster Shorter Catechism can be found in Vol. 14 of his Christian Library and can be found here . If one wants to view what the revisions/abridgments (that is, the red-line version) then that is available on Google Books and can be found here

Blessings
George

Thank you so much George.

[Meghan Schoonover]

Melissa - I love the baptism and confirmation on Easter! Lovely!