Survey of catechismal requirements

[Greg M. Johnson]

My son's not too far away from entering our congregation's catechism program.  I'm wondering if there is a Lutheran standard or an ELCA one at all, for the requirements.

The program I went through in the LC-MS was two years of one-hour-per-week evening sessions during the school year.  My ELCA congregation has a few required retreats.  When I volunteered to teach for one of these about ten years ago I remember hearing how hard it was to get some kids to come because they had sports tournaments, etc.   I think we also had an Interim Pastor at the time who seemed so unamored with tradition that he probably would have handed out confirmation pins for nothing if they'd let him.

In all of this, I always wonder what's a "tradition of men" and what's the theologically conservative necessary thing.   In Luther's day or in the early church, did youth have to do anything in particular to commune?  I'm tempted to speculate they had hardly any sitting-in-classroom requirements for communion, but of course a weekend out-of-town basketball tournament may have been (unbiblically?)  unthinkable. 





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Greg M. Johnson
http://pterandon.blogspot.com