katecheo

Yesterday some of the staff teased me about how "coincidental" it was that our Bible study last week in Galatians just HAPPENED to land on this interesting passage:

"Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor." (Galatians 6:6)

The word "instruction" is the word "katecheo" in the Greek. It is where we get the word "catechism".

This word is also used in 1 Corinthians 14:9:

But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

As I said on Sunday, someone who receives instruction in this way is a serious student- someone who is not just hearing instruction but is held accountable in some way for that instruction. It is the difference between an auditor who is a passive listener and a student who is taking the tests and held accountable for what he is learning. It seems to me that this kind of discipleship is sorely lacking in most churches today.

I have been telling our staff for months that I believe it is time we dust off one of our Baptist catechisms and make it our own as an approach to teaching children, growing up new generations and holding each other accountable in our discipleship and education ministry. When asked about my timetable on this, I have said that after I have been here five years, I would be ready to tackle it.

Well... exactly one week after my five year anniversary- gee, look at that, right there in the passage we're studying

- whatdayaknow!

Let's call it providence.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the meaning of membership in churches- especially the Southern Baptist variety. The SBC has passed a resolution at this years convention calling for member churches to more correctly and accurately identify their true membership. The convention reports a membership of 16 million nationwide, but the total actual membership is not completely known but believed to be somewhere way south of 6 million.

Of course, the thinking is that not only is this not a good thing for our understanding of where we are, it says something about our integrity- it says something a little disturbing about WHO we are, in other words.

So the resolution did not just call for better numbers- it also called for repentance.

The implication here is that not only do we have a organizational responsibility to make the necessary changes that reflect true membership, we also have a moral and spiritual obligation. We have an obligation in our witness. This issue speaks to the very core of who we are.

In the coming weeks, I will be leading our church to begin the process of better identifying our true membership. This will require us to do some soul searching as well as some scripture searching. We will study together our ecclesiology- what we believe about the church; and we will study our epistemology- why do we believe what we believe. I believe it will be important for us to think through both of these things. One cannot stand on firm ground without the other. There are a lot of churches who feel strongly about WHAT they believe about the church- but they have no clue WHY they believe it. That is a dangerous position to be in.

I do not know where this will lead us- but in my next few blog posts I will explore various topics around what the Bible teaches about church membership, relationships within the church, church ordinances and practices, the meaning of covenant and the need for discipline.

I am excited about the process and believe it will make us stronger as we reflect together about what this means.