The story of my catechesis is likely not rare. If you are a Lutheran it might look similar to your own story. In the end, I charge Lutheran churches to continue catechizing their parishioners even after the formal time of catechesis is over and to teach them how to catechize their own children at home.
My great-grandfather Ferdinand Drachenberg came to the United States alone when he was a teenager. He moved to the Lubbock, Texas area, and there he was one of the founding members of Redeemer Lutheran Church.
I am proud of my Lutheran heritage, but a closer look at it will shed some light on my own catechesis.
My great-grandfather married a Baptist and had children, of those children, only my great-grandfather and my grandfather (W.A. Drachenberg) attended the Lutheran church. The other children attended church with my great-grandmother.
My grandfather (W.A.) married a Baptist (Juanita) who after about 5 years of marriage joined the Lutheran church. They had four children. These children attended Lutheran schools and public schools depending on where they lived at the time. The children were all catechized at church or school.
My father, John Drachenberg, married my mom, Gail, who had attended a Catholic school, but had not gone to church regularly as a child. After about 5 years of marriage, she joined the Lutheran church. They had three children who were catechized at church (no Lutheran schools in the area).
My brother and sister (older than I) both had memory work in their catechesis, but we moved 1/2 way through my confirmation classes. I was the first confirman my pastor had, and I was already 1/2 way done with my work. In my classes there, I learned a few Bible verses by heart, but had no other memory work and rarely needed to even open my Catechism. My "questioning" was me answering a few questions about my faith life in front of the congregation during the service.
Then, I married a seminarian. He knew that my catechesis was weak and soon after our marriage, he started having me recite portions of the Catechism to him.
Then we got pregnant. At night after working on the sales floor at a furniture store, I was beat. I often fell asleep shortly after coming home, and he'd help me get into bed. My catechesis was put on hold as our life situation changed. It is hard to stay in a good routine when life situations occur. This does not excuse it, but it is something to be aware of. When we are aware that pregnancy, job change, move, etc. can cause us to fall out of good habits, perhaps we can work harder to maintain those good habits.
As the children grew, we began catechizing them. I'm re-learning some things that I learned early on in our marriage and learning some new things as well. I am not well catechized, but I'm working on it.
The interesting thing about catechesis is that the more you learn the more you want to learn. That is how it is with God's Word. Reading and learning God's Word creates a hunger for it.
Recently, I've learned about a book called The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther: Lutheran Catechesis: Learn-by-Heart Edition by Concordia Catechetical Academy. It is a small book that is under $2.00. It has grade levels helping you know when it is age appropriate to learn a particular part of the Catechism. This is not to say that a child can learn parts of it sooner, but can be used as a tool to help a family learn the Catechism at home.
I think that there are many adults who are like me, who have been Lutheran their whole lives but who lack in catechesis. I also think that many who come into the church as adults would like to know what to do now. Hopefully, in adult confirmation they acquired a hunger for learning more about God's Word. Now that they have this hunger, they get confirmed and don't know what to do next.
I think that giving a new adult confirman a book like the one I mentioned above and showing them some story Bibles like this one or this one and recommending reading from a Bible like this one would be a good thing. Perhaps showing them where to find the Propers for the day so that they know where to look to find something to read in the Bible would also help. Explaining the importance of a good Bible and a good children's Bible (like not to get one that has false teachings about the Lord's Supper, etc.) would also be a benefit.
It is easy to think of a way to get information like this in the hands of a new confirman because they have to come to a class to get confirmed, perhaps the last class could be teaching them about how to continue learning and how to teach their own family. I think that it is harder to figure out how to get this information in the hands of those who have been in the church a while. Sometimes these adults no longer come to Bible class, so that poses a challenge.
Many of us were not firmly catechized as children, but that does not mean that the cycle cannot change. We can give our children what we did not have. Long ago, fathers catechized their children at home. This practice is one that has been all but lost. Our vocation as parents is to teach our children this faith. Fathers, being in charge of the household, should lead the family in instruction. Mothers, as helpers, should aid their husbands in this.
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