Catechism Time!

So we're going to be looking at Luther's Small Catechism during our Coffee and Conversations time this summer. Now I know that for some of you the mere mention of the catechism probably brings back memories of a dull room, a droning pastor, and tedious memorization. But I'd like you to keep those memories safely repressed for another few months, because we are not going to be teaching the catechism as you remember it. In fact, we're not going to be teaching it at all.

What we are going to do is to use the Small Catechism as a way of getting into the topics that Luther thought were important for everyday life. So, we will look at what Luther put into it and what he had to say about his topics as a way of beginning our conversation about such things as the Ten Commandments, the Apostle's Creed, and the Lord's Prayer.

And, with hope, we might just replace some of those repressed memories with new memories of interesting conversation about what Luther was interested in and up to when he wrote the small catechism. Because maybe he wasn't simply interested in the torture of middle-school-aged children. Maybe there is something more...