Spiritual Formation of Catechists
written by Leah Wall
Years ago, I was visiting Brandi Lovejoy, our Children’s minister at Redeemer and I saw a book entitled “Listening to God with Children.” I was captivated with the title. Such a great respect for the spiritual journey of the child was a striking contrast to my early understanding. Much of my life I had understood the role of adult to child to be “teacher” and “disciplinarian”. But God, our kind Father, had been slowly awakening me to His truth that the Teacher is the Holy Spirit and that our Father reaches and calls out to people of all ages. He is the one who convicts of sin and He is the one guiding us into all truth. Respecting that the Holy Spirit is at work in the lives of those around me and that conviction of sin and teaching of spiritual truths are not my work was so freeing!
You might read that last sentence and wonder, as I would have, what do you mean “teaching spiritual truths are not your work?” This can be better understood as we think about what it means to teach or to know and that is a huge conversation that I am almost always reading and thinking more about. A basic consideration is – what is it to know? To know something (for example: Jesus is the Good Shepherd) is a participatory work. I can transfer that information to a child very easily. That is my work: to lift up the words of God. The work of knowing, however, is a work that the Holy Spirit will do in the child’s heart with the idea and significance of what that means. You can see now that there is a difference between lifting up the Holy Scriptures and the power of God to give a person understanding, to enlighten the eyes of their heart. While the information that we present to children may come in smaller doses or be carefully selected to begin with more essential texts, the knowing of God by the child is a genuine knowledge. It is, most often, a joyful trusting of person to Person, one filled with constant discoveries and awe. It is the answer to my information saturated cynicism. For Jesus Himself said “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3.
Listening to God with Children is one of the 3 books that our Catechists read during their 90 hours of training over almost 2 years of weekends. This is such a work of humility in service to God and His church and I am full of thankfulness to the Father for calling more workers into the fields. We had 6 from Redeemer complete the training. In hosting level 1, we also had church members from 2 other churches in our Diocese and another from a Catholic church in Greensboro. What a joy to see the Kingdom of God expanding in this way – not from a work of indoctrination – but from a place of humble submission to the Great Teacher.
Through the methods and gifts of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, we are now looking forward to beginning level 3 (for ages 10-12) next Fall. We are also planning to host another level 1 (ages 3-6) training beginning at the end of the summer in 2020. Dates will be coming soon. Please prayerfully consider whether this is a path God is calling you to walk. The training is a spiritual formation for you, the adult. We reflect on Scripture together and the work God is doing in children. We share the work together. And along the way, the Holy Spirit enlightens us and we discover, that – somehow – as we have considered these “lowly” things, we know Him more clearly.
“God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” ”
