When Martin Luther participated in church visitations in Saxony during the late 1520s, he encountered widespread ignorance of basic Christian doctrine.
Many ordinary Christians couldn’t recite the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, or the Lord’s Prayer. Some of the pastors responsible for teaching them were little better prepared.
In the preface to his Small Catechism, Luther expressed his frustration:
The common person, especially in the villages, has no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine.
Luther also rebuked pastors who had neglected their responsibility to instruct their congregations. In 1529, he published the Small Catechism, providing a resource pastors could use to teach their congregations and parents could use to instruct their children.
I’ve written previously about the gospel the Reformers recovered. Luther’s experience in Saxony demonstrated another problem: correcting the church’s doctrine didn’t mean ordinary Christians understood it.
Teaching the Faith Was Part of the Reformation
Luther’s Small Catechism explained the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper through short explanations and questions intended for memorization. Luther expected pastors to teach this material regularly. He also included instructions for household heads, encouraging daily prayer and instruction at home.
The need for instruction wasn’t confined to Lutheran churches. Reformed churches also developed catechisms to teach their members the doctrines they confessed. Among them was the Heidelberg Catechism, published in 1563, which opens with a question I revisited after my mother’s death:
What is your only comfort in life and in death?
Its answer begins with the assurance that we belong to Jesus Christ, body and soul, in life and in death. The catechism then works through our misery in sin, our deliverance through Christ, and the gratitude that should characterize the Christian life. Its 52 Lord’s Days provided a year’s worth of instruction for congregations.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism, completed in 1647, begins with another question:
What is the chief end of man?
The answer is familiar to many Reformed Christians:
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.
The very next question asks what rule God has given to direct us in glorifying and enjoying Him. The answer points to Scripture. From there, the catechism addresses who God is, humanity’s fall into sin, redemption through Christ, the Ten Commandments, and prayer.
That same year, the Church of Scotland approved the Directory for Family Worship. It instructed households to read Scripture, pray, and discuss biblical teaching together. Parents were expected to ask their children about what they had heard during public worship and reinforce that instruction at home. The directory also assigned ministers and elders responsibility for encouraging family worship and helping those who struggled to lead it.
The Church Has a Responsibility to Teach
In Matthew 28:18–20, Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe everything He commanded. Paul explains in Ephesians 4:11–16 that Christ gave pastors and teachers to equip believers for ministry and spiritual maturity, protecting them from being carried away by false teaching. He also instructed Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture, exhortation, and teaching (1 Timothy 4:13–16).
Faithful expository preaching is essential to the church, but pastors and elders should also consider whether their congregations understand the doctrines taught in Scripture. Can church members explain the Trinity? Do they understand justification by faith? Can they explain why Jesus had to die for sinners? Years of church attendance don’t necessarily mean someone can answer those questions.
Children and new believers need instruction, but so do adults who may have spent years attending church without receiving systematic biblical teaching. Catechisms, confessions, adult Bible classes, and membership instruction can help fill those gaps.
Churches also need to equip parents to teach their children. It’s easy to tell parents they should disciple their children, but how many churches provide them with the instruction and resources necessary to do that well? Some parents didn’t grow up receiving sound biblical instruction themselves. Others came to faith as adults and are still learning. Pastors and elders should help them understand Scripture, explain Christian doctrine, and answer their children’s questions.
The Home Is Also a Place for Christian Instruction
Parents can’t simply leave their children’s Christian education to pastors, Sunday school teachers, or Christian schools. In Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Moses instructed Israel to teach God’s commandments diligently to their children, describing instruction during ordinary daily activities, at home and along the way.
The New Testament reinforces parental responsibility. In Ephesians 6:4, Paul instructs fathers to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord without provoking them to anger. Timothy’s upbringing provides another example. Paul recalled the sincere faith of his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois (2 Timothy 1:5) and reminded Timothy that he had been acquainted with the Scriptures from childhood (2 Timothy 3:14–15).
Parents have opportunities throughout the week to reinforce what their children hear at church. That can include reading Scripture together, praying, teaching catechism questions, or discussing the previous Sunday’s sermon. Luther included instructions for morning and evening prayer in his Small Catechism, along with prayers for use before and after meals.
Some parents may need to learn alongside their children. When difficult theological questions arise, they can turn to their pastors and elders for help. There is no requirement that every family follow an identical devotional routine, but Christian instruction should have a regular place in family life.
Of course, memorizing catechism answers doesn’t produce saving faith. A child may know the correct answers without knowing Christ. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, but that doesn’t diminish the responsibility of parents to teach their children who God is, what Christ accomplished through His death and resurrection, and what it means to follow Him.
We can’t guarantee that our children will embrace the faith. We are still responsible for teaching it.
Are We Teaching What We Believe?
The 2025 State of Theology survey, conducted by Lifeway Research for Ligonier Ministries, found that 53% of evangelical respondents believed the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a personal being. Another 53% agreed that most people are good by nature despite their sin.
These are serious misunderstandings of the Trinity and human sinfulness. If Christians don’t understand who the Holy Spirit is or the nature of their own sin, how well do they understand the gospel they profess to believe?
The survey doesn’t establish what those respondents were taught in church or at home, but it gives pastors and parents reason to examine how they teach Christian doctrine.
Are churches explaining foundational doctrines from Scripture? Are adults receiving instruction as well as children? Are parents being equipped to teach at home? Parents should also consider whether their children understand the Scripture they read and can explain what they believe and why.
The goal isn’t to produce children who can merely repeat theological definitions. We want them to understand Scripture, recognize false teaching, and grow in their knowledge of Christ.
Luther did not simply rebuke the pastors whose congregations knew so little. He wrote a catechism for them to teach and for parents to use at home. He expected the answers to be learned, not merely printed.
A church can have a sound confession and still neglect to teach its members what it says. Parents can send their children to church every Sunday and still neglect their responsibility to teach them at home. That was the failure Luther confronted in Saxony.
We shouldn’t repeat it.