"Life in Christ" catechism update

I've been receiving inquiries about the Life in Christ catechism curriculum, for which I wrote the first volume, Not My Own: Discovering God's Comfort in the Heidelberg Catechism.

The eight volumes of the catechism are nearing completion. Work progresses on illustrations for a few of the lower level volumes as well as final edits on other volumes. It is hoped that the covers, table of contents, and first chapters of each volume will soon be posted on a Life in Christ page of the Reformed Fellowship website.

Rev. Ronald Scheuers, who serves as the General Editor for the project, writes:

"About five years ago our council asked me to begin preparing a new coordinated curriculum for children and young people in grades 5 through 12. This curriculum was to cover the Three Forms of Unity (The Heidelberg Catechism, The Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort), and where possible to also reference the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. With the help of other authors, editors, and contributors to this effort, we are now in a position to have these materials printed in the near future."

Rev. Scheuers has contributed untold hours to the mammoth project now nearing completion. He explains the format consistently used in each volume:

"Our new curriculum is designed to instruct young people in the precious Reformed faith of the Scriptures by using sections of explanation, memory work from the confessions and Scripture, questions for discussion and space to answer the questions, a highlighted box of key words and concepts, and personal application of the theme for each lesson. All the volumes contain 25 lessons. Teacher Tips, helps for teaching the lessons, will also be available for most of the volumes."

The Life in Christ instructional materials will be available in three different levels: Intermediate, Middle School, and High School. The following listing indicates suggested levels with colors used in those volumes and provides a brief description of each volume.

Intermediate (blue tones)

Not My Own: Discovering God’s Comfort in the Heidelberg Catechism - An Introductory Course on the Heidelberg Catechism

God’s Unfolding Promise: From Shadows to SONlight - A Course that traces God’s Covenant History of Redemption from Genesis through Revelation

Middle School (shades of green)

Christ’s Living Church: A Journey From Then to Now - A Course on the Church and the Reformed Faith in History

Faith of Our Fathers: Studies in the Belgic Confession - A Course on the Belgic Confession of Faith

High School (tan and brown)

The Price of Possession: The Heidelberg Catechism, Part 1 - A Course on the First Half of the Heidelberg Catechism

The Price of Possession: The Heidelberg Catechism, Part 2 - A Course on the Second Half of the Heidelberg Catechism

The Doctrines of Grace: Pillars of the Reformed Faith - A Course on the Five Solas, the Canons of Dort, and other Key Reformed Doctrines

Facing Faith’s Challenges: Defending the Faith and Answering Life’s Important Questions - A Course on Defending the Reformed Faith

Rev. Scheuers explained to me that the commmittee's desire was to allow churches to be flexible with the material since some churches have classes with combined grades while others have enough students for separate grades. The picture above gives an idea of the cover design.

The picture below shows the table of contents for Not My Own: Discovering God's Comfort in the Heidelberg Catechism.

Although it is hoped that Not My Own: Discovering God's Comfort in the Heidelberg Catechism will contain many illustrations, the below picture gives an idea of how the first page of each lessons looks.

And the next two pictures show the graphic elements incorporated into the lessons to add visual interest:

I'm having a hard time getting these pictures where I want them. And I know these pictures will be small and difficult to see on this blog, but I hope they give youth education committees and interested persons an idea of how the finished product will look.

Churches expressing an interest in reviewing materials now may be receiving unedited versions of the manuscripts and I want to assure them that extensive editing has greatly improved the unedited versions.

As Rev. Scheuers writes, "It is our prayer that you will find these volumes helpful in the exciting task of training the next generation in the marvelous truths of the Scriptures."