“In spite of numerous adamic attempts to put the Lord Jesus Christ in the unemployment office and take over his work with blueprints for the building of the church according to our own schemes and tools of our making, the Lord Jesus Christ alone remains the architect and builder of his church. In those regal words of St. Matthew 16:18 he says, ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ This same Lord, now crucified and raised from the dead, speaks with all authority on the day of his Ascension, giving to his disciples the mandate to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to keep all that he has given us. Disciples are made by baptizing and teaching. Jesus builds his church with these tools. This teaching that flows from Holy Baptism and leads to Holy Baptism is catechesis. Catechesis is the way in which the word of God is spoken and then echoes back in confession to the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
John T. Pless, “Catechesis for Life in the Royal Priesthood,” Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology, vol. III, no. 4, Reformation/October 1994, p. 3.