Member of our Facebook group, Bob Myers, recommended Teach These Things: Catechesis for the Lutheran Parish, by Lincoln Winters. published on LuLu.
A catechesis that follows Luther’s outline for instruction. Prayerful and practical. Simple without being simplistic. This curriculum is appropriate for children, teens and adults. It can be used as an introduction to the faith, or as a refresher.
Here are a couple reviews from Catechesis for the Lutheran Parish:
Review by Steven Hein, Director of the Concordia Institute for Christian Studies, and former Professor at Concordia University Chicago:
I do not know of any other effort that so thoroughly seeks to reform Lutheran catechetical nurture in the way of catechesis – the original way that Luther intended it to be used. Your attention to detail and thoroughness with each lesson and each chief part is clear, easy to follow and so very integrated in terms of instruction, confession, and worship. This is a wonderful piece of work that I am hoping will be a real blessing for many of our pastors and baptized children. I do understand that for all who would be interested, it will require a pedagogical shift from how we in the LC-MS have looked at catechesis as simply doctrinal instruction rather that nurturing a life long devotional life for the baptized as Luther intended and you have so admirably presented.
Excerpt from a Review by Daniel Hinton, published by Steadfast Lutherans. Pr Hinton serves at Trinity in Cheyenne, WY. Highlight:
There is a great deal of wisdom in simply teaching from the catechism. After all, Luther’s Small Catechism was designed for the very purpose, and has served the Church well for 485 years. Also, every Lutheran pastor and every Lutheran congregation must subscribe to the Small Catechism (plus the rest of the Book of Concord) in order to be Lutheran pastors and congregations. In the Rite of Confirmation, confirmands vow to remain faithful to the Christian faith as they have learned it from the Bible and the Small Catechism. The advantage of “Teach These Things” was that one could do just that — teach from the Small Catechism — while using outlines from the Large Catechism to follow Luther’s thinking and to make sure each topic is covered thoroughly.
A little more from Pr Hinton’s review:
If you’d like to learn more about the ideas behind these catechetical materials, Rev. Winter was recently a guest on Issues, Etc. and gave a brilliant interview about catechesis, which is a worthy listen for any Christian. There are also sample materials available on the Order page of the “Teach These Things” website, and the materials are available either as a PDF file or as a printed and bound book. Either way, the catechist only need buy one copy for himself and use it from year to year without any additional spending.