Biblical literacy, and literacy more broadly, has been in decline for years. As our understanding of the Bible has lessened, as a generation turned away from the creeds and confessions of the church of old, clear articulations of faith have fallen on hard times. Questioning and doubting, scoffing and disbelief became the mark of a mind unfettered and seeking truth wherever it may lead. ‘Me and my Bible’ is another way of saying the same thing: I am the arbiter of truth and can determine what is right on my own.

How do the early church creeds and the Reformed confessions fit into the life of the local church? As someone who came to Reformed convictions but had not been raised in a Reformed context, this was a question I had needed to ponder. I slowly came to my own conviction that the faith as expressed in the Westminster Standards best communicated the truths of Scripture – and therefore was keen on incorporating this confession of faith into my own life of faith.

Personally, this meant that my wife and I began to read through the Westminster Standards together to ensure that we were on the same page. A short stint as members in the local United Reformed Church helped us to acquaint ourselves with the continental Reformed tradition and their usage of the Three Forms of Unity in their Lord’s Day gatherings (alongside my wife growing up in the CRC and her acquaintance with the Heidelberg Catechism from her childhood catechesis). An international move later, when we joined our local congregation in the Free Church of Scotland, I was eager to have more teaching on the Westminster Standards – but was quickly disappointed. Catechetical instruction was mostly non-existent; references to our Standards were almost unheard of. Were my expectations off base? How should I properly think of the role of these standards in the life of the local church? These questions led me to conduct a brief and informal survey with friends and acquaintances in various Presbyterian denominations: International Presbyterian Church, Free Church of Scotland, Presbyterian Church in America, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and the Vanguard Presbyterian Church.

In the Reformed church, we have a rich tradition from which we can draw and learn, yet in many of the places I looked it seemed like confessional adherence and teachings were being overlooked or outright rejected. One respondent to my query suggested that in his context, the standards and catechism carried ‘negative baggage’ from the past century when it was taught through rote memorization but not believed. Another suggested that perhaps the disparity between the use of the Westminster Standards and the Heidelberg Catechism is due to the ‘devotional’ nature of the latter compared to the former. In churches in Scotland, a few of the respondents indicated that while they love and appreciate Westminster, they were beginning to introduce Keller’s New City Catechism for catechetical instruction.

Taking a step back and considering trends more broadly perhaps suggests missional pragmatism is behind some of the disuse or change. In a desire to be relevant or more easily understood, the catechism used and taught is changed to something newer, or often catechetical instruction is dispensed with all together.

The words of Alexander Stewart in the early years of the twentieth century might help us think this through a little more clearly:

In a time of religious declension … there is always a tendency to remove the landmarks of definite theological belief. Truth is held with a loose grasp. Its power has not become a matter of experience. Depth of conviction and clearness of enunciation give place to the specious attractions of speculative inquiry. The unyielding rock is abandoned for the shifting sands. Men lose the ‘plainness of speech’ which is a fruit of the evangelical hope and give utterance to what faith there is in them with faltering words and apologetic tone. The formulation which set forth the convictions of a more spiritual age come to be regarded as an oppressive yoke. There follows the cry for emancipation. Liberty is made to lend its name to laxity. Thus, it often happens that a revision of the Church’s creed is really a concession to unbelief. (The Free Church of Scotland: 1843–1910 — A Vindication [1910], 65. Read the full quote here.)

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