The Catechumenate: Discipleship In The Church

THE CATECHUMENATE:

THE KEY MISSING INGREDIENT OF DISCIPLESHIP IN THE CHURCH

A leaders last words and commands to his followers encompass the heart of his message and mission. Jesus’ final command to his disciples in Scripture was to, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19-20 ESV). This emphasis on disciple making was the impetus for the development of an organized disciple-making program for new believers during the Patristic period called the Catechumenate. Jesus charges his disciples not only to proclaim the gospel and baptize new believers, but emphasized "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:19-20). The Catechumenate developed by the Church Fathers was the initial spiritual training ground

The passion of the early church was to see Christ formed in new believers. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19) This same desire of the Apostle was retained in the DNA of the church Fathers and resulted in a careful procedure of preparation for baptism that ensured the goal of making a disciple was attained. This serious process that was used to train new believers was referred to as the Catechumenate. It was a sort of school of the Faith during the Patristic era that prepared new believers to be baptized before being welcomed into the full life of the church. The term Catechumen denoted a person who was receiving instruction in Christianity with a view to being in time baptized. The catechumenate consisted of converts from Paganism, Judaism, and even children of Christian parents whose Baptism had been deferred. The word catechumen is derived from the Greek word katēcheō, meaning "to teach" or "instruct." The verb occurs eight times in the New Testament (Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25,21:21, 24; Rom 2:18, 1 Cor. 14:19; Gal 6:6), but never with the technical sense of a formal period of instruction that we find in the post-apostolic period. Clement of Alexandria (150-215) appears to have been the earliest church father to use the noun form of the

In chapters 15-21 of The Apostolic Tradition written in the early third century, Hippolytus set out guidelines for the catechumenate and for baptism. When an inquirer (a potential candidate for baptism) was brought to the church, an initial interview was conducted. The inquirer was questioned as well as the one who brought them. This interview was focused on the lifestyle of the potential catechumen and set the initial mindset and tone- that it was a serious thing to desire to be baptized into Christ. Hippolytus description of this process shows that he ultimately worried less about the size of his congregation and more about the standards it lived