Introduction

A CATECHISM
For Wesleyan Pentecostals
In Preparation for Water Baptism

By
Jackie David Johns

Introduction

I wrote this catechism to help prepare my daughter, Karisa, and Amy Thompson for water baptism around 1994. It was intended to be the first of several documents for instructing preadolescents and youth in the core beliefs of the church, or at least the Wesleyan-Pentecostal expression of the church. The second volume was to pick up where this one ended and prepare the early adolescent for church membership. The third was to lay the foundations for life-long spiritual growth.

I was also my intent to prepare a glossary of terms designed to give the learner core definitions for the Christian faith.

This first catechism is structured to flow out of the initial question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” This question is the cornerstone for preparation for water baptism. Everyone presented for baptism must understand the essential meaning of being a Christian.

In determining the flow of thought I wanted to be faithful to my faith tradition, Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee). Therefore, the principles that guided me were (1) the emphasis must be on knowing Christ as personal Lord and Savior, (2) the content and logic of development must flow out of Scripture, (3) as a presentation of basic doctrine the questions and responses should be appropriate to someone with rudimentary levels of abstract thought (late childhood, early adolescence) which was the most challenging goal and perhaps least achieved and (4) each question should flow out of the previous response and each response should anticipate questions that follow.

The purpose of this catechism is to guide a new convert or child of the church into personal knowledge of God and understanding appropriate to that knowledge. The objective is not for the believer to memorize a large body of material. Rather, it is hoped the learner will be able to express personal faith in words that are consistent with The Faith once delivered to the saints. This edition includes Scripture references for each item and some explanatory notes. It also includes lesson guidelines for use by parents and other catechists.