Careful Use of the Catechism - From Luther

"I, too, am a theologian who has attained a fairly good practical knowledge and experience of Holy Scriptures through various dangers.  But I do not so glory in this gift as not to join my children daily in prayerfully reciting the Catechism, that is, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer and meditating on them with an attentive heart.  I do not merely pass over the words hurriedly, but I carefully observe what the individual word means… For God gave the Word that we should impress it on ourselves as Moses says (Deut 6.7), and practice it.  Without this practice our souls become rusty, as it were, and we lose ourselves. (from Luther's exposition of Psalm 126.)"

What Luther Says, Luther on the Small Catechism

Yet Another Layman Reviewed Missouri's Huge Expensive Catechism!

Not teaching Biblical doctrine
but printing money for the LCMS

Hello Pastor Jackson

I read your June 27 post about the LCMS new "Small Catechism".

I was appalled last year when I heard about Concordia Publishing House's new Small Catechism (448 pages), released as part of their Reformation 500 efforts. I realized then that the LCMS was not serious about promoting the doctrines of Martin Luther. Luther wrote the Small Catechism to provide a brief summary of the essentials of the Christian faith that any young person or busy adult could read every day and perhaps memorize.

How anyone in the LCMS heirarchy could seriously believe that in this day and age when people have little free time and when their attention spans are delimited by 140 character Twitter messages that potential Lutheran converts would wade through 448 pages in order to glean the 'essentials' of the Christian faith ? I recall college textbooks with fewer pages. 

 "But look at all the money we are making for ourselves, neither one of us is a real doctor. Hahahahahah! And we prop up Paul McCain, who is just like us but acts like the Pope of Lutherdom."