Growing up as a Baptist in rural New York, I thought catechisms were for Roman Catholics. I know I’m not the only one, because I’ve had people assume the same thing as we’ve introduced catechesis to our congregation in Michigan.
Surprisingly, the rise of Sunday school contributed to the decline of catechesis in churches. It’s not that the two things necessarily conflict, but sometimes good ideas have unfortunate consequences.
In recent years, that trend has begun to reverse. We use The Gospel Coalition’s New City Catechism in my home and church to help introduce theological concepts. We want both adults and children to commit these truths to memory.
In 2025, Trevin Wax and Thomas West released The Gospel Way Catechism. This year, they’ve published The Gospel Way Catechism for Kids: Faith-Building Q&As for Young Disciples. It’s a beautifully illustrated book that can be used in the home or at church to help 8-to-12-year-olds answer our culture’s pressing questions, even beyond the standard theological headings.
I had an opportunity to interview Thomas West about this project. You can watch the whole interview here.
How did you and Trevin Wax conceive of The Gospel Way Catechism?
I came across the idea of counter-catechesis in Tim Keller’s How to Reach the West Again. I was in London at the time as a church planter. I remember the distinct spot on the Victoria Line while I was on a Southbound train passing through Pimlico when it hit me. I was headed to church planter training, trying to figure out how to plant a church in northwest London, an area that is very secular.
My initial thought was that I was going to write a little pamphlet for my own church plant, but I decided to pray about it. While I was praying about it, the Lord brought Trevin to mind as a potential partner. So I reached out to him. We saw each other at a conference in California and had a conversation that set the project in motion.
All this started before Keller’s death. Since we knew he was already thinking about counter-catechesis, we didn’t want to start a project that would compete with anything he was doing. So Trevin reached out to let him know what we were thinking about doing. He told us he was working on something for his grandchildren, but he gave us his blessing on the project and asked us to keep him informed. A few months later, Keller went to be with the Lord Jesus in glory.
We’ve dedicated the Gospel Way project to both Lesslie Newbigin and Keller, because we’ve benefited from both of them so much. In his ministry in New York City, Keller was working out Newbigin’s theology of the missionary encounter. He was trying to understand the dominant cultural narratives in our world so that he could offer critique and confrontation, so that people could see how those narratives contrasted with Christ. Only Christ provides the full substance of what we’re hungry for and our culture lacks.
How does The Gospel Way Catechism differ from Heidelberg or the Westminster Shorter Catechism?
We’re not trying to replace the great catechisms that have been written through church history. But catechisms are always meant to address the questions a culture is asking in a particular time.
Luther wrote a longer and shorter catechism. When Calvin set out to reform Geneva, the first thing he did was write a catechism. He only wrote out the church order—instructions for governing the church—after that. But other theologians in the Reformed tradition have tried to distill what they believe in a catechism designed for their specific audience.
Only Christ provides the full substance of what we’re hungry for and our culture lacks.
So we’re doing something that the church has always done: providing this generation with a clear summary of what we believe. Trevin and I don’t see this as a replacement for Heidelberg or Westminster or even the New City Catechism.
We’re building on the great tradition we’ve received. But what sets this apart from some of the older catechisms is that Luther and Calvin weren’t having to ask the same questions about freedom and sexuality. They didn’t have the same concerns about work and rest in a digital economy.
We are so grateful for these older catechisms, and we have built upon that good work, but we’re trying to equip the church for a fresh cultural moment. There will come a day when people look back on The Gospel Way and say, “We appreciate what they were trying to do, but this is what we figured out and we’re going to keep building from where they stopped.” That’s a good thing.
What do you hope the church does with this resource?
We hope The Gospel Way Catechism helps equip the church to have a missionary encounter with modern Western culture. That often begins in the home with parents and kids memorizing these questions and answers together at the dinner table. But it can also be incorporated into the weekly routine of the church.
In my experience, a lot of people 30 years old and younger want more structure in their church lives. They want to feel connected to a tradition that’s bigger than them. That’s part of the reason why we’re seeing a return to catechesis as a tool for discipleship. We’re hoping congregations and families will use the resources to introduce and reinforce the unchanging truths of Scripture.
What do you hope your kids remember about the way you discipled them when they’re raising their own children and their grandchildren?
Above everything else, I hope they remember that I loved Jesus and I wanted them to love Jesus and I wanted them to help other people see and love Jesus as well. I think it really is that simple.
Our great doctrines are important. We need them. But we don’t need to miss the person for all the formulations.
I hope my kids remember me as a person who lived in a relationship with Jesus, hearing him, trusting him, and obeying him, teaching them to do the same. I hope they remember me as a Jesus man, as a Jesus parent, as someone who is concerned with making sure they were connected to Jesus and helping others connect with Jesus as well.
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