I had responsibility to prepare a handful of candidates for adult baptism some fifteen years ago. After completing Jack Miller’s Sonship Course in 1996 (World Harvest Mission, Jenkintown, PA), the German Reformer Martin Luther’s understanding of active faith in Christ became precious. As I thought how to prepare candidates, it came to me that there is no need to reinvent twenty centuries of Christian experience. Thinkers and pastors have worked on initiation into the Christian life. So, I prepared an approachable edition of Luther’s Small Catechism. Run it in at least three sessions. You would need to research, possibly by personal Bible study or hearing a sermon or lecture related to each session. Click below and help yourself. If you see possible edits or changes in structure, or would like to add commentary, please, get in touch. Baptism, Move of Faith
I should note that Jack Miller’s disorganized but quite wonderful Sonship course took inspiration from many sources including Luther’s Commentary on Galatians (available here and there on the net for free; probably the best thing you could read today or any day for free, except the Bible). Richard Lovelace’s Dynamics of Spiritual Life — Lovelace was a Gordon-Conwell Seminary prof at the same time as Jack was a renegade prof at Westminster Seminary Phila. — tracks closely with Sonship. “Why do we live the Christian life as orphans when those in Christ are sons and daughters?” might be the focussing question of Sonship.
Ted Stammers 