#273 The Student Becomes the Teacher

This fall I started teaching the Heidelberg Catechism (one of my church's statements of faith and a good summary of the Bible's main teachings, for those of you who don't know) to a few teenagers at our church. It's my first time teaching a full-length class on the catechism, since we did not have a high school Sunday school class at my first church. I've met quite a few people that really did not enjoy catechism classes when they were growing up, but I liked studying the Heidelberg Catechism a lot. For my peers and me, catechism classes weren't about rote memorization but discussing what we believe and what it means for our lives. I really appreciated getting a better understanding of my faith. That it made faith feel more personal and helped me develop a more fully-formed worldview.

So I'm excited to go through the Heidelberg Catechism with a new group of students. I hope that I can communicate my enthusiasm effectively. I hope that I can help them get a clearer sense of not only what our church believes but what they believe. I hope that this class will be part of equipping my students for life as Christians. And I'm hopeful that I'll keep learning myself.

And now for something completely different. Nine weeks ago I promised to update you on how my half marathon went. My race last Saturday was… okay I guess. I was training to run the 13.1 miles in 90 minutes. I fell off pace in the middle of the race and ran out of gas toward the end, finishing in 94:35. That's not a horrible time, but it certainly wasn't what I wanted out of the day. At least it felt good to get more serious about training again. Maybe I'll try another race sometime in the future.

Grace and peace,

BMH