A Catechism
for a
New Millemmium
by Paul Hazelden

(A Catechism is a series of questions and answers designed to help people learn and understand.)

1. What is life?
This is life - that they know the Father and Jesus.   It's all about relationships!
 
2. How can you establish a relationship with God?
You can establish a relationship with God by entering a relationship with Jesus.
 
3. Who is Jesus?
The four Gospels in the New Testament tell us about Jesus: about His birth, life, death and resurrection.   The remaining books in the New Testament tell us more abouut Jesus through the experiences of His early disciples.   The first summary of all they knew and experienced of Jesus was this: Jesus is LORD!
 
4. How do you enter a relationship with Jesus?
You can enter a relationship with Jesus, only if you become one of His disciples.
 
5. What is a disciple of Jesus?
A disciple of Jesus is someone who submits to Him as their Lord, who follows Him as their Master, who learns to be like Him as their example, and who accepts His ministry and mission as their own.   Every such disciple is given a new life, becomes part of God's family, the Church, and relates to other disciple of Jesus as brothers and sisters.
 
6. How is Jesus to be our Lord?
Jesus is to be our Lord by our living a life that is consistent with the reality of His divine status.   We do not make Him Lord, we simply acknowledge that He already is Lord, and one day soon every knee will bow down to Him and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
 
7. How is Jesus to be our example?
Jesus' life shows what it means to be fully a human being, and His example shows what is possible for a person who is fully relating to their Heavenly Father.   The early disciples did not seek to follow Jesus by imitating the superficial details of His life, but they did seek to follow His ethical and spiritual example, which was worked out by loving people in pracical ways.
 
8. How are we given a new life?
We enjoy supernatural life and reality, and experience the intimacy of the relationship he enjoyed with His Father, in the way that people experienced God through Him. Jesus' life demonstrated and worked to establish the Kingdom of God.
 
9. What is a Christian?
A Christian is a disciple of Jesus.
 
10. What is the Church?
The Church is the community of Jesus' disciples.   The key characteristic of this community is love.
 
11. What is the Church to do?
The Church is to go into every nation of the world, and in each place, make more disciples of Jesus, baptising them and teaching them.
 
12. How is the Church to do this?
The Church is to do this by using the gifts that God has given the community of Jesus' disciples.