We noticed an age-difference.
The children, up through confirmation-age, are well-suited to memorizing proof-texts and tying them to the questions at hand.
We adults, age 25 and up, are wired differently.
Rote-memory is slow and difficult, and we prefer to see the proof-texts surrounded by before-and-after Scripture.
These study aids are for the adult mind.
We reverse the order, answer-first (the Scripture reference), then-question (the Explanation).
We provide a wider-range reference, so the readings are more like the pericopes of the Lectionary.
By these tricks, the material in the Explanations is easier for us old folk to absorb.
To do?
Print out a study-aid, or display on your computer screen.
Read the references for a given explanation.
Open the Small Catechism, and read the Explanation.
First the Answer, Then the Question!
Now you're ready to talk to the kids in Confirmation Class about what they're learning.
What if:
the kids never got the idea that the Catechism is something one outgrows upon "graduation" (Confirmation)?
the Elders knew what part of the Catechism with Explanations is being studied by the confirmands?
the Elders talked to the kids about what they're learning?
the Small Catechism was regularly cited in the Bible Studies?
an Explanation turns up often in the church newsletter?
If nobody ever loses interest in that little book, then it never becomes obsolete, right?
