{"id":798,"date":"2009-12-04T09:16:12","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T15:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=798"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:03:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:03:46","slug":"didache-blog-tour-day-three-chapter-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/04\/didache-blog-tour-day-three-chapter-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Didache Blog Tour – Day Three, Chapter Four"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday, Holly Rankin Zaher<\/a> and Tripp Fuller<\/a> both weighed in on The Teaching of the Twelve: Believing and Practicing the Primitive Christianity of the Ancient Didache Community<\/em>.\u00a0 Their assignment was to reflect on Chapter Four, \u201cThere Are Two Ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holly is a committed youth pastor, and has been for years.\u00a0 It\u2019s from that perspective that she writes<\/a>,<\/p>\n

In my context of a youth ministry trying to live out the way of Jesus, I can\u2019t help but wonder what our confirmation process look like if we used the Didache to shape at least part of the process. Might that help reshape the notion of confirmation and discipleship from ritual-driven to apprenticeship? Would a frank discussion on ethics and living life in a certain \u201cway\u201d help people understand a relational understanding of faith? Could it be that in discussing a way to life we might discover a deep vat a grace that Tony highlights?<\/p>\n

Indeed, that\u2019s exactly what what the Didache\u2019s original purpose seems to be: as a catechetical manual.\u00a0 It\u2019d be interesting to know if any youth workers out there have used the Didache in confirmation classes.\u00a0 If I were teaching confirmation today, I would use it.<\/p>\n

Tripp<\/a>, also a youth pastor as it so happens, comes at chapter four from his own ana-bapti-mergent perspective, writing,<\/p>\n

The way of life, found in Torah and Jesus, is an insurgent\u2019s way when the world is dominated by a political and cultural ordering of society that fails to value life and live in love.<\/p>\n

He goes on to say that the Didache presents a contrary view of initiation into the Christian life than the \u201cRomans Road\u201d version that is often espoused by modern Christians.\u00a0 And he\u2019s right, the Didache\u2019s way is one of orthopraxy.\u00a0 As I quote Trucker Frank in Chapter Four, it\u2019s \u201cthe heart of God on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Online Resources:<\/p>\n