How to Teach the Westminster Shorter Catechism to Adults: A Sunday School Plan

Teach the Westminster Shorter Catechism to adults a few questions at a time, in the order the catechism gives itself: first what Scripture teaches us to believe about God (Q. 1-38), then the duty God requires (Q. 39-107). Give every class the same rhythm: read the question and answer, open the Scripture proofs, explain the hard words, discuss, apply, and memorize one answer together. A year of Sundays covers all 107 questions without rushing, and a 13-week quarter can survey the whole.

Below you will find why the catechism serves adults, how it is organized, both plans, a session outline, help for adults who have never memorized anything, and a note for Reformed Baptist churches.

Why teach a catechism to adults?

Many adults in Reformed churches were never catechized. Some came from other traditions. Some grew up in the church but only heard the catechism recited by children. They know many true things about God without knowing how those things fit together. A catechism gives them a short, ordered summary of what Scripture teaches, in sentences they can carry.

Paul told Timothy, "Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 1:13, ESV). A catechism is one way a church hands on that pattern. For an adult class it offers at least four things:

• A shared vocabulary. Justification, adoption and sanctification (Q. 33-35) stop being sermon words and become words the class can define.
• A map. Sermons, Bible reading and hard providences find their place in a larger whole.
• Stability. A believer who knows the shape of the faith is less easily carried along by every new teaching (Ephesians 4:14).
• Equipment for the home. Parents and grandparents cannot hand down what they never learned.

Not every Christian shares this practice. Some churches avoid catechisms and creeds because they want nothing to stand beside the Bible's authority. Reformed churches share that concern and answer it differently: the catechism is a subordinate standard. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, for example, receives the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as secondary standards, "the Bible itself being the only infallible rule of faith and practice." Your class shows that conviction every week when it opens the proofs and tests each answer by Scripture, as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11).

How are the 107 questions organized?

Q. 3 supplies the outline. The Scriptures principally teach "what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man." Everything after it follows those two halves.

What to believe concerning God (Q. 1-38)

• Q. 1-3: the chief end of man and Scripture as the rule
• Q. 4-8: who God is, the Trinity and his decrees
• Q. 9-12: creation and providence, including the covenant of life
• Q. 13-19: the fall, sin and the misery of man's estate
• Q. 20-28: the covenant of grace and Christ the Redeemer, his offices, humiliation and exaltation
• Q. 29-38: the Spirit's application of redemption: effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, and the believer's hope at death and resurrection

The duty God requires (Q. 39-107)

• Q. 39-81: the moral law, summed up in the Ten Commandments, with what each one requires and forbids
• Q. 82-87: what sin deserves, faith in Jesus Christ and repentance unto life
• Q. 88-97: the outward means of grace: the word and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper
• Q. 98-107: prayer, with the Lord's Prayer as its pattern

One feature deserves attention with adults. The law does not arrive as a ladder to climb. Q. 44 says the preface to the commandments teaches us that "because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer," we are bound to keep them. Duty comes to people God has already redeemed. That answer can change how a class hears the next forty.

A one-year plan for an adult Sunday school class

Forty-eight Sundays cover the catechism at a steady pace and leave room for holidays, review weeks and the occasional guest. Begin whenever your Sunday school year begins.

Two quarters need a word. The third is where the catechism reaches most directly into ordinary life, because the "required" and "forbidden" answers speak to words, money, work, rest and desire. Do not rush it. The fourth contains Q. 95, where Presbyterian and Baptist convictions part ways. If your class includes people from Baptist backgrounds, state the Presbyterian conviction plainly and describe the Baptist view as Baptists describe it: baptism for those who personally profess faith in Christ.

A 13-week quarter option

If you have one quarter, survey the whole catechism and save the detail for a later year. Read every answer in the range together, but memorize only one each week.

1. Q. 1-3: why we exist and how God speaks
2. Q. 4-8: who God is and his decrees
3. Q. 9-12: creation and providence
4. Q. 13-20: the fall and the covenant of grace
5. Q. 21-28: Christ the Redeemer
6. Q. 29-31: the Spirit and effectual calling
7. Q. 32-38: justification, adoption, sanctification and our hope
8. Q. 39-44: the duty God requires and the preface to the law
9. Q. 45-62: commandments one to four
10. Q. 63-81: commandments five to ten
11. Q. 82-87: sin, faith and repentance
12. Q. 88-97: the word and the sacraments
13. Q. 98-107: prayer and the Lord's Prayer

For twelve Sundays, combine weeks 2 and 3.

How to run a catechism class session

A class of 45 to 50 minutes can follow the same six steps every week. The repetition is part of the teaching.

1. Read the question and answer aloud together. Everyone hears the exact words before anyone explains them.
2. Open the Scripture proofs. The OPC publishes a free PDF of the Shorter Catechism with the proof texts printed under each answer. Choose two or three and read each one in its context, not as a stand-alone line.
3. Explain the terms. The wording dates from 1647. "Estate" in Q. 17 means condition. "Propriety" in Q. 52 means ownership. Define the words before you discuss the ideas.
4. Discuss. Ask what the answer says, where Scripture says it, and what would be lost if one phrase were missing.
5. Apply. Close with one concrete thing to believe, confess or do this week.
6. Memorize. Say the answer together two or three times, then pray.

Before class, read the answer slowly yourself and write down the one point a newcomer must not miss. That sentence keeps the discussion from drifting.

What if adults have never memorized anything?

Some adults have not memorized anything since school, and the thought of reciting in front of others can keep them home. Make memory an invitation, not an entrance exam.

• Recite together, not alone. No one says an answer by himself unless he volunteers.
• Start with short answers. Q. 1, Q. 5, Q. 14 and Q. 93 are a single sentence each.
• Review before you add. Open each class with last week's answer.
• Send the answer home. A printed card or a weekly message gives people something to read over breakfast.
• Value understanding first. An adult who can explain justification in her own words has learned Q. 33, even if the wording is not yet exact.
• Learn alongside the children. Parents can practice the same answer with their children during the week.

On wording, choose one text and keep it for the whole class. Many classes read the original and explain the older words. The OPC also offers a 2025 Modern English Study Version for study, noting that it is not part of its doctrinal standards.

What about Reformed Baptist churches?

Reformed Baptist churches have a close parallel in the Baptist Catechism, traditionally called Keach's Catechism after Benjamin Keach and generally dated to 1693 (the oldest surviving copy is from 1695). Read beside the Shorter Catechism, it follows the same order and much of the same wording. It adds a few questions, beginning with "Who is the first and chiefest being?", and gives its own answers on baptism and the Lord's Supper: baptism for those who profess repentance and faith, by immersion, and not for infants, as the 1689 Confession also teaches (LBCF 29.2, 29.4).

The one-year plan works with that catechism. The themes are the same, but the question numbers shift and editions differ slightly, so set your plan by the edition your church uses. Give the Sundays on baptism and the Lord's Supper their own preparation.

How to start an adult catechism class this week

1. Download the OPC's Shorter Catechism with Scripture proofs, or your church's edition of the Baptist Catechism.
2. Pick a start date and choose the one-year or the 13-week plan.
3. Prepare the first Sunday on Q. 1 and print the answer on cards.
4. Ask one or two members to help lead the recitation, so it does not rest on you alone.

If you want help drafting lessons, the Catechism Explained track in Hokmah Expositor's Sunday School curriculum has 12 lessons on the questions and answers of the Shorter Catechism, with biblical exposition, for you to examine and adapt, and the Westminster Confession layer adds confessional references. It is a 12-lesson series, not the full year above, and the plan stands on its own either way.

Sources

• The Shorter Catechism, constitutional text, The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, https://opc.org/sc.html
• Confession and Catechisms (links to the Shorter Catechism with Scripture proofs and the 2025 Modern English Study Version), The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, https://opc.org/confessions.html
• Stephen Nichols, "The Baptist Catechism of 1693," 5 Minutes in Church History, Ligonier Ministries, November 8, 2017, https://learn.ligonier.org/podcasts/5-minutes-in-church-history-with-stephen-nichols/the-baptist-catechism-of-1693
• The Baptist Catechism (1695 text), LearnScripture.net, https://learnscripture.net/catechisms/BC1695/
• Second London Baptist Confession (1689), chapter 29, "Of Baptism," The Reformed Reader, https://reformedreader.org/ccc/1689lbc/english/Chapter29.htm