Summary of the results of the survey

An overall review about the role of adult catechism in the Hungarian Reformed Church has not been made so far. The tradition of adult catechism in the church is significant moreover its role in the life of the church is becoming more and more important. There are several forms and opportunities of training people who are only visitors and do not have a close relationship with the congregation, the members and the brothers who are involved in the ministry, and of course the elders. All these make it possible for the Reformed Church to be a learning, and teaching church again.

The present thesis is relevant because the ways of ecclesiastical non-formal adult education of the 21st century has not been developed yet. Looking for solutions is diverse. It can be clearly stated that the natural place of Christian teaching is the local church. It is because Christianity is not a collection of doctrines only, which can be acquired at any educational course. The knowledge gained is not for its own sake. Church oriented teaching provides commitment in Christian faith. The different groups of the church require a different education forms and content. Congregations having a day by day relationship with the world outside the church can react to the challenges in a more sensitive way, than an educational institution based on a fixed syllabus or a training formation having a certain train of thought. Each form of education needs to take into consideration both the traditions of the church and the questions of life of modern people. Another common feature in the above mentioned forms of education is that they do not only provide cognitive information, but they wish to help the development of people’s personality, and therefore contribute to the growing of the church, through preaching the gospel.

As the theoretical basis of church oriented adult education, first we had a look at the major parts of the Holy Bible concerning adult education, then we examined what point of views developmental psychology and andragogy can add to the survey. The theoretical part of the thesis ends with the description of the special place of the catechist teaching adults.

The second chapter gives a historical summary enumerating the place of adult catechism in the church from the Reformation to the change of political regime. First of all it studies what influence the learning theories of Reformation had in 16th-17th century. According to chronological order it is followed by the survey of the Enlightenment and Rationalism. The evaluation of the role of adult education in the early 20th century is succeeded by the description of the Protestant adult education centres. Since the most important form of Protestant adult education between 1936 and 1948 was the adult education centre. The description of hard times between 1948 and 1990 ends the historical survey.

The third main part of the thesis evaluates the results of a national questionnaire completed in 2006. Trying to express the proportion of protestant population according to geographical area and the type of settlement as well, the questions of the survey aimed to reveal the present situation of church adult education, the teaching sermons and people’s expectations in connection with these. The survey intended to find a relationship between sex, age, qualification, type of settlement, geographical area and the desire to learn.

Teaching, which is a prepared education for all members of the congregation, is a natural and logical answer of the church to the challenge of secularization growing to considerable proportions. Jenő Sebestyén stated in 1938 that teaching, improving theological knowledge, is the principle of prosperity of the church. Congregations, growing in knowledge, faith and obedience in God, may attract people simply with their mere presence.

Chapter 4 looks at the adult education of the congregation at the beginning of 21st century. People taking part in the trainings can be put into four groups on the basis of their relationship to the church. Number one is the group in which people formally do not belong to the church, but through family and friends they are loosely related to the congregation as visitors. Introductory series of teaching about the basics on Christian faith may help to start relationship with them. Visitors can mainly be drawn nearer through their everyday experiences and personal problems and they can experience that people in post modern life can get an answer to their questions. These questions may cover family life, entering a new period of life or ethical questions. The existence of the church and the lives of the members of the congregation give validity of the answers to these questions. The additional value of teaching in the church is the personal and committed atmosphere. The approach is that not only knowledge is important, because knowledge can lead to the recognition of God’s love reaching out for men. In this service teachers’ function is to be a helper. While the catechist teaches the elements of faith, he cannot hide his personal involvement, and in the meantime he gives an example to his students.

The next group involves the members of the church who have already been converted and they are offered meetings where their faith can grow. The aim of these meetings is teaching believers. Teaching is extremely useful as in the case of adult new believers many times decades of lack of Christian education has to be made up for, when the preacher has to fight against old time fixed half-truths, childhood misunderstandings, prejudices, ideas thought to be Biblical though they are far from the Word of God. Thorough knowledge of the Bible and besides creating a comprehensive understanding of the Word of God, developing a Biblical idea of the church are the main targets in this group.

The third level of teaching is the education of those people who do services in the church. It can be a regular, thematic or informal preparatory education among members of the church, or brothers already doing services and the chosen leaders of the church. While teaching children and young people is mainly done within the confines of the church, ideas concerning the education of church helpers are various. Numerous initiatives have been introduced by congregations, diocese, church district, synod, or by associations and educational institutes since 1990.

The fourth level of education aims the chosen leaders, the elders of the church. Training of the elders is undertaken by the Association of Hungarian Reformed Presbyters and has represented the education since 1990, the foundation of the association. The level of education is elementary in the congregation, trainings organized by diocese is at an intermediate level and the first plans were about starting to train elders within the confines of higher education at the Teacher Training College Faculty of Károli Gáspár Reformed University. The thesis gives a summary of the development of training elders, the planned and the achieved ideas.

Although church trainings do not generally give a certificate which could be used at the labour market, their significance is even greater. They do not focus on sections only but they have an impact on the whole personality. Anyone who grows in the Christian faith, finds new identity and a second family in the church and he will be a balanced, socially sensitive and conscientious person. Yet this is not the main goal, but this is the result. Learning in the church helps to understand the events of everyday life, and getting over them critically. The congregation serves as the background, stability, security communal control for all participants in the process.

Effective teaching has an important condition namely that more and more people including the members and the people on the periphery of the church would have the desire to learn. It leads to the effective communication within the church and between the church and the neighbouring people. If it is not present, the church cannot communicate the message it is supposed to pass on to its members and outsiders clearly then the church becomes isolated and gets into a certain cultural ghetto.

It is necessary for the catechist dealing with adults to have andragogycal knowledge as well. The congregation needs true, qualified and dedicated workers who can teach adults. Selection and training of the workers are done in the church districts. The opportunity of local congregations is, recognising the importance of Christian adult education, to start the training forms that are most suitable for the local conditions and needs. Churches express their hope in the future and fulfil the Christ’s commandment of making all people disciples. (Matthew 28,18-20)