Sending your older teen or college student to a Summit Ministries worldview conference is one of the best things you can do. But don’t take my word for it! Here’s Chuck Colson:
A few years ago, a teenager named Chris attended a worldview training program run by Summit Ministries. He learned a great deal and had a great time. But by the end of the intensive, two-week program, he was exhausted.
As Chris wrote to John Stonestreet, executive director of Summit, “I never had to think so hard...before in my life! So I decided I was just going to veg out for the next few days.”
When some friends invited Chris to a movie, he thought it would be a good way to relax and recover from all that hard thinking. They went to see the latest version of War of the Worlds.
But the film wasn’t the mental vacation Chris expected it to be. As he explained in his letter, “Mr. Stonestreet, I tried to veg out during the movie, but I just couldn’t. I’m watching it thinking, ‘Wait a minute, that’s secular humanism; wait a minute, that’s not true. And what do they mean by that, and how do they know that that’s true!’”
Chris then joked, “I just wanted you to know that you ruined my movie!”
After the film ended, Chris and his friends went out for food and talked about the themes in the movie. His friends were astonished at how much Chris had gotten out of the film. As he told Stonestreet, “They kept asking me, ‘How did you see that? How do you know all that stuff?’ It was a great conversation. And I [learned] I just can’t turn this worldview thing off!”
Good! What a wonderful testimony to the power of worldview training, the kind of training all young people need to undergo, but so often don’t.
That’s why you ought to consider sending your older teenager or college student to a Summit Ministries worldview conference this summer. Summit gives high school and college students a two-week crash course in worldview analysis. They’ll learn about major worldviews battling Christianity for the hearts and minds of people—worldviews like secular humanism, Marxism, postmodernism, and Islam.
Students will learn how Christianity differs from these false philosophies. They’ll also study the big cultural questions—like God’s design for marriage, abortion—and how to respond from a biblical worldview perspective. The idea is to teach kids to place these battles in the larger context of the war of worldviews rather than thinking about them on an issue-by-issue basis.
And if kids don’t get this? The statistics tell a chilling story. Up to 80 percent of young adult Christians disengage from their faith after high school.
So come to BreakPoint.org, and we’ll show you how you can get more information on Summit Ministries or other materials we have. When these kids study, they will discover, as Chris did, that they just can’t turn this worldview thing off.
I’m pleased to tell you that since Chuck recorded this commentary, Summit Ministries has expanded its reach. This summer, students can choose between attending Summit in Colorado, Tennessee, or in California at Biola University. There are nine conferences in all, and my colleague John Stonestreet is a feature instructor. Come to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary, and we’ll have the details, including a major discount for BreakPoint listeners.
BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions.
Publication date: April 6, 2015