LifeWise Academy

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14

This past Tuesday a community meeting was held at our church for those interested in learning more about how to teach the Bible to school students off-campus during school hours. It was a very positive meeting with lots of interest. I thought I would fill you in on some details.

There were twenty people in attendance, many from our congregation, but others as well. Three other congregations were represented. Vince Coleman, a representative from LifeWise Academy, was present with us. The program for the evening was to join in a simulcast with groups from several other states who were also exploring the same goal of teaching the Bible to school students during school hours.

We watched a video about the beginnings of this effort in our country. It originated with the realization that the United States Supreme Court, in 1952, had ruled that the Bible could be taught during school hours off-campus, as part of the “free exercise of religion,” if privately funded and with parental permission. Several communities have taken advantage of this little-known ruling to begin Bible classes for students. This resulted in LifeWise Academy developing curriculum and strategies for these programs. It is this group that met with us on Tuesday. After the video Vince Coleman answered a number of questions.

LifeWise Academy has developed a number of steps in starting such a program in one’s community. The first is to collect fifty signatures of interested people in a community. Our congregation did that quickly. The second is to have a community interest meeting. That happened last Tuesday. The third is to raise $500 for the initial costs for a community’s project. That happened after the meeting Tuesday, as people generously donated to this effort. The fourth is to form an initial Steering Committee made up of people from several congregations in the community. That will be the goal over the next several weeks. The Steering Committee will draft a plan for how to start this program in our community. After a plan is drafted, next will come the process of obtaining school approval.

Our community has many needs. One is the religious education of young people in our community. Teachers from local elementary schools will tell you that students who come to school face many challenges, often because of difficult family environments that hinder learning. LifeWise uses curriculum that teaches character-based lessons from the Bible. It teaches children to value honesty, faith, kindness, and courage while being unashamedly Christian. It teaches them to use their head to know God, their heart to love him, and their hands to serve him.

I am very excited about the possibilities for our community. Would you please pray that God will bless, guide, and empower this effort? It holds the potential to make a tremendous impact in our community.