By Bill Jack, Worldview Academy faculty member, www.worldview.org
May 2000 – What does the next generation face? You name it. Politicians belittle America’s heritage and the media encourage selfishness and apathy. College professors regularly provide “education” based on atheistic or New Age assumptions. When Christians seek to apply their worldview to science, the arts, or even ethics, they are told to keep their faith to themselves.
Christian parents work diligently to face these challenges and prepare their children to surmount them. But the job is difficult, and sometimes Mom or Dad feels like the Lone Ranger – fighting alone against overwhelming odds.
Fortunately, the cavalry has arrived. Worldview Academy (WVA), a nondenominational Christian ministry, provides much-needed support for parents seeking to train their students to follow Christ every day. By offering week-long Leadership Camps in different regions in the summer and fall, WVA affords parents a unique opportunity to train their teenage student at an affordable price.
Josh Harris, the former editor of New Attitude magazine, writes, “Why send your student to a Worldview Academy Camp? For the same reason you send a soldier to the armory before battle.”
Students echo his enthusiasm. One student wrote, “WVA was such a blessing. What I learned has come in handy in so many ways... If I [had not] gone, I probably would have stumbled into some pretty deep stuff – I’m glad my eyes were opened.”
Another said, “Thank you so much for making my WVA an experience of a lifetime. The classes were very interesting, and I learned and grew so much closer to the Lord through them.”
Yet another wrote, “This summer I led four people to Christ and witnessed to over 30…. Camp this year was the best week of my entire life.”
This enthusiasm is shared by virtually every student who attends. In 1999, each Worldview Academy student was asked to rank his “overall camp experience” on a scale of 1 to 5. The average score students gave for WVA camp was 4.87!
Parents respond with equal excitement. One mother and father wrote that their daughter “encountered the living God in a fresh and powerful way at camp. He spoke to her and gave her ‘marching orders’ for this next school year…. You prepared her for the inevitable obstacles and for the long-haul she is beginning…. We thank you and bless you for your investment into our daughter’s life.”
Debra Bell, author of The Ultimate Guide to Home Schooling, sent her two boys and was thrilled with the results: “The camp had an incredible impact upon my kids – not at all an emotional high, but a solid deposit in their souls and minds that continues to bear fruit.”
Why all the hubbub? Because Worldview Academy isn’t your typical camp. Although most camps treat students like “fun-junkies,” Worldview Academy treats students like people who wrestle with the big issues just like everyone else. Students at Academy Leadership Camps spend about 26 hours in class, learning to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Students graduate with a basic understanding of non-Christian worldviews like the New Age movement and atheism, and the ability to apply the Christian worldview to fundamental questions about origins, aesthetics, and human nature.
Classes integrate to form a foundation in three key areas – worldview, apologetics/evangelism and servant leadership. What makes the Leadership Camp truly unique is that students leave with both head-knowledge and heart-knowledge, having applied what they learned in the classroom in various practicums.
The bottom line: Worldview Academy gets results. The Nehemiah Institute administered the PEERS test (a scientific measure of a student’s beliefs regarding politics, economics, education, religion and social issues) to the Minnesota 1996 WVA students the day before the camp started and then again the day before the camp ended. These students demonstrated a 75.4% increase in their understanding of the Christian worldview in just one week’s time.
This year, Worldview Academy offers ten camps nationwide, from Washington and California, across the Midwest, to Delaware and Virginia. To take advantage of Christian camping’s best-kept secret, call 1-800-241-1123 for a brochure and registration form. 
