A Q & A with Joel Penton Of LifeWise Academy
Published: October 7, 2023
1. What is LifeWise Academy?
LifeWise Academy provides Bible education for public school students during school hours. It is what’s known as a ‘Release Time Religious Instruction’ program. Very few people realize that in
1952, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students can receive religious instruction during school hours, provided the program is off school property, privately funded, and they have parental permission. Very few people realize this is possible, but we discovered it was possible in 2018. In 2019, we launched our first two programs in the state of Ohio, and we are gearing up for this coming school year to serve more than 325 schools across 13 states.
2. Why did you decide to found the academy?
We know that students need the word of God, everyone needs the Word of God, especially students!
Church attendance, Bible literacy and professions of faith are all at an all-time low among students. Things like anxiety, depression and suicide are all at all-time highs among students, and we know the Word of God can change their lives! So we want to do everything possible to get it to them. There is no better time than during school hours to teach the Word of God.
3. Share a little about the curriculum. What does it look like?
We have a licensing agreement with a wonderful curriculum called, The Gospel Project. We take students through the entire Bible from Genesis through Revelation over the course of what is typically five years in grades one through five. Students start in Genesis in grade one, they end in Revelation in grade five. Each and every lesson has a three-fold focus: head, heart and hands.
We start with the head asking and answering the question, “What does the Bible say in this passage?”
Then we move to the heart asking the question, “How does this passage connect to the bigger picture of the gospel message? How does this point to Jesus the hero of the bigger story?” And number three hands, “If we rightly understand the gospel and we are changed by Christ, how are we changed? How is our character transformed by God?”
4. Are you seeing change in the communities where LifeWise is located? If so, what are those changes?
Yes, we are absolutely seeing changes! We have stories flooding in every week about changed lives among students, and the ways families lives have been changed! We have stories of families getting reconnected to church, getting baptized, and getting plugged into the community. We also hear stories from schools! In fact, one school did a study on the students who received the most or who took the most trips to the principal’s office for disciplinary reasons. We found that the students who attended LifeWise – their office visits for disciplinary reasons went down over the course of the school year; whereas the students who did not attend LifeWise – their office visits actually went up. So yes, communities are seeing a change!
5. What are public school officials saying about LifeWise? Are they mostly for or against the program?
That’s a good question. Our numbers are showing that they are mostly for the program. By law, they cannot explicitly promote or discourage participation in the program. However, the vast majority of administrators that we talked to are opening the door for LifeWise to engage with their students. That is in part because it is so legal, but it is also in part because they see that it can be so impactful. While we receive some hesitation and we see some reservations, the truth is that the vast majority are very welcoming.
6. How does LifeWise work? How do kids fit them in their busy days?
That really varies from school to school. Some schools use lunchtime, some schools incorporate it into the specials rotation-things like art, music and gym. Some schools allow students to opt out of library time or tech time or other times that are not graded. We found that where there’s a will there’s a way and schools have different ways of working those logistics.
7. How can people learn more about LifeWise? How do people get it started in their own communities?
Everybody can get engaged and involved! Simply visit our website – LIFEWISE.ORG and click ‘Find Your School’ and look up your school district to see if there’s already a LifeWise effort underway in your community. If not, you can be the person who gets the ball rolling! It all starts with growing interest in your community for a local program. You can add your name to the local Community Interest List and share that web page from our website with others. Adding your name simply says, “Yes, I would like to see the Bible taught to our local public school students”. After we see 50 signatures on your Community Interest List we can move on with the 10-step process to launch your local LifeWise.
8. Is there a cost to participate in this program for the parents and children? What about the school or local organization?
There is no cost to schools or participating families. Each community forms a local leadership team to run their local program.
9. How is the program paid for? The curriculum and teachers?
LifeWise is 100 percent funded through private donations. Each local leadership team raises funds locally to cover the cost of staff, transportation, curriculum, etc.
For more information, visit https://www.lifewise.org.
For more information about what schools in Alabama are participating so far, visit https://lifewise.org/interest/.