Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - How to Reach Public School Students with God’s Truth! [Featuring Joel Penton]

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

Did you know a Supreme Court ruling allows children to learn about the Bible during public school hours? Joel Penton joins Pastor Allen on this podcast to discuss the positive ways this can impact children in our nation. Penton is the Founder and CEO of LifeWise Academy, which provides biblical education to public school students during the school day, covering the entire Bible by sixth grade. They operate their program based on a 1952 Supreme Court ruling that allows children to be released from school for religious education, with parental consent. “There are 13,000 public school districts, 90,000 school buildings, 50 million public school students, and we see no reason why we shouldn't at least try to make Bible education available to every single one,” Penton said. Listen to the podcast to learn more about this powerful way to bring God’s Truth to public schools.More Info: LifeWise Academy Website: https://lifewise.org/impact/U.S. Reports: Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952): https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep343/usrep343306/usrep343306.pdf__ It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6d Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

They had started a program that saw incredible success. They had 95% of the entire elementary school enrolled in the program being taught the Bible on a weekly basis. Their question for me was, if this is so legal and so impactful, why don't more communities have it? My answer to them was that I think that it's really challenging to pull off. You basically have to start a private school. You've got to find the facility, the curriculum, the systems. I said, you need to put it in a box, make it. scalable, make it replicable,

so that other communities could do it without reinventing the wheel. They said, that sounds like a good idea. We don't want to do that, but we think you should do that. Today, we face an overwhelming amount of negativity. From hostile politics to dysfunctional rants on social media, we need something to cut through the noise and remind us that there's still good in the world.

There's still hope. Pastor and author Alan Jackson is that voice of truth and courage. Through his inspirational new show, We can learn how to reset our focus, flourish in a time of fear, and be a source of light and hope in today's climate. It's time for a new perspective. Watch Alan Jackson now. Welcome to our culture and Christianity podcast. You know, it seems a lifetime ago, but about four years ago we were in the midst of the shutdowns and lockdowns and the COVID craziness.

And as awful as it seemed, one of the things that came out of it that I think was really a positive was we woke up to the fact that our schools were really in trouble. that the curriculum and what was happening in our public schools was not what it needed to be. And one of the more creative solutions has been initiated by my guest today. If you don't know Joel Penton, you should. He is leading the Lifewise Academy, and he's not just talking about the problems in the schools. He's implementing a solution to make life better for our students and our families. So, Joel, welcome to our podcast today. Thank you for having me, Pastor Jackson.

It's an honor. You tell us a little bit about Lifewise Academy and how that got started, and then I will kind of explain it more to the people, but I want them to understand their help is on the way. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate the chance. So Lifewise Academy, we provide Bible education for public school students during school hours, which to many of your listeners may sound a bit wild or a bit strange. What few people realize is that in 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students can in fact be released from public school during school hours to receive religious instruction if the program is off school property, privately funded, and students have parental permission. So again, over 70 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled on this. Sadly, this opportunity has been somewhat under the radar, very underutilized for several decades. And a few years ago, people in my hometown reached out to me. Little did I know that they had started a released. It's called Released Time Religious Instruction.

That's the legal term. They had started a program that saw incredible success. They had 95% of the entire elementary school enrolled in the program being taught the Bible on a weekly basis. Their question for me was, if this is so legal and so impactful, why don't more communities have it? my answer to them was that I think that it's really challenging to pull off. You basically have to start a private school. You've got to find the facility, the curriculum, the systems. I said, you need to put it in a box, make it scalable, make it replicable,

so that other communities could do it without reinventing the wheel. They said, that sounds like a good idea. We don't want to do that, but we think you should do that. And so that's how I got kind of roped into starting Lifewise Academy. That's when Lifewise Academy was born. and we launched our first programs in 2019. You got Voluntold. That's exactly right.

I think many of us serving the Lord had some voices in our lives like that. Well, this is fascinating to me. So if I understand correctly, you are doing Bible-based teaching to children who are in students who are in public schools. And if you have parental permission

and it's privately funded, that's all legal. It's completely legal. Not only has the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, ruled on this. Now more than half the states in the nation have laws specifically about release time on the books. And it's not something that's just a relic from many decades ago. In increasing frequency, states are passing laws. Just in the last few months, Indiana updated their law so that

now if a student requested, a parent requested, the school can't say no. Oklahoma just had their law signed their bill signed into law by the governor last week. And so it is happening in a rapid way. That is remarkable. So is your background, are you an educator by training? How did you decide this was your lane? Well, believe it or not, I majored in communications at Ohio State where I got to play some football. A lot of us football players had the communications major for whatever reason. But I actually He spent 12 years in full-time ministry traveling and speaking full-time, speaking in high schools and middle schools and doing evangelism in the evenings. And so I spent 12 years in the education space, particularly coordinating with principals and

superintendents and that kind of experience lended itself to helping to craft this program. You know, the only real complaint I have is red is kind of the color for the Lifewise Academy. and I have a brother who's a pastor in Columbus, so I'm aware that you have this new startup university there. Oh, yes. I live in the Southeastern Conference world, so I have a little trouble supporting anybody who uses big red buses in the name of the kingdom of God. But I guess maybe with the help of the Holy Spirit, we'll overcome that hurdle.

We're just trying to demonstrate how we're washed in the blood of the land. I'm sure. That is the truth. So tell us about the practical expression. of this because I know bus, you know, you move the students. Tell us a little bit if somebody that's listening to us and they wanted to bring Lifewise Academy into their community or their city, what does that mean in practical terms? Yeah, so I can tell you a little bit about the logistics. We tend to start at the elementary level and the classes are incorporated typically with the

specials rotation. So kids often have these specials. You know, they have art class once a week, music class once a week. They have gym class here and there. And so schools will typically scheduled as part of that. And so our programs will receive one or two classrooms of students at a time on a rotation. So as an example, our largest program serves an elementary school that has a thousand students in the elementary school. Well, over 900 of them are in Lifewise Academy. And so five times a day, five days a week, a 72 passenger bus, a big red bus, pulls up to the school and two classrooms get on the bus, take it less than a mile down the road to the YMCA,

that's where we hold those classes. They go into two classrooms. They learn a Bible lesson where they're taught a Bible story. It's connected to the gospel and how it transforms our life. They get back on the bus, head back to the school, and the bus picks up another class, and it runs all week long. And so those are the logistics. It varies from school to school.

That's the ongoing logistics, But in terms of getting it started, we have a 10-step launch process that has now been proven a few hundred times over. We're confirmed in over 500 school buildings next school year. And anybody in any community across the country can engage. 500 schools? As of today, 524 schools across 23 states. And that number changes. It grows almost daily.

All right. And you said this has to be privately funded. So how do you normally put together those funding streams? Yeah, as part of that launch process, it starts by growing community interests, which we could talk about. But then a steering committee comes together. And ultimately, as we get school approval, there's a director and a leadership board. We train that team with proven strategies for every aspect of the ministry, including fundraising. And so the funds are all raised locally through local individuals, businesses, churches.

and it goes to support things like if there's transportation needed, if they're hiring teachers, if the various materials and things like that. And I'll tell you, funding is not normally the main obstacle. When people in communities, when Christians hear that this is possible that, wait, our kids can study the Bible during school hours, people say, you know, what size check do you need to be right? I can understand that. I imagine that is true.

What about the curriculum you use? Is it something that you all have written, or is it something you're utilizing from someplace else? We've partnered with the gospel project, which is a wonderful curriculum produced by Lifeway. So under our licensing agreement, we're able to kind of craft it, modify it to best fit our context. And so we tend to serve grades one through five.

We do serve all the way K through 12 in certain situations. But the typical class is grades one through five. And so kids will start in Genesis. in first grade, and by the time they finish elementary school, they'll finish with Revelation. They'll go through the entire Bible. We talk about a three-fold focus, every single class, head, heart, and hands. So head, what's the information on the page? What does the story say?

Heart, how does this connect to the bigger picture story of the gospel message? How is Jesus the hero of every story? And so we're telling kids about the gospel each and every week. And then hands, if we are transformed by the gospel, how is our character? different. And so every week, they're headed back to that school with some real practical character lessons, which the public schools absolutely love. This is amazing news. I mean, this is terrific. Now, I'm a professional Christian. I've lived in church world for quite a while, and we're famous for being divisive. So do you have trouble

with Christians fighting about which translation of the Bible you're advocating for? Or do you get, how do you stay out of all that theological pettiness? Sure. Well, there are certainly, conversations around those topics. However, what we're finding is that there's much less division around this than there used to be, in this sense. We are very clear about the gospel. And so the churches that are not fans of the gospel, that are not enthusiastic about the gospel, they kind of self-select out of the process and they don't necessarily engage. And those that are left, who are excited about the gospel, tend to link arms. So now we stay away from, from what we would call secondary issues.

So we're not talking about mode of baptism. We're not talking about, you know, eschatological matters. You know, we're sticking to the gospel basics. But what we're finding is that churches are at a place now where they know that it's time to get together. I believe a theologian recently said that when there's a maniac at the door, feuding brothers reconcile. And that is the impression that,

I get is that the churches are looking around saying, hey, I know we've never partnered on anything before, but if we don't get together now, then all is lost. We need to do this. Absolutely, we do. The line I typically use is that if you and I can disagree on a point and we can both still go to heaven, then I won't break fellowship over that. Amen. We've been petty for too long. What about some of the harder cultural issues that are such hot buttons in the public square these days around marriage and family and human sexuality. Do you bring that into your biblical curriculum and biblical worldview? So it's not necessarily explicitly part of the curriculum, although there are implications. I mean, we're teaching kids about the creation of Adam and Eve. And so we're talking about,

you know, the first marriage. And we're talking about gender in that sense. And we do take a very conservative stance. It's almost weird to call it conservative. We take a biblical stance on, you know, A boy is a boy, a girl's a girl, marriage is a man and a woman, sanctity of life. You know, those are all in our documents, even though, again, we're teaching elementary school kids. And so we're not necessarily delving into these topics. And so there are certainly critics, I guess you could say, on the outside that recognizes we don't hide these facts. And so there's critics that don't like biblical teachings that are critical. and that doesn't necessarily concern us, I guess.

Right. Well, everybody didn't cheer for Jesus. I don't think we should expect everybody to be happy about the fact that we're advocating his message. Correct. It's going to take some courage to take Jesus back into our culture. Well, Joel, this is a fascinating, so I'm assuming you want to put this in all 50 states and beyond.

So you're on a pretty fast growth track. If you started in 2019 and you're in 23 states, that's rockin for Jesus. Yeah, when we started in 2019, again, we had no idea whether it would work. You know, the general thought was this hasn't really worked in 70 years. What makes us think it's going to work now? We had a hunch. And so when we launched our first two programs and they went well, we said, let's try to serve 25 schools by 2025. That was our goal, 25 by 25. Here we are in 2024, having 20xed that goal. And so, yeah, I mean, we know there are 13,000 public school districts, thousand school buildings, 50 million public school students, and we see no reason why we shouldn't at least try to make Bible education available to every single one. Do you have to transport the

children? Is it possible to do the classes in this public school system, or do you have to be outside the building? One of the three big Supreme Court takeaways was off school property, and then, of course, privately funded with parental permission. And so we do take them off school property. oftentimes we have an adjacent property. The community will buy the house next to the school and renovate it to classrooms or to build something next door. But more often than not, we are taking the big red school bus down the road. It doesn't necessarily bother us. We almost appreciate the high bar that is required because we're more than happy to get the volunteers, to raise the money,

to do what it takes and do it with excellence to get the gospel to these kids. Yeah, I don't have the imagination that serving God or helping his people should be easy. Most of the worthwhile things in life are difficult. And so it doesn't offend me at all that there's a high bar on this. I think it's a part of the engagement. We say we care about our kids and they're our first priorities. We will haul them all over the country to play sports and spend weekend after weekend, you know, traveling with them to do that.

I think finding a way for them to go down the country. the block to hear the gospel is a worthwhile investment. Amen to that. And we appreciate that it requires sacrifice. It is a demonstration, we believe, to those children, to the parents, to the world. When they start asking the questions, you know, wait, why on earth would you spend the money and the time to get this bus, to put this operation together that we can say, yes, it is a major sacrifice, but it is definitely worth it for your children to receive the thing of infinite value, which is the Word of God. You mentioned the school with 1,000 students and 900 of them are participating. Is your percentage of participation, is it that high as a rule? I mean, that's extraordinary to me.

No, that's pretty high for us. What's typical, it depends on the context. And so we serve the most inner city urban areas. We serve the most affluent suburban areas. And we serve the most affluent suburban areas. and the most remote rural areas. And certainly in the rural communities, the smaller schools, you can hit critical mass and hit those high percentage numbers pretty quickly. You can start at like a 60% and climb up all the way to that kind of 90% area. And the urban and suburban context, in part because there's so many things going on, we tend to start with a much lower percentage and then it's a slow grow.

What about the teachers? Are you getting support from the faculty in these schools? There's often some hesitation on the front end, understandably so. They're wondering, you know, how is this going to fit with the school day? We already feel like we don't have enough time. But what we're seeing is that once the program is up and running, in overwhelming numbers, administrators, teachers are supportive of what we do. In fact, we do a survey every year, and we had well over 500 educators respond to our survey,

and it was over three quarters of them see that Lifewise is benefiting their school. also survey the parents, and believe it or not, 99% of them recommend other parents participate in Lifewise. And so along with that, one of the things the educators appreciate is that there are measurable positive outcomes. We had a third-party independent study conducted that shows that when a school implements life-wise, attendance goes up significantly and in-school and out-of-school suspensions go down. And so they're reaping the benefits in the building. Yeah, that was really my next question. I'm sure there's some data or information about the impact these classes have in the students in the classroom and in those schools, which should give you much broader open doors for follow-up. Certainly. Well, decades of studies show that when a child has a Bible education in their life, all of the great things you're looking for for kids increase, you know, academics, improve, mental health improves, all the risk factors go down.

And that has been well established. No one is surprised by that any longer. But it is nice now to be able to show definitively and specifically Lifewise Academy, our program also sees those same benefits. You know, I'm sure you know better than I do. But the Bible is a part of the educational process in our nation from our founding up until just very recent days. I mean, if you look across the span of that, that I think the deterioration on our educational system can pretty much be tracked back to trying to remove, you know, the biblical perspective, biblical worldview from public education.

It's an enormous part of what the kids need. And you have found a way to introduce that once again into the public school system. Well, there's no question. And I see that I think I recognize that book that's sitting in front of you there. I write about that a little bit in the book that not only was the Bible a large part, of our education system when it began. But it was actually the motivation for the creation of our education system.

In fact, the first education system came together because communities wanted their children to be able to read the Bible. And so you have things like the Old Deluder Satan Act in Massachusetts before the founding of our nation where there's a law essentially that said that communities have to find a way to teach their kids to read so they can,

can read the Bible so they won't be deceived by Satan. I mean, the Bible was utterly central to education and to think that it has been removed really is like ripping the foundation out from underneath the house. Well, it's even more heinous than that. To me, they're trying to deny us our heritage. That is our heritage as a people and as a nation. We wouldn't imagine saying to any other indigenous people group that your heritage is illegitimate. And we're going to separate you from that, and we're going to shame you for every suggesting that you should pass that along to your children. The scripture being integrated into the education of our children is the heritage of this nation. And I'm deeply offended by anyone that tries to separate us from that heritage.

So the book you mentioned, I also see them over your shoulder, but if our audience doesn't know, It's called During School Hours. Joel Pinton is the author. Where can people find a copy of this other than my office or yours? Oh, sure. Well, you're certainly welcome to stop by my office. We have some extra copies. But if that's not convenient for you, then I would invite you to maybe check out Amazon. You know, you can get the, there's also the audio book on Amazon. You can go to our website. And as much as I would love for people to check out the book, even more so, I would love for them to just get to our website to engage with the ministry, you know, to consider. or how they could engage and help start a Lifewise in their community. So the website is the best place for them to start that investigation and how to bring Lifewise to their communities? Yeah, that's exactly right.

So if you go to Lifewise.org, you can actually look up every single, any school district in the nation. And so I invite all of your listeners to go to the Lifewise.com, search for your school district and see, is there already a movement underway? The way we start these things, it starts. There's a 10-step process. but step number one is a developing community interest, raising community interest. And so we have a

community interest list, which is essentially a petition that people in the community sign saying, yes, I'd like this in my community. When we have 50 signatures, we then begin the process of the steering committee, putting together the plan. And so it all starts with just somebody getting to the website, signing their name, sharing it with friends. And then the Lord raises up people for the task. I believe that. Well, this is Summer. time. So parents are thinking about what's coming in the fall for their children. What's the normal timeline if you wanted to bring lifewise to a community? How long is it take to ramp that up and get everything in place? Really, anywhere from six to 18 months is pretty typical. And a lot of it depends on

just how quickly do the right people come together. How responsive is the school. Now, our success rate's 93% when we get to the point that we go and speak to the school, 93% of the time, it's a yes, it's a green light. But how long it takes to get through all that varies. If a community is beginning the process now, we'd probably be chatting with them about a January 1 start, which is pretty typical. That's remarkable to me that you could have something up and running

available for a public school system and with a runway that's short. Again, it varies. But now that we've kind of been around this block, again, a few hundred times, it's not rocket science. It's fairly, in some ways, there are things that are counterintuitive. But, you know, we stepped on all the landmines. We found all the potholes.

And so we can kind of point those out. Well, I think it's a remarkable initiative. And I truly believe the Lord has led you into this pathway to make a difference in our public schools. Have I left anything out that you, the people need to know about life wise or during school hours? I mean, certainly we can pray. Yeah. certainly, and they can engage with it. There's a variety of ways people can engage.

And so the main thing is to get to the website. There's all sorts of videos. There's FAQ page. There's all of that. But before they, before, you know, you leave, if you're listening, would love for you to find your school and submit your name to get plugged in. You know, I meet people all the time who say to me, you know, when my children were small, I was busy chasing a career.

My faith was small. And they regret that they missed that window. This feels like a wonderful opportunity for people. in those life seasons to put their shoulder to the wheel and create an opportunity for children in this current generation to be exposed to scripture and to the gospel and all of the valuable things that come from that kind of an opportunity. So let's not just lament what we failed to do. Let's determine to make the next generation stronger by what we're doing now. Amen. And we hear that a lot as well. In large part, I mean, there's people of all walks of life

that serve with lifewise, whether it's on staff or a volunteer role. But in large part, it is the generation that is approaching or just past retirement. And we hear that same thing that the, well, for one, they most clearly see the change that has occurred in the education system, right? They remember a very different educational time that they see their grandkids and they see others not getting. And then, yes, for many of them, there are things they kind of wish they would have done differently, and this is an opportunity for not only their own grandchildren, but their communities.

Well, most of the students are not going to have the opportunity to go to private schools. So the way I think that we show our concern for the young people and the children is to do our very best to see that the public schools become places that are safe spaces where the education that's being given to them doesn't separate them from God, but actually strengthens a relationship with God. So I'm very grateful. My guest today is Joel. Pinton, it's Lifewise Academy, check out the website. More than that, begin to ask God how you can be involved. Folks, the children aren't somebody else's responsibility. They're ours, and we have to care enough about them to protect them from the rather predatory attitude that seems to be stalking the streets of our communities.

People see our children as profit centers for all sorts of abominable things, and I believe the best resolution to that is that we care enough to introduce them to the Word of God, to the reality of a living God, and then I trust what will emerge from that to make the next generation much stronger. Joel, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you, and thank you for your strong stand, Pastor Jackson. It really is an honor to be speaking with you. You know, one voice at a time, one handshake at a time, we'll make a difference for the kingdom. Amen. Even if you are in Ohio state country. Go bucks. If we can get a big orange bus, maybe we can talk about the southeast. I don't know. We'll see.

The color is a non-negotiable, I'm afraid. Joel, thank you. We'll do a follow-up soon. I want to hear how you're doing later in the year. That would be wonderful. Thanks so much. Well, I want to thank everybody for listening today. It's culture and Christianity.

That doesn't mean every day is a word study on a Greek verb. Ultimately, the goal is to take our faith and engage our culture with that. And Joel and the Lifewise team are doing that in a very practical way that is within the boundaries that we've been granted by the law. And I think if we fail to take advantage of that and give our children an opportunity to hear the gospel, honestly, we're abandoning our assignment. So there's a lot of ways that we can take the name of Jesus into our culture without doing it in a sermon, sitting in a church on a Sunday. So I'm grateful for Joel in the time he spent with us today. And I hope you'll go check out Lifewise Academy. Culture and Christianity makes a difference.

Hey, thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast. and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture. I'll see you next time.