The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | Joel Penton on Religious Education During School Hours

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

Joel Penton first made his mark on the football field as a national champion for the Ohio State University. Now he’s the founder and CEO of LifeWise Academy. On this episode of "The Daily Signal Podcast," we talk about how his organization is transforming the lives of children by offering a Bible-based education to public school students during school hours. LifeWise is reaching students at more than 100 schools across the United States. As a result, a remarkable 14,000 students are receiving a Bible class as part of their public school day. How is that possible? You’ll want to listen to my interview with Joel Penton to find out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Little do most people realize that in 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students can be released from school during school hours. That's the key phrase, during the school day, they can be released to receive religious classes as long as the program is off school property, privately funded, and with parental permission. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, May 23rd. I'm Rob Blewey. That was the voice of Joel Penton. He first made a is mark on the football field as a national champion for the Ohio State University. Now he's the founder and CEO of Lifewise Academy. We talk about how his organization is transforming the lives of children by offering a Bible-based education to public school students during school hours. Yes, you heard that right. Lifewise is reaching students at more than 100 schools across the United States.

As a result, a remarkable 14,000 students are receiving a Bible class as part of their public school day. How is that possible? Well, you'll want to listen to my interview with Joel to find out. Stay tuned for our interview after this. We get it. With big media bias, it's hard to find accurate, honest news. That's why we've put together the Morning Bell newsletter, a compilation of the top stories and conservative commentary.

To subscribe, just head to DailySignal.com slash morning bell subscription. Or visit DailySignal.com and click on the connect button at the top. for the page. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Joel Penton. He's the founder and CEO of Lifewise Academy. Joel, thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me. You know, you introduced LifeWise Academy to me a few weeks ago,

and it was an idea that I had, frankly, no concept of. Having been through public school education through my life and now having kids who are in the public school, I didn't even know. know this option existed in terms of the work and the mission that you do. So if you could just begin by giving us a sense of what LifeWise Academy does and the incredible community that you're supporting. Yes, absolutely. I'm grateful for the opportunity.

And Rob, you are not alone in not knowing about what LifeWise is or even the strategy we use. It's very few people are aware of this opportunity. In fact, we believe it's the single greatest missed opportunity. to reach the next generation with the Word of God. And so I'll tell you what it is. Lifewise is what's known as a released time religious instruction program. Little do most people realize that in 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students can be released from school during school hours.

That's the key phrase, during the school day, they can be released to receive religious classes as long as the program is off school property, privately funded and with parental permission. And so this has been around for 70 years, but it has just been under the radar. And we discovered that this was possible just a few years ago, really in 2018. And we said, boy, what if we put a program together that could be plug and play so that any community, anywhere could launch a program to reach their local students and it was off to the races.

Joel, thank you so much for giving us that, that, description. I want to come back to talk about lifewise, but I think it's always important for our listeners to know who you are. And you have quite an impressive resume yourself, having played five years of football for the Ohio State Buckeyes, being a

national champion, and on also receiving a prestigious award, which is known as the humanitarian Heism. So how did that journey in your life lead you down this path to where you are today? Oh, sure. Well, it's certainly by God's grace. I'm from a

small town in northwest Ohio. And I came to faith when I was in high school upon hearing about who Jesus is, about how he died for sin and rose from the dead. And upon hearing the gospel, my life was changed. And it became very important to me to share the good news of Jesus with anyone who would listen. And so before I even left high school, I found myself speaking in front of groups and even filling in for my pastor and other pastors in town from time to time. And part of that was because of the platform I had as a football player. I did play for the Ohio State Buckeyes. And that opened up the door for me to go out and speak to groups. And I spent the first 12 years of my professional career after college doing full-time speaking and primarily in public

high schools and middle schools all around the nation. I founded a Speaker's Bureau. And now we have a team of speakers. We've been in over 3,000 schools. in front of more than two million students. And that's one of the reasons it was so natural, me having all this experience working with public schools. It was very natural when we learned about the opportunity of release time to say, wow, this strategy is incredible. This could change our nation.

We need to jump in and give this thing a shot. It's truly, I think, life-changing. I've spoken to a family that has participated in life-wise. and it is, I know in their case, been a transformational experience, not only for them as parents, but for the student as well. So let's talk logistics and just the practical nature of how it works. You've explained the reasons behind it and the Supreme Court's decision. When it comes to actually implementing this, how have you built these communities, worked with local schools to make sure that students have an opportunity to participate? Sure. Well, there are many, many practical questions that arise, right? And that is, in fact, we were trying to, when we first got into this, we were trying to solve the problem or answer the question, why hasn't this thing spread in 70 years? It's at 70 years to take root, but it hasn't spread. In the state of Ohio, there's over 600 school districts. And when I started researching in 2018, found that only a couple dozen of them had release time programs. And we found that it was because,

of all these practical issues. There's so many barriers to entry for a community to get started. You gotta basically start a private school by finding a facility and the transportation and the curriculum and the payroll and the, you know, there's the, it's, the list is endless. And so what we do is provide all of that infrastructure, all the systems and the processes and resources

and training to local communities. And so they follow, to get one of them off the ground, they follow a proven 10-step launch process that starts with building grassroots community support and interest. On our website, every school district is listed, and anybody who's listening right now can go and you can find your school at Lifewise.org. You could find your school district and you could start what we call a community interest list, which is basically a signature campaign.

After 50 names, then we move on to the next step. But it's through that process that we find local community leaders. We form a steering committee, and they work with our team to go to the school to start asking and answering those logistical questions of, how are we going to fit this into the school day? How are we going to coordinate transportation? What grades are we going to serve? And we just work through the list to launch a local program. So how if we have parents listening right now, how would, and they go to your website and they find that perhaps their school district is there, how do they get involved? What's the actual steps that they would need to take in order to enroll their child in Lifewise?

Well, if there's already an existing program, there should be a way that you could enroll right now. You could sign your student up. You could sign the permission slip. Now, we are currently serving 132 schools across four states. And so nearly, I mean, most school districts don't have a current program. But you can start one of these in any school district across the nation. And it does start with that signature campaign. So you can add your name to the list.

You can send the link of your school districts page on our website out, and you can collect 50 signatures, which begins that 10-step launch process. That's great. And when a student participates, what is the curriculum? What are they learning through the program? And how does it complement perhaps their other educational and academic interests? Sure. Well, students, we teach students the Bible. And so our programs tend to start at the elementary level. Students get one class each week in the same way that a student would get art class once a week. They have a chance to have a Bible class once a week. And we teach students through the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, over five years. They start in Genesis in first grade, study all the way through to Revelation and finish up in fifth grade. And every class talks about the head, heart, and hands, meaning. head, what's the Bible story say? Heart, how does it tie to the bigger picture of the gospel

that changes our hearts and hands? How does that then transform our character and what we do? And so they studied through the entire Bible, and it really does, as you said, complement what they're receiving in their other classes because they grow, students grow in their character development. Studies show that kids who receive religious instruction, improve in mental health, In fact, studies show that their overall academics improve when kids have religious instruction. And so we're able to go to schools and say, hey, do you want kids who perform better on test? Do you want kids who behave better and have better mental health? Well, then you want them to have an opportunity to have a Bible class as part of their education.

I think it's so critical as a parent myself and some affiliation with religious instruction. I can tell you all of the things that you just mentioned, we would probably solve so many of our country's problems if students had the exposure to the type of curriculum that you're talking about. And so really thank you for what you've done. Who do you rely on to teach these programs? Who are some of the instructors who step forward?

Sure. Well, it's local communities who take the tools that we provide and they'll post jobs. And so we give them the templated job descriptions and job postings, and then they put it out there. And so we have oftentimes, it's retired teachers, it's people who have experience teaching in churches. It's, but I mean, it's local people from the local community who simply step up and teach.

And, you know, our office here based out of Columbus, Ohio, we just provide the tools. Local communities band together to provide this for their local students. Joel, why do you think that more schools haven't in the course of of the 70 years that you mentioned, been more willing to embrace or maybe not schools, but communities? What is holding them back? Is it simply a lack of awareness that exists about this opportunity to do release time? Or are there cultural factors that perhaps, you know, tend more toward the secular society

that those of us who are Christians need to address and confront? Well, I think it's probably a complex answer. I do think awareness is a huge piece right now. I mean, now as people hear about lifewise and release time, they tend to get very excited, and that's why we seem to be growing so quickly. And people simply don't know. That is, in fact, what we believe is our greatest obstacle is that people don't know you can do this. In fact, oftentimes when they hear about it, they say, you must be lying or you must have made this up.

What about separation of church and state? How could this be? And after we're able to answer some of their questions, they basically often say, well, just tell me what I need to do. But I do think what I said earlier, that there are so many barriers to entry. When you first learn that you can do this, that you can take kids out of school during school hours, you can teach them the Bible. When you start to think through all those practical implications of facility and transportation and how you raise donations, it can become overwhelming, which is that that's the problem we're trying to solve. We're trying to provide

all those tools at one place that are entirely plug and play so that finally communities can take advantage of this opportunity and hit the ground running. Let's go back to 2018 when you were just getting started. You had an incredible participation rate among the public elementary school students in Ohio, the community Ohio. What led to that? And can you share any examples from that specific experience that others who want to start a program like this might be able to replicate.

Yeah, I'm glad you asked because when we talk about the concept, people are usually not along with it. They, you know, they think, okay, this sounds good. But then when they hear some of these numbers, they tend to be blown away. Lifewise was inspired by an existing program in my hometown. That's how I got connected. People in my hometown started a release time program. And they saw such an incredible impact.

they saw that year one, even though only about 30% of kids attend church in my hometown, year one, 60% of the public elementary school signed up and enrolled. And by year three, 95% of the public elementary school was enrolled. And this Bible education started to have an incredible impact on families. And so it was my hometown that reached out to me to say, hey, Joel, could you help us kind of figure out why there aren't more communities that have a program like this. And so it was through that process

and identifying the barriers to entry that we decided to launch this new program, Lifewise Academy. And we've seen other somewhat similar results in many communities. We have a community in Northwest Ohio, a different community that they have 1,000 students in their elementary school. In the very first year,

they had over 850 students enroll in the program. And so they bus students to the students to the local YMCA, less than a mile down the road. They have a full-size, life-wise school bus, and they take two classrooms at a time, five times a day, five days a week, and they cycle through now this year, over 900 students. They teach them the Bible every week.

And remarkably, you're doing this without charging a fee for families that are participating or anything to, obviously, the schools where this is taking place. How are you able to do that and offer such a, a generous program that is really shaping the character of these kids in a way that will have a lifelong impact. Right. And you're right.

Students don't pay a penny. Schools, the public schools don't pay a penny. In fact, they cannot by law. And so it is local Christians. It's local donors who say, hey, we can teach our local public school students the Bible. Yes, I'm going to donate to see that happen. that we see people stepping up in major ways. You see people who are saying, oh, boy, I had, you know, some people had lost hope.

And they thought, I thought we could never be able to do something like this, teach the Bible, the public school students. And when they find out you can, they say, hey, I'll write a check. You know, just tell me how much to make the checkout for. And so, yeah, it's local people being generous. And, yeah, I'll say that, you know, if you're listening to this and you're feeling generous, You can donate on our website because it's to take this to the nation, which is our intention. Why not?

Every school district in the nation, it's going to take a lot. It's going to take a lot of people. It's going to take a lot of resources, but we believe it is certainly worth it. Oh, it sure is. And that website is lifewise.org. Joel, you have been doing this for five years, as we've talked about. You obviously have big ambitions for where you want to take this in the future. Tell us about those long-term plans and where you see life-wise going in the years to come.

Sure. Well, yeah, it has been, well, our first programs launched in 2019. We had the kind of idea on paper in 2018, 2019. We just launched a couple pilot programs. We then launched a few more amidst the pandemic in 2020. And we said in 2020, let's try to serve 25 schools by 2025. That was our goal. But then in 2021, we found ourselves serving 36 schools.

And so we said, oh, boy, this thing's grown faster than we ever imagined. And so we said, let's try to serve now 1,000 schools by 2026. We're already well outpacing all of the targets to get there. We have nearly 14,000 students enrolled. And our intention is to go coast to coast. we see no reason why public school students from Maine to California shouldn't have the opportunity to learn the Bible as part of their public school day. And so we're scrambling like crazy to put the systems and processes and resources in place

so that every community can offer this for their students. Are there any particular states where you think there might be fertile ground in the immediate future? If, again, we have listeners who are eager to get involved, what is on the, the horizon in terms of the states that you'll be looking to expand. Yeah, well, we have approval and programs scheduled to launch next year in several additional states. So we're currently in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.

We have approval in West Virginia, in Georgia, in Illinois, and some other states that I can't even think of off the top of my head. You know, the Supreme Court case in 1952 clarified that this is constitutional and therefore legal in all 50 states. And yet there are 26 states that in fact have state laws on the books about release time. And Ohio is one of those states. There are some states that have may language and that students may receive this. And there are some states that have shall language and that students, if they request it, they shall have this opportunity. And so we'll be pursuing those states for sure.

However, it's legal in all 50. And so we don't see any reason why we shouldn't have programs pop up in all 50 states. Joel, is there a particular family or a story in your time working at LifeWise that really touched your heart? And you saw somebody perhaps be transformed in a very positive way from the experience of participating in a Lifewise program. Oh, boy, how much time do we have? could go all day. We get stories now just about every single day of lives being transformed. And that's what this is all about. I mean, I just gave you a bunch of numbers. But the only point of those numbers is that they represent students. And so just some of my recent favorites,

I mean, there was a, I just heard about a girl that came to class for the first time just a couple weeks ago in a large suburban school district here outside Columbus, Ohio. She was handed the Bible and they showed her how to turn to the how to turn to John 316 and her comment was the pages are so thin talking about the Bible because she'd never held a Bible in her hands and so learning about that I just heard in fact a week ago today we were visiting a class and there was a boy who was part of a Muslim family and he really wanted to go to Lifewise his friends were going to Lifewise and so he literally forged his parrot's signature on the permission slip to be able to go to lifewise because he didn't think his parents being Muslim would allow him.

Well, the school caught this and noticed this and they said, hey, we can't take this forged permission slip. So he did go to his parents and he did ask them and they agreed. And so they signed him up. He was in the first class when we visited and he was nonstop asking questions about, wait, so you're saying you can be forgiven for everything you've done wrong? What if you're forgiven by Jesus and then you do something wrong in the future? How does that all work? He was just asking questions. One more, there's a boy in inner city Columbus,

a rough part of town that at the end of the school year, the teacher asked, what is your favorite thing about Lifewise? And he said, I love Lifewise because my parents don't fight anymore. And the teacher said, I don't understand. How does that connect? He said, well, after going to Lifewise, I asked my parents why we don't go to church. And so they started taking us to church.

And our family's changed. My parents don't fight anymore. And I know it started with lifewise. And so we just hear these stories every day. And on one level, they don't surprise us because we know the Word of God changes lives. And it's a blessing to be able to take it to kids who don't have it. I was able to speak with Bethany, Sanidad, whose son is, a Christian is part of the program. And she just talked about how really it has changed their family in so many positive ways. So I appreciate you taking the time to share some of those experiences with our listeners. And for those who are interested, I hope that they do visit Lifewise.org and learn more. Joel, one final question for you.

What keeps you ticking? Obviously, this is hard work building something new. The entrepreneur that you are, I'm sure that there are days that are challenging. But what is it that motivates you? And what parting words of advice do you have for our audience? Oh, well, I guess maybe the answer to both those is one the same, and that's the, if the mission is important enough, then you'll keep going. And, you know, I did play football at Ohio State, and that did teach me a lot about work ethic. And it was important to me to wake up early and work hard to perform on the football field and represent the state of Ohio.

That was important, but not nearly as important as the mission that we have now to represent the king of the youth. universe and to take his word to those who desperately need it. And so keeping, even in the day-to-day that can seem so far from the front lines at times, if I'm working on policies or if I'm working on HR or whatever it is, keeping in mind the big picture mission that we are a part of, I mean, if you can't get excited to share the Word of God with kids who don't have it, And then lifewise probably isn't the project for you. Then I've got five kids of my own, ages 14, 12, 10, 8, and 5. And I have the joy of sharing the gospel with them every day.

And I know there's a lot of kids that don't have that in their lives. And so that keeps me going. And that would be my advice is to find the mission that will get you up early in the morning and keep you going. because you only got one life. So make it count. And if you're looking for a mission, I got one for you. It's called Lifewise Academy.

Joel Penton, founder and CEO of Lifewise Academy. Thank you so much for spending the time with the Daily Signal today. Rom, thanks for the opportunity. It was a real pleasure. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. If you haven't had a chance, be sure to check out our evening show right here in this podcast feed,

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