Why is the work of giving children a biblical worldview, through Christian education ministries, so important? I’m glad you asked. For the last several decades, we have been losing between 65-80% of our churched children to the lies of secularism. Parents and pastors have been saddened and deeply troubled by this great loss but have been unable to clearly identify why it has been taking place.
Here are the simple facts: 90% of America’s children spend 16,000 hours of their young lives in schools that fail to teach the truth about God and His Word. We are fully confident that this is one of the major causes of the loss of faith in so many of our children. As I have shared with you before, there are 78 million millennials (16-36 years old) in our nation. Of the older half surveyed, 80% declare they are not born again. 76% do not attend church. 94% do not believe in one or more of the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, and close to 70% are supportive of same-sex marriage. If we hope to have better results with our current generation, we must do something to change how and what they are being taught in school.
The work of Renewanation is critically important because through our seven divisions (see below) we are teaching children the truth, and the truth is setting them free to know God and follow His plan for their lives.
As you can see, we are committed to giving a biblical worldview to children through any and all means. We are convinced the best method for accomplishing this goal is full-time Christian education in a school or home setting. However, we are also committed to reaching children who will never have the opportunity to receive weekday Christian education.
We are on a mission to have 100,000 children enrolled in biblical worldview training programs by the end of 2020 and 1,000,000 kids by 2029.
It will only require about 6 million dollars in donor funding over the next four years to reach 100,000 children. That breaks down to only $60 per child. As I have mentioned before, this money is the seed money to help promote the cause so many parents and pastors are awakened and motivated to give new children a biblical worldview. It’s the seed money to help start new schools, revitalize existing schools, and launch our biblical worldview training center at Manderley Camp. It’s the seed money to complete the build-out of our biblical worldview training program for churches to offer to their public school students and to launch our 501(c)4 to work for great tax credit laws in every state.
We have done the hard work to determine who we need to hire and what we need to do for all seven divisions to be operating at an optimum level in the next 24 months. As you pray and give, we will take our next steps to ensure we have 100,000 new children enrolled in biblical worldview training programs by the end of 2020.
I’ve talked a lot about the future; let me talk a little about the past. How does giving children a biblical worldview really work out in life?
In 2002, I was privileged to help start Parkway Christian Academy in Roanoke, VA. In reality, this was the birth of what has now come to be known as Renewanation. I have seen hundreds of kids complete their journey through the biblical worldview training program at PCA over the last 15 years. What a difference it has made in their lives! This group of millennials looks nothing like the ones I described earlier in this letter. The vast majority of the students we trained for any length of time are in love with Jesus. They believe the Bible from beginning to end. They are excellent employees throughout our community, and I meet them in businesses all over our city. Just a few days ago, one of these former students posted a picture on Facebook that brought the reality of what we have done for these young people to mind. Brandon attended PCA for all of his K-12 years. Today he and Denas, another PCA graduate, are coaching the boys varsity basketball team at PCA. Todd is now a full-time worship pastor. David is about ready to become a police officer. Melanie is a children’s pastor. Allyson is a middle school teacher. Julianna will soon be working for Renewanation. John is graduating from a military academy. Katelyn is excelling in business. Natalie is an RN. These are just a few of the students who developed a biblical worldview at PCA and are now living out their values in every field you can think of.
This is what the work of Renewanation is all about. Our mission is to lead kids into an intimate relationship with Christ, teach them to think and see all of life through a biblical lens, and then go out and impact every area of culture in their world.
Make no mistake about it; it takes a huge amount of money to give kids a biblical worldview. However, I consider it a great honor to invite you to give toward this cause that is transforming the lives of so many children.
We are ready to reach thousands of new kids in 2017! Will you join our team in a concrete way by sending your best gift today? $60 will help us reach one child. $600 will reach ten children. $6,000 will reach 100 children, and $60,000 will help us reach 1,000 children.
May God bless you in the coming year. Thank you for being a part of our Renewanation team and family.
All for Jesus and the kids He loves so much,
Jeff Keaton
Founder, CEO & President
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