Nat'l Ministry Offers Worldview Training Using 21st-Century Technology
May 25, 2005
(AgapePress) - Thanks to capabilities offered through the Internet, students of all ages -- as well as parents, home-school coordinators, and Christian educators -- now have the opportunity to receive biblical worldview training in the comfort of their own homes and according to their own schedule.Brannon Howse, president and founder of Worldview Weekend, knew he could not personally take his worldview conference to every city in America or every country in the world. Therefore, Howse chose to take advantage of the today's technology that allows worldview training to take place via the Internet. After several years of recording and filming Worldview Weekends and developing an extensive curriculum, Worldview Weekend Online Institute (WVWOI) was launched on March 1, 2005.
WVWOI -- completely online and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- features keynote presentations by notable authors and experts such as Josh McDowell, Ken Ham, David Barton, David Noebel, Kerby Anderson, Frank Harber, David Jeremiah, Bill Brown, Sean McDowell and Norm Geisler.
The course is designed so that students can login to WVWOI and work through the 12-week course at their own pace. While the online institute is laid out to be completed in 12 weeks, students are free to take 12 months or longer to complete the course if they so desire.
With very little advertising, WVWOI enrolled 200 students during its first 90 days. Howse says he has received numerous e-mails from pastors, home-school co-op leaders, and Christian school teachers thanking him for developing the course and telling him they are prospective students for the coming fall.
"I really believe that by the end of 2005, we will have around a thousand students, based on the numbers of students we have enrolled at this time -- and we have not even launched our advertising campaign," he explains. "I am very pleased that half of our student body is made up of individuals who are in their 50s and 60s." According to Howse, the institute's youngest student is 12 years old and the oldest is 67.
"We are training multiple generations, in several countries, at all hours of the day and night," Howse adds. "Our online institute is just one example of how Christians should be using 21st-century technology to make disciples and disciple nations."
The founder of Worldview Weekend explains that WVWOI is not just for individuals but also for groups. He says Christian school administrators, youth pastors, and home-school teachers will find it easy to oversee the progress of students.
"When you enroll a group of students in our worldview course, you, as the course administrator, receive a secure password," he explains. "This password allows you to access a secure page that displays the worldview portfolio of each of the students you enrolled."
That real-time portfolio, he continues, permits instructors to see each student's progress, current grade, and final grade. "With a real-time worldview portfolio and grade book, the course is easily integrated into a Christian school or home-school education program," Howse states.
For Teachers and Parents, Too
WVWOI is approved by the Association of Christian Schools International, the world's largest Christian school association, to offer continuing education units for Christian school teachers. "Now, a Christian school teacher does not have to leave home and spend hundreds of dollars to fulfill continuing education course work requirements," Howse says. "From the comfort of their own homes and at their own pace, Christian school teachers can acquire those yearly hours needed to maintain the requirements of their teaching licenses."
In addition to educational benefits, the institute can also be used as a parenting tool, Howse remarks.
"Because your students' worldviews are the foundation for their values and how they will live their lives, we encourage parents to require their students to complete our 12-week course in order to receive their driver's license," Howse explains. "Many parents have found such an incentive to be an effective means by which to encourage their students to apply themselves to be a worker that is not ashamed of the Gospel as well as an effective way to reward their students for being disciplined in completing worldview training."
Howse encourages Christian teachers and parents to do all they can to prepare the next generation -- for good reason. "Make sure your students have the tools necessary to defend their faith in an increasingly toxic culture so your students do not become part of the 88 percent of young people who are denying the faith and worldview of their parent's before they graduate from college," he says.
In an effort to keep the curriculum affordable, WVWOI offers group and family rates for families, churches, Christian schools, Bible studies, home-school groups, Sunday school classes, or youth groups. In addition, registrants can support a pro-family ministry when they register. Worldview Weekend is donating over 30 percent of each student's tuition to the American Family Association when individuals register through the American Family Radio website.
