Summit Ministries
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Summit Ministries is an evangelical Christian organization that seeks to prepare Christians to defend the biblical worldview by strengthening their faith. To accomplish this, they rely primarily on two-week conferences held during the summer that aimed at high school and college aged Christians. Over 1300 students per year come from around the country to learn to distinguish the differences between worldviews such as secular humanism, Marxism, and Christianity. Providing that training are lecturers like Michael Bauman, Francis Beckwith, J.P. Moreland, Ronald Nash, Jeff Myers, Norman Geisler, Mark Cahill, and Eric and Leslie Ludy, as well as the organization's founder, David A. Noebel.
The organization also sponsors conferences for pastors and educators, and publishes educational curriculum for people of all ages, including courses for elementary school age children, bible study groups, and individual study. Furthermore, the organization's website provides a large collection of essays by noted Christians on worldview issues and apologetics.
[edit] History
Summit Ministries was founded in 1962 by David A. Noebel in Manitou Springs, Colorado, in response to his near rejection of Christianity while studying philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Until 1988, the program was rather small, graduating approximately 350 students each year. The following year, Focus on the Family president James Dobson featured the program on his radio show after his son participated in one of the summer conferences, and this fueled significant growth in the following years.
In 1991, Summit Ministries began offering a year-long program for Christian high school students with the same goals as the organization as a whole – to teach students to defend their faith in the face of competing worldviews. Now, 3,500 students complete the program each year. In addition, new programs around the world have recently started under Summit Ministries' guidance, including locations in Tennessee, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand. [1].
