This is a summary review of Summit's worldview curriculum. For full reviews, click here for Lightbearers and click here for Understanding the Times.

Equipping young people with the tools to identify secular thinking and counter with a Christian worldview is essential. The folks at Summit Ministries understand this, and have worked hard to provide material that is challenging, insightful and easy-to-use for just that purpose. Both courses are video lecture-based, with supplemental workbooks and texts to fill in gaps and get kids thinking critically for themselves.

Lightbearers is a full course for middle school students introducing them to the idea of worldview, the dominant secular worldviews in our contemporary society, and proper Christian responses. There is a focus on those elements of culture with which young adolescents are most likely to be familiar (like popular music, movies, etc.), though more intellectual concerns are also covered (such as the historicity of Jesus). This isn't rigorous enough for high schoolers, but it offers an excellent starting place for younger students.

For older high school students and adults, Understanding the Times digs much deeper into common secular and anti-Christian ideologies, helping students see how others think and why they're wrong. But they don't stop there: they also show why the historic Christian worldview is the right way of thinking, and how it can be applied to all the major questions and problems of our day (or any other era).

If you aren't content to raise kids whose only defense against worldly thinking is to quote a few Bible verses out of context and retreat into anti-intellectualism, you'll need to equip them to do otherwise—it isn't an ability anyone is automatically born with. For those without the knowledge to teach their children alone (or even for those with that knowledge who are looking for a program that is thorough and easy-to-use), the courses from Summit Ministries are an excellent place to begin a whole new level of learning.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.