Thinking Christianly

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, May 13th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Helping Christians live out their worldview.

That was Chuck Colson’s goal in 1991 when he established the organization that bears his name.

But helping men and women clearly and confidently think and speak from a biblical lens comes with challenges. Especially in a culture that twists the truth about identity and purpose.

WORLD’s Myrna Brown begins a two-part series on how Colson’s vision is still helping Christians step boldly into everyday cultural moments.

CHUCK COLSON: Hi, I’m Chuck Colson of Breakpoint.

MYRNA BROWN: Thirteen years after he started the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, Chuck Colson identifed a problem:

COLSON: What we need desperately in the world today is a cadre of people who know how to think Christianly and defend Christianity in every single area of life.

Colson was looking for a few good men and women...one hundred of them, like a Roman officer.

COLSON: We’ve started something here at Breakpoint called the Centurion Program.

Stuart Kellogg is part of the class of 2007.

STUART KELLOGG: I’m a C-4 [laughter] the fourth class of Centurions.

Back then Kellogg was a 50-year-old general manager of a television station. His fellow centurions were journalists, doctors, educators, business owners and home makers. Colson spent 10 months educating them in worldview, culture, and biblical theology.

KELLOGG: Chuck Colson used to constantly tell us about being winsome. We’re speaking the truth, it may make people uncomfortable, but be winsome.

Colson’s death in 2012 put the Centurion program on pause. 

John Stonestreet, current president of the Colson Center:

JOHN STONESTREET: There was already a lots of parts of the legacy. There were books, there were organizations, there was a public persona, there was a counselor to statesmen and to presidents. 

But future generations needed worldview training too. He pushed to preserve what he calls the most important part of Colson's legacy. 

STONESTREET: But he was like. No, it’s reproduction. I need to equip a new generation of leaders in Christian worldview.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the national commissioning ceremony for the Colson Fellows class of 2025. [applause]

Centurions are now called Colson Fellows. More than six thousand men and women around the globe have completed the program. 

On this day, an additional 700 hundred are about to walk across the stage.

S. MICHAEL CRAVEN: It’s literally 51 percent women, 49 percent men.

Michael Craven is the dean of the Colson Fellows Program.

CRAVEN: They’ve spent about 273 hours of attention to curriculum that they’ve been accessing online, they’ve been gathering in their cohorts, they've been participating in these rigorous discussions, debates, wrestling with what they’re learning in community.

Now these Colson Fellows will go back to their communities, equipped to address four questions.

CRAVEN: What is good in this world that I can be used to preserve, protect, promote? That’s the first question. Second, what is evil that I absolutely must oppose? Third is, what is broken that the Lord might use me to restore? And finally, what is missing that I might be able to provide or innovate?

After he was commissioned, Stuart Kellogg stepped into the pro-life movement. He published a five-part pro-life series for students and he’s still teaching parenting classes for men who walk through the doors of his local pregnancy resource center.

KELLOGG: So I can say, 20 years later, "Hey, thank you Chuck, I’m still working!"

The new generation of Colson Fellows will head out into a variety of places, plans in place. 

ANNOUNCER: Colson fellows in training, are you ready to receive your commission? [applause]

37-year-old Alonzo Blankenship is an assistant principal at a Christian school in Austin, Texas.

ALONZO BLANKENSHIP: There’s a need for them to be grounded and understand why they believe and what it means to live with a Biblical worldview.

ANNOUNCER: Dr. David H. Kim…

Dr. David Kim co-founded a faith-based health Center in Staten Island, New York. He’s also teaching the next generation of healthcare professionals.

DAVID KIM: Thought it would be a great way for me to really pick up more of the language and knowledge that I would need to be even better able to teach that foundation that we felt that students needed.

ANNOUNCER: Cynthia Kitchen….Steven Kitchen…

STEVEN KITCHEN: I’m a pastor.

CINDY KITCHEN: And I homeschool my kids.

Steven and Cynthia Kitchen are from Massachusetts.

STEVEN KITCHEN: We’re going to read through one of the books with our kids next fall, and then we’re talking about doing a summer introductory course, pulling out some of this material for our church.

ANNOUNCER: Kristine Smith….[applause]

And Kris Smith is a retired first-grade teacher and grandmother. She lives in California and wants to focus on middle school girls at her church.

KRISTINE SMITH: And work on gender identity and who God made us. It’s going to be exciting to see what God does. Okay, God...worked hard. What’s the next step? How’s it going to flesh out?

COLSON FELLOWS RECITING OATH: So please rise, raise your right hand and repeat this after me: I, having been commissioned a Colson Fellow….

What happens after they walk across the stage? What challenges lay ahead, and how will they respond? 

We asked one of these Colson Fellows to take us along...tomorrow, their audio diary. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Louisville, Kentucky.

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