Minnesota Worldview Leadership Project

Presented by Minnesota Family Institute

The Minnesota Worldview Leadership Project (MWLP) is a biblically based, worldview teaching program in which participants seek to discern and apply a biblically based worldview to every area of life. It’s sponsored by the Minnesota Family Institute.

The MWLP is modeled after The Centurions Program established by Chuck Colson’s Wilberforce Forum. Begun in 2004, The Centurions Program is designed to develop and train an ongoing group of Christian men and women who are trained by Chuck Colson and the Wilberforce Forum to restore our culture by effectively thinking, teaching, and advocating the Christian worldview as applied to all of life. Participants, from a variety of backgrounds and careers, are intent on learning more about a biblical worldview and passing that knowledge on to others.

Many people are interested in MWLP, because it offers an opportunity for interact on a regular basis with others concerned about the cultural crisis facing our state and nation. They are dismayed with a society increasingly jettisoning truth in the name of tolerance and the inability of Christians to effectively address the subtle messages of naturalism, relativism and postmodernism which permeate the worldviews of so many people in society.

About the Need for Biblical Worldview Training

According to The Barna Research Group, only 22% of adults and just 6% of teens acknowledge the presence of absolute moral truth1.

George Barna’s 2003 national survey found that only 9% of born again Christians hold a biblical worldview. In his words, “Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, our research found that most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and opportunities of life. We’re often more concerned with survival amidst chaos than with experiencing truth and significance.”2

Without a solid foundation in biblical truth, moral standards are relaxed and Christians are increasingly willing to condone premarital cohabitation, drunkenness, homosexuality, profanity, adultery, pornography, and abortion.3

Recapturing a biblical worldview gives Christians a new zeal for their faith and confidence that their faith can stand up to the challenges of an increasingly secular and hostile society. It also protects Christians, especially young people, from the subtle deceptions of modern philosophies and ideologies.

Components of the Minnesota Worldview Leadership Project

Through the MWLP, Minnesotans are encouraged to develop a biblical worldview and become advocates in their churches and communities. Participants make a commitment to teach others what they have learned and to shape culture by living out a biblical worldview in their spheres of influence.

Participants complete homework assignments, work through monthly small group meetings, prayer, monthly reading assignments, and talks with leading Christian thinkers and develop initiatives for where they can best utilize their worldview training after the program is completed.

This year’s focus will be on marriage and family. It will include participation in the Minnesota Marriage Amendment initiative.

Outcomes for this year’s program include:

• A vital faith in Jesus Christ
• Life-long pursuit of learning and truth
• A forward-looking life-long commitment to promote and teach biblical worldview to others
• A passion to shape a truth-based culture that increasingly embodies biblical principles
• Commitment to ten month formal learning from September 2011 to May 2012.
• Must be an active member in good standing of a church
• Completion of application, including acceptance and signing of Statement of Faith.

Program Costs

Costs for the program include a $250 program fee to cover costs related to web, speaker fees, materials and supplies and other costs incurred. The cost of books is not included in the program fee.

Click here to view course description.  If you’re interested in applying you can fill out the application and either email it to or fax it to 612-789-8858.

Program Reading List

September 20^st, Tuesday

• Worldview – Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live? (Tyndale, 2004)
• Read Chapters’ 1 & 2, Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage (Zondervan, 2002) Will read other chapters in subsequent weeks.

October 18^th, Tuesday

• Discipleship – J P Moreland, Kingdom Triangle (Zondervan, 2007)

November 15^th, Tuesday

• Religion/Law – John Witte, From Sacrament to Contract:  Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition,
  (Westminster John Knox Publishing, 1997)

December 13^th, Tuesday

• Sociology/History – Carle Zimmerman, Family and Civilization (ISI Books, 2008)

January 17^th, Tuesday

• Apologetics – Greg Koukl, Tactics (Zondervan, 2009)

February 21^st, Tuesday

• Social Science – Linda Waite & Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage (Broadway Books, 2001)

March 20^nd, Tuesday

• Marriage Redefinition – Glenn Stanton, Marriage on Trial: The Case Against Same Sex Marriage and Parenting (InterVarsity Press, 2004)

April 17^th, Tuesday

• Culture – Jennifer Roback Morse, Smart Sex: Finding Life-Long Love in a Hook-Up World (Richard Vigilante Books, 2005)

May 15^th, Tuesday

• Church/Marriage – Dennis Rainey, One House at a Time  (Focus on the Family, 1997)
• “Amazing Grace”

Meeting times – Third Tuesdays,  7 to 9 pm

*Materials for this program overview were adapted from the Wilberforce Forum’s, The Centurions Program overview.

1. Barna Research Group, 2001
2. Ibid.
3. George Barna, “A Biblical Worldview Has a Radical Effect on a Person’s Life,” Barna Research Group, December 2003.