Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the WallBuilder show. We're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And the winning just continues. So many good things happening right now. It feels like every day is a good news Friday. Today is also a good new program because kids are getting the right worldview. New programs developing all the time to help replace colleges, which is what we need to do so they don't waste money for four years. Andwaste four years of their life and go get indoctrinated. So, you know, for some kids, it might still be the good idea to go to college. If you're going to be an engineer, doctor, lawyer, whatever, but man, I am loving the fact that more and more of these programs are offering the same opportunity, my three kids, three of my four kids had the opportunity to do at leaders Academy at Hot Springs. And later in the program, we got Jeff Meyers with us, who does summit ministries, which has a summer program and they have a gap year program as so it's going to great to talk to Jeff about that. Tim, you've of course taught at Leaders Academy, Patriot Academy. You've probably been out at Summit and a lot of these other programs as well. This is really cool to see these new opportunities for families to not just do the typical college route that just isn't the winning formula for the future for most young people. 

Tim Barton [00:01:14] Yeah, one of the things that during the summer when we do our summer institute program, one of the things I will often point out to students is one of biggest mistakes that people make in college is we still base, at least parents, base a lot of credibility, kind of value assessment on having a degree. And they'll brag about what university their student goes to and if it's prestigious, et cetera, et cetera. But the reality is it's it's like I think it's less than 27% of students that once they graduate, they find a job in not in the specific arena of their degree, but in the generalized field of their degree. I think, I think is around one fourth. I think a little under 27% and this was from a couple of years ago. I can't imagine it's improved since then, but most kids get a degree and they're not able to do anything with the degree they have that to find a somewhere else, which means... That by and large, college really didn't help most of them. And for most of them, we know that once they go to university, even at many, quote unquote, Christian universities, the training they're getting is not how to be a more grounded person in the faith from a biblical perspective, from a Christian worldview perspective. There is so much secular ideology from the pedagogy, the pedagogie of what academia has become shaped by and large by the left earlier progressives and so one of the things that I will tell the students when they come is it's really silly and the students, when they're with us, they're 18 to 25 year olds in the summer program and I say it's silly when there's people that are going to college who don't know what they want to do and they think, I'm going to go to college and figure out what I want to do. Well, that's one of the dumbest decisions ever. When you're gonna go pay somebody 20 to 30 to $40,000 for you to try to figure out what you wanna do, when you could go get a job and make 20 or 30 or $40 thousand while you're figuring it out. And then once you figure it out, if you need a degree, like you mentioned, if you're going to be an engineer, an architect, if you gonna be a lawyer, a doctor, if you are gonna do something in an occupation that... It necessitates having proper training, you need a degree. Well, then it makes complete sense. Please go get that degree and then still be strategic about where you get that degree, but most kids don't know what they want to do and they think going to college, I'll figure it out once I get there. Well, that doesn't make a lot of sense again, for a lot of reasons that the worldview, the ideology of 90 plus whatever percent of universities is contrary to the foundation parents have been pouring in and for so many students now, they don't need a degree for probably the area where they're going to spend their life or they're gonna build their career. Most of the major organizations out there, whether it be a Google, an Amazon, and we can go down the list, they don t require degrees. You can get a job and make really good money. But all of that to say is a lot of kids still are trying to figure out the process. And one of the greatest things they can do in figuring this process out is go to a place, like you mentioned, where... There's been Leaders Academy. We've been a part of that now for, I don't know, a couple of decades. It's been going on a long time and summit is actually getting ready to open one. And actually, Rick, I, I dunno if we've made the grand announcement yet. You guys at Patriot Academy are getting ready to do this extended pro, I think you're already in the middle of it. This is a year one, maybe for students coming in, spending a year. 

Rick Green [00:04:40] Yeah, this was our test year exactly. 

Tim Barton [00:04:42] This is something that I can only think how grateful I am that before my kids are at a place where we have to navigate all this, that there are going to be some very grounded opportunities where they can go and learn from people that love God, that love the Bible, that love America, and that will love them and pour into them and give them thoughts on leadership, give them thought on biblical worldview and foundation, and on government politics, whatever it might be. It's really great that there are some very insightful people that have seen the world is shifting and we need to help our students navigate the world they live in. And so there's groups like Summit Ministries that are noted for their, their worldview training, their biblical foundation. They've been doing camps in the summer for decades. Well, now they're opening up a year long opportunity and Jeff Myers is going to come on and tell us all about it's really exciting. 

Rick Green [00:05:36] Jeff Meyers Summit Ministries. We'll be right back on The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:06:47] Welcome back to the WallBuilder show Jeff Myers back with us from summit always good to have you Jeff. Thanks for some time today, man 

Jeff Myers [00:06:53] Rick, great to be back with you. 

Rick Green [00:06:55] Well, first of all, before we get at our topic for the day, mid-May, I cannot believe we're already almost, May is going to be over in just a few days. And, you've got summit programs happening all summer long so before we jump into the topic, give us some just kind of outline of dates or, or maybe even just send them to the website. But, I think you do like 12 this summer, don't you? 

Jeff Myers [00:07:14] Yeah, we've got 12 different programs running this summer. I just came back from doing some training of the staff and going over the history of summit, kind of focusing on what our key priorities are and how they would know they've been successful. But yes, we, we are, um, we still, we actually have seats available for boys only for our summit Georgia programs on lookout mountain, Georgia. And other than that, the seats are full. We do have a virtual program going this summer as well. So one week. So parents who have children who were 13 and up can participate in that. And you just go to summit.org to find the information about it. But we are ready for an exciting summer of working with young adults, helping you, you know, equip them, support them to embrace God's truth and champion a biblical worldview. 

Rick Green [00:07:59] Summit.org and the other thing Jeff and we're both doing this now and and I think it's gonna become more more popular. Okay, I came if I told you this or not but three of my four kids in their late teens early 20s went through a one-year program and it was just transformational for them and so now Patriot Academy is doing that some it's doing that before we go on talk about that because you've got It's it's roughly a year I mean you go for about three or four months in the fall three or for months in the spring you get college credit. I mean it's talk about immersion. It's kind of the next level for you guys 

Jeff Myers [00:08:27] It is immersion and we call it the summit gap year. And we bring in some of our instructors who teach in our summer program. People, you know, who are the, the Christian thought leaders and their field, but they spend a week at a time with the students and really go deep in theology, philosophy, economics, politics, a lot of, we cover 10 different categories and the students go, they go deep. The fall semester, they are at Tarryall River Ranch. So it's more, it's like ranch life. You don't have to know how to rope and ride in order to enjoy it. 

Rick Green [00:08:58] Boots are required, but they're encouraged. 

Jeff Myers [00:09:02] It's definitely Colorado ranch life, it's a beautiful location, it gives you really some good seclusion and, and what they do in the fall really is learn to read and write and think well. Because that's where, as you know, a lot of young people fall short, their education and especially in government schools teaches them what to think, but not how to think. And it, teaches them that there's no fundamental difference between fact and opinion and all of that. So there's a lot of that kind of stuff. They have to get sorted out just to become good learners. And then in the spring semester, we bring them back to Manatee Springs, Colorado, and they do internships and work shadowing and so forth with different people based on the vocation they think God might be calling them too. 

Rick Green [00:09:45] So it gives them a taste of it and they can kind of see is this is this, is this the thing that God's put in my heart? I get to do a little bit of it. And it's either going to, you know, sing or it's not right. They're, they're either going be Eric Liddell going, when I run, I feel God's pleasure or they're going to go, Ooh, I like that. I can move on to something else. 

Jeff Myers [00:10:01] Yeah. And when you like to figure that out before you spend four years and $200,000 at a college or university to figure it out. So for a lot of the students, they tell us that having this year is formative and preparing them for a university experience. If that's where God leads them. But it, no matter what happens later, it's just a year of, of maturing and getting ready and the fact that you get college credit for it is fantastic because You actually go off to a college or university and you're not behind. You're right where everybody else was, except that you missed all the drunken frat parties and getting F's in classes that you got A's in in high school. 

Rick Green [00:10:42] I you know as crazy as we haven't seen each other for I don't know eight months or so maybe even a year and I just feel like God's had us row in the same direction in so many different ways and it's it's wild to me that You guys at summit and us at Patriot cat We came to the same conclusions on this that this was where the market was going this what people needed You've had kids for you know, two weeks at a time We've had them for a week at a and we both kind of yet We need more we need more time to go deeper with them. And so this one year kind of gap year Model I think is good is the wave of the future the one my kids went to is is leaders Academy up in Hot Springs, Arkansas And same thing we push people there and then we encourage them to go up to summit And they've been doing it like 40 years and and so they were way ahead of us on this and are getting great results But I think this is where it's going I think there I think we're gonna see a lot of other ministries like ours do this type of thing which I think it's great because I think the demand is way bigger than we could even handle Just you know with our two ministries And I think it's good because you said something so important is that they may not go to college. Like why go waste four years and a quarter million dollars when you go spend a year and a few thousand dollars and get biblical worldview, get training, get around other great kids, other young leaders, and then decide if you do want to go to College, you didn't waste a year, you got some hours and you can go anyway, I think is just beautiful. 

Jeff Myers [00:11:59] That's exactly right. And I will, I will tell you this, what we've observed, and this is a, this is a measure, I don't know how many Christian programs do this, but we asked, we talked to them about their SAT scores before they come to the summit gap year, and then they retake the SAT and their scores dramatically increase. 

Rick Green [00:12:17] Interesting 

Jeff Myers [00:12:19] dramatically increase. So they are able then to move from, you know, maybe the top thousand school to a top 100 school and get scholarships if that's the direction they want to go. So it is, you know, there's always the fear of missing out of what all your friends are doing, but the truth is if you take this year to prepare, you will be so much more ready for the other years. But like you said, more and more students are choosing not go to college. You know, my own children have different, gone different routes. They've all taken some college classes, but they have focused on micro certifications in the areas where they need to certify. So I've got one who does cybersecurity and they don't look at whether you have a BA or a BS in something they're looking for, whether you can do the job and micro certifications are in many cases, a better way to do that. I have a daughter who's a helicopter pilot, same thing. She took enough college to get the basic technical knowledge. And then it's just hours on the helicopter, hundreds and hundreds of hours. That's the way you learn to succeed. So we're finding more and more young people and especially young men saying, I just don't think that a college or university experiences the path. What do you want to do? You want to start a business? Well, you know, you're, they're not going to know how to do that. Guess what? The professors who are teaching you how to start a, have I really started a business. That's right. 

Rick Green [00:13:37] That's the truth. 

Jeff Myers [00:13:39] I remember a guy business once, he's, you know, he, people come up with all these great ideas and he would always say, if you're so smart, why aren't you rich because you, know you, if, if have all of these great and then you're all you're doing is teaching them in class and you're not putting them in practice yourself. Well, you now maybe that isn't the best way. There are some professional certifications in engineering, medicine, law, things like that, where you do have to put in the hours and show your transcript, but more and more. People are figuring out, there's a, I've got to sort of chart my own path and it's going to look a little bit different. That's where organizations like Patriot Academy, Leadership Academy, Summit, Summit Ministries, Worldview Academy also has a gap year program. They're all a little different. They're a little but different and it takes time to explore and not every kid is going to fit in every program. So that's why you want to talk to the people who are involved, find out what they do, you know, really get a core, you know, dig deep inside yourself to see what your real needs are. And then, and then select one with just the best information you have. 

Rick Green [00:14:38] And the beauty is you're entering an environment where everybody's pulling for you. You're not, you're not going into this hostile environment, even quote unquote, Christian universities, you know, the, the pure thing. I mean, all of it, I mean in this environment, it's like, you just being flooded with the, with the Lord, with his will for your life, with all of these people that are helping you find that, it's just absolutely the way to go. I'm so sorry, man. We got, we got a few minutes left, but our topic was going to be, you know, where people, where these kids are getting their worldview and where Gen Z is. You know, the social media influence on their worldview is so critical, which is why some of it exists is to counter that and to get them grounded. You know, these trends have not been going the right direction. And that's why we've got to invest more of our time and our money and our energy into exactly what Summit is doing. Talk a little bit about that and where you think that's going. 

Jeff Myers [00:15:27] We spend a lot of time talking about social media and the use of technology. The first thing is you want to balance technology use no matter where you are in life, the Christian schools, and even now the public schools that are taking this kid's phones at the beginning of the day are doing much better. I can walk inside a school. I can tell you within 30 seconds, I can take within 10 seconds what their cell phone policy is because when you take the phone away from them, then they feel free to interact with one another. Whereas otherwise they feel like, you know what, everybody's looking at their phone because they've got all these important things going on. And so I need to look at my phone, pretend like I have important things going on, all of a sudden the hallways are absolutely silent because nobody's talking to one another. So they, so parents have to, you know, they've had to learn the hard way. It's harder for parents than it is for students. The students, when they realize how good life is when you're not stuck to your phone all day. They really enjoy it. It's the moms who, you know, they're trying to text their kid throughout the day to find out what chick-fil-a they want when they pick them up from school. 

Rick Green [00:16:27] You know, the habits there, right? They're so used to that communication. 

Jeff Myers [00:16:31] Yeah, yeah. But that's so balancing the technology used to begin with, you know, the, you know, book by Cal Newport called digital minimalism, he'll show you how you can save 30 minutes to an hour of your day that you're spending in fruitless wasted activity right now and how you can reclaim that to do, you know, read good books or learn a language or whatever it happens to be. It's pretty extraordinary. And then you realize, man, I have been. I have been lied to by these social media companies. They make me feel like if I'm not checking them all the time that I'm, doing what's important, but they're getting indoctrinated. And that's the second aspect through social media. You know, I was, I, I always just watching. I have some Facebook friends who were kind of all over the map politically. You do too. And they kept feeding me this one guy and all he was doing was saying negative stuff about one particular political figure. I thought, man, what is going on? Is this guy just kind of on a rant now or what? So I went to his actual page and those kinds of posts only were about one out of every 12 of the posts that he posted. 

Rick Green [00:17:33] But that's all you got. 

Jeff Myers [00:17:34] But they were the only ones that Facebook showed me because they thought it might make me mad and that I would engage. So they were actually monetizing anger on purpose to try to manipulate me. One thing I want parents and children to be able to communicate about is, look, the people who are on TikTok, they are clever. They can put together a good sentence. They can say things, but they don't know you. They don't love you. They don' know, they haven't invested in your life. You, have to give credibility to people based on how genuine they are, not just based on, how glib they are. And once a kid figures that out and realizes, I don't, you wait, I don't have to just believe somebody because I don' know how to answer them. No, it's one of the downsides. When you teach kids Christian apologetics, they do come to believe that they need to know the answer all the time, and if they don't then they need, to believe the opposite. And so we see all these kids deconstructing in their faith. And the main reason they're doing it is because they couldn't figure out how to answer the questions. Well, I guess I can't answer it. I don't believe no, if you can't ask it, just shut it off. You don't have to, you don't have to change your conscience. Just keep in mind who loves you. This is what the apostle Paul said to Timothy. He said, you know, those who taught you, and you know that from infancy, you have known the sacred scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scriptures inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training and righteousness that the man of God may be equipped for every good work. That is, I think something we need to reemphasize with our children in this age. That's right. Yes. Yeah. And then also to help kids realize, you know what? You have a conscience. It's been formed over time through your parents, through your family, through your church, through community. You do not need to forfeit your conscience just because you come up with someone who believes differently. And you can blame your conscience to say, well, you know, my conscience tells me this isn't quite right. And I can't tell you exactly why. I don't have 20 bullet points to give you, but I just don't automatically believe people who I know don't love me and don't really care about my life. 

Rick Green [00:19:44] I, you know what, this is a crazy example and I don't know if you watched it or not, but when Mel Gibson was on Joe Rogan, and Joe was peppering him with all these questions, of course, Joe's, I guess he's atheist, maybe calling him agnostic, I don' know. But Gibson did exactly what you just said. So, so on the stuff that he was good in and that he knew, he answered really well. And then when Joe hit him with some stuff that you didn't know, he was like, you no Joe, I don't know the answer to that, but I'm still assured because I trust this. Right? It was like he just he handled it exactly like what you're saying. And I thought, wow, what a master class in not having to know the perfect answer to everything. I thought it was really good. I love what you just said. I think you're right, though. I think that lack of this expectation that if I can't answer with certainty, every one of these questions within my whole faith must not be true, that assurance you just gave. It's just like when I teach people to teach the Constitution, I'm like, you don't have to know every nuance of the 14th to get up and just say to your, you know, friends and neighbors, you know, we got to study the constitution. You don't have to be a guru to be. A good follower of Christ. And so I love what you just got. 

Jeff Myers [00:20:52] Well, there, there are a couple of guidelines that I get the students here, some at ministries, because I know I'm sending them off to colleges or universities where they will be challenged in their faith. But one of them is that, just that point about conscience, you know, you're just keep your conscience true. You don't have to answer everything. Your pressure on your campus is going to be to go along to, or get along rather than to stand alone. So you have to be aware that that's coming up. But, you know, a second thing along the way is. The number of people who can refute you the way they do on YouTube, you know, with a mic drop video that's so 

Rick Green [00:21:33] Right. 

Jeff Myers [00:21:34] Right? Oh, I can never respond to that. The number of people who can do that is actually a very small number. That's right. And the number of people who are just mad and they're cynical about everything is actually a very small number actually know what it is. Rick, 7% of the people in this country, because I pulled on this, 7% of the people in this country are real jerks. It's 7%. I actually know. Yeah, 7%. 

Rick Green [00:22:00] Next time I meet I'm gonna say hey, you're a seven percenter. I'm not gonna explain 

Jeff Myers [00:22:05] I just want you to know, you're super special. 

Rick Green [00:22:09] That's great. 

Jeff Myers [00:22:10] It's 7%. 

Rick Green [00:22:11] But you're right, but they warped our perspective, right? Cause you see them on all this social media. 

Jeff Myers [00:22:15] You feel like, you feel like man, every single person I talk to is just going to do the mic drop thing, just like I see on YouTube. And that isn't true. People are mostly want, they mostly want to engage people mostly don't believe that you should cut out of your life everyone who disagrees with you, that's a super, super minority perspective. And once you realize that, then it kind of opens up new confidence for you. 

Rick Green [00:22:37] Folks this is just a taste just a small small taste of what you get at Summit I just strongest endorsement we can possibly give really encourage people go summit.org Whether it's the one-week program or this summer with those being full with just a few slots left do the virtual and then and look At that one-year program telling you young people that are listening right now And we got a lot of Patriot Academy grads that listen look at doing summit for a year of telling you to great Investment for the rest of your life Jeff Meyers. You're such a patriot brother. I love you man. Thank you for coming on 

Jeff Myers [00:23:05] Man, yeah, you too. I love Patriot Academy. I love what you guys are doing and I'm thankful, thankful. I think you guys were the icing on the cake. So we'll keep baking the cakes and then send them to you and you put the constitution and economic and political wisdom icing on top and man, we're going to have a generation of leaders. 

Rick Green [00:23:22] I like the way you describe that. Jeff Meyers, God bless you, man. Stay with us, folks. We'll be back in a moment with Tim Barton on The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:24:35] Welcome back to the Wallblower show back with Tim Barton now and Tim, of course, Summit, you know, has been around, I think what four decades or so, Noble used to run it, before Jeff and then of course leaders Academy, we were talking about earlier in the program. When did Tim Brooks start that? I think that was 30 or 40 years ago. I didn't, I was a long time. 

Tim Barton [00:24:53] It really was. 

Rick Green [00:24:53] Yep. So these are seeds and think about all the graduates that are out there that have been through those programs. I mean, that is, that has good seed that we're already getting fruit from. So if we quadruple the seed, hopefully we'll quadruple the fruit as well. And so I love the fact that all of this is growing and we're having more opportunities to get these kids into worldview training in an extended period of time, right? Like we've had Patriot Academy for 25 years where we'd have them a week at a time. And with the leadership program, we get about, we used to do two weeks. I think now you do one week with them, right. We do. Yeah. 

Tim Barton [00:25:22] Yeah. And with this being said, it's worth pointing out for everybody listening right now, I can confirm that a lot of the people that when we are hiring new people, whether it's at WallBuilders or I'm on the board at Mercury one, Glenn Beck's on profit and, we hire people over there. Some of the first places I look, I actually often will call Rick and say, hey, do you have any Patriot Academy grads, right? People that you would recommend. And now that there's going to be a year long training, Rick, I'm so excited. And you're going to be training all my future employees. You're really helping me out on this. And you know, even as Jeff said, and maybe you said it that when there's an opportunity, right, maybe you want to do two years of this, take a year at Summit, come to a year at Patriot Academy, there's going to be incredible opportunities. And not even again, to mention like a leaders Academy, all of these have a different flavor, but all of them are rooted and grounded in a biblical foundation, in a Biblical worldview with amazing teachers that that love God and love people are going to pour into the next generation absolutely incredible opportunities and this is not a good news friday, but it's a good new Tuesday.

Rick Green [00:26:28] It bodes well for the future of the country. It's very similar to the founders and how many schools they started for this very purpose to get the citizens educated so that they are good citizens and raise good families, which is the nuclear part of the whole system. Thanks for listening today, folks. You've been listening to the WallBuilder Show.