Summit Ministries

By Kelly Taylor

We've reached the end of the first day of the second week here in Manitou Springs. (How's that for a confusing sentence?) Everything seems to have flown by, but it's been an incredible life-changing experience so far. We started off with a bang in the form of Doc's Bible Hour. Bible hour is a wonderful way to begin. Not only does Doc share inspiring verses and leadership guidelines, (and many intellectual reasons why we should study our Bible), he also provides memorable one-liners to keep us all awake. One of my personal favorites: "Here in Manitou, we know nothing and we can prove it!" I know it doesn't seem to relate, but Doc has a hilarious knack of applying phrases like that.

In the second session we were introduced to Dr. J.P. Moreland, talented author and speaker. He skillfully packed our minds with reasons why a naturalistic worldview is incompatible with not only nature and logic, but also the origin of information and many other things. (To have it explained in further detail, please ask your child/friend upon their return).

Session three and four found us again in the wonderful company of Dr. Moreland, where he explained the fatal flaws of a post modern worldview. My favorite point from this was the issue of their arguments being self refuting or contradictory. For instance, one could say "no sentence itself is more than four words." And yet, that sentence is more than four words. In the same way, moral relativism contradicts itself: you can't say all things are relative without saying that relativism is relative. I would be shaking in my boots if I were a post modernist and Dr. Moreland was on the loose!

After a delicious lunch, we were captivated by Debbie Brezina's talk on America's Providential History. She knows her stuff! She took us through the importance of remembering our history and the Christian foundation our nation was founded on. Karl Marx once said, "Take away the heritage of a people and they are easily persuaded." May we never be guilty of forgetting our past, and may we always thank God for people like Ms. Brezina who have the boldness to speak up for it!

Our evening sessions were wonderful as always, Dr. Noebel did a fantastic job expanding on the problems of Secular Humanism, and we even had a special treat: us girls left for a "feminar" (while the guys had a "manference") and we were blessed to learn from the experience of the staffers on how to cope with suffering, be an encouragement, and to trust in our Saviour.

Needless to say, it's been quite a full but incredible day at Summit. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in bringing us this far and teaching us so many amazing truths during our time here. Don't forget to keep us in your prayers and to set up accountability for us when we return.

By Ellen Prater

Today at the Summit, our day started off with a nice breakfast of quiche, cereal, and bagels. Yum! After making sure our rooms were very clean, we started off the academic part of our day with the pledge of allegiance to the American and Christian flags and singing the first verse of Amazing Grace. Then Dr. Noebel gave his daily Bible hour. His verse of the day was Proverbs 23:23. Dr. Doug Groothuis was our next speaker and supposedly it was his first time speaking at the Summit. He spoke on "Confronting the New Age: Or, Why Oprah is Wrong?" Then he spoke on "Intelligent Design: Finding the Signature of God in Nature". One proof of an intelligent designer of the universe and everything in it is the Bacterial Flagellum. Look it up! It is an amazing microscopic "machine" located in cells.

We took our class picture today during the morning break and then Dr. Groothuis spoke to us about "Truth Decay: Defending Objective Truth in the Postmodern World."

After our good lunch of deep dish pizza and salad, Dr. Darrell Furgason finished the second part of his lecture on Islam that he started yesterday. What a very relevant topic in our world today!

Extra-curricular activities filled the free time for some today. Many students signed up for paintball or horseback riding. The rest of us relaxed and spent time either catching up on sleep, reading, spending time with friends, or walking around the very interesting and quaint town of Manitou Springs (to name some of the fun things that we can do out of class).

For dinner, we had chicken with bacon and avocado, rice, lettuce, and vegetables. (For any concerned parents: Summit Ministries feeds their students very well!) During dinner, those who had gone paint balling arrived and some had welts and slight injuries to show off.

One of my favorite parts of the day is open forum with one of the speakers on the hotel porch. Tonight we asked questions of Dr. Groothuis.

During praise and worship, we sang some songs in different languages! Then Dr. Noebel gave his daily lecture, "Worldviews in Collision" where he proved the world is made up of six different worldviews. The day ended with a very interesting movie about Marxism and Leninism. All in all, today was another great day at the Summit. I look forward to deepening relationships, learning more about the world around me, and strengthening my faith in the coming final week of Session 7.

By Stephen Garvey

Learning who Jesus Christ truly is in His essence and more importantly His meaning and impact in everyone's lives is at the core of what Summit is all about. On Wednesday the twentieth, Dr. Michael Bauman accurately portrayed and demonstrated just that in his lectures about predestination, God's character, and the problem of suffering. Dr. Bauman exposed us all to such a unique teaching style in that he rarely gave the answer to any questions which were asked of him. Rather he always invoked thought in the students by turning the questions into idea provoking inquiries. He helped us all immensely by working through all the issues we encountered step by step and really brought all those massive concepts down to comprehensive levels. So many times professors at other camps seem to talk over your head because they can, but Dr. Bauman has a passion to see his students excel in their understanding of God.

When I think back to why I came here, these lectures today reminded me why. As Christians we fight and wage war every single day, hour, minute, and second of our short existence against faulty ideologies. The only choice we have as God's warriors is whether or not we will go to battle with our armor on. Men like Dr. Noebel and Dr. Bauman teach those principles which are the weapons and armor indispensable to a Christian's survival in this world of uncertainty. The reason we lose so many young people to the world as they go to college is because they are mesmerized into believing they can survive each year of college or their lives without the crucial tools of survival. All the students here at Summit will, I pray, continue to take all these great men's advice and be life-long learners in the weapons which make the life of a Christian enormously impactful for the Kingdom of God.

By Jeanie Mendenhall

It was an incredible day. Today my shower was HOT. It made my day! From this point on things continued to get better and better. Incredible staff works constantly to make this the best experience ever, and they are remarkably successful I might add. After a fantastic breakfast to start the day, we were ready for our first session, or so we thought.

Doc started out the day with Bible hour, in which we learned why we should study the Bible. After which, Chuck Edwards, floored us with announcing that Hollywood producers and actor are out to educate us, not entertain us. This was most likely the best loved session because interspersed throughout we watched clips of movies, which entertained us. Following a short stretching break, he continued to shock us with moving on to music. It turns out musicians are out to educate us as well! All in all it was fascinating and eye opening. Oh, and in-between times, Eric Smith talked ethics to us. I must say that the amount of sessions is perfect--enough to bring us right to the edge of being overwhelmed, without pushing us over.

Once we were all sure that we would fall off the edge into insanity, they announced it was sports time and bused us to a park. The fresh air and sunshine soon revived us and volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, kickball, and soccer quickly ensued. It was a blast. After using up extreme amounts of pent up energy, we were bussed back for dinner, which was consumed with a rapidity that is quite unequaled. To cool down we had some free time, which was used by some to buy the best cup of coffee ever tasted. Doc then once again spoke, proving to us that merely six world views can explain every thought and idea. Quite a day. It already seems that we have been here for a week. I look forward, with great anticipation, to the rest of my time here. The quality and quantity of information is absolutely staggering, but thrilling. And so ends the third day of Summit.

By Hannah Zarr

What an amazing day! It almost feels as if we've been here the two weeks already because we have learned so much today and have done great activities, plus wonderful bonds of friendship have already begun.

At our first class this morning, some of us were thinking this actually was not a Christian seminar, because Chuck Edwards took the side against God. We started to get frustrated after our arguments for why we believe in God were shot down by Mr. Edwards. The room heated up as some had no arguments left, while others started to wonder if their beliefs could be defended. Chuck Edwards "turned back" into himself and began his very intense talk about why we are here, and worldview training. If Mr. Edwards would have been a real atheist, he would have gone away feeling proud as an atheist, thinking he had proved Christianity wrong. Please pray that by the end of these two weeks we will go away from here being able to truly defend our faith.

After impactful talks by Dr. Robert Linden on leadership, we had free time. Some sat out on the porch in the fresh mountain air, talking with new friends or spending time with the Lord. Others had a good time just hanging out and fellowshipping, or shopping the cute downtown shops.

This evening was packed full of excellent times. We all went to Garden of the Gods and took pictures of the gorgeous red rock and had fun climbing up some of the neat formations of rock--carefully of course! Afterwards we had a yee-haw adventure. We went to Flying W Ranch. We acted like Indians in a teepee, went inside old jails and mines, and enjoyed the cute western shops in old west buildings. Then we had a delicious cowboy dinner with all the cowboy food you could imagine. But that wasn't it--believe it or not there was more fun on the way! A greatly talented and hilarious band played fun western music for us. We couldn't believe how fast they could move their fingers on their violins and guitars!

We've already had great lifetime memories--and it's only the first full day! We are so excited for all that God has planned for us to learn and enjoy!

By Becca Pettingell, Joanna Westerfield, Lisa Hillebrecht, and Stephanie Tredway

Greetings from the girls of room 409!

United from across the nation, four very different girls from California, New Mexico, Florida and Virginia are excited to bring you today's blog. Despite the miles of difference between us, we've grown close through shared faith and passion. Sporting battle wounds from an intense round of paintball, muscle cramps after mountain hikes, and headaches from study sessions for the Bible exam, we finally get the opportunity to look back and share our experiences thus far.

We started our second week here at Summit, a little slower out of bed but still eager to learn from the passionate speakers and leaders willing to share their knowledge and Christian expertise. We are still managing to pass the "boot camp" level room checks and rediscovering the adage that cleanliness is next to godliness. Dr. Moreland challenged the circular views of the postmodernists that infest the academic world of today. Dr. Noebel then coordinated all 200+ students and staff onto the bright front porch of the Summit Hotel for the session photo. And here's a shout out to the amazing food crew that keeps us nutritionally balanced between classes. After another lecture by Chuck Edwards, we separated for afternoon activities: warring on the paintball battlefield or shopping through downtown Manitou.

We reassembled for praise and worship. After Dr. Noebel's worldview lesson of the day, the guys and girls split into their respective "manference" and "feminar". While unprivileged as to the details of the manference, we truly enjoyed the feminar, finding it convicting and encouraging to be able to share so openly. Our small groups met to discuss on a more intimate level about the thoughts and lessons of the day. Due to the fact that it is now 47 minutes past our bed time, the girls of 409 must bid you adieu.

Lala Salama (Swahili for "good night!")

Becca Pettingell, Joanna Westerfield, Lisa Hillebrecht, and Stephanie Tredway.

By Andrea Grice

Wow, where to begin?! We are at the end of the first week here at Summit and so many awesome things have happened. In fact, writing this blog is somewhat of a challenge because there is far too much to convey within a few simple paragraphs on a screen. My favorite thing about Summit so far has been the people. It has been so cool to be surrounded by likeminded kids my own age. What I mean by "likeminded" is that these are people my age who are actually concerned with the world in which they live. Here at Summit, it's not surprising in the least to pass by a table during the lunch hour and hear kids discussing political, economical, ethical, and Biblical issues that are prevalent today (and that's just to name a few topics).

Don't get me wrong; I love my friends back home. But I can't seem to remember a time when I sat down for lunch at school and the kids around my table were discussing matters on bioethics or Marxism-Leninism. It's been such a blessing and a learning experience to be surrounded with other kids my age who are not apathetic in regard to the competing worldviews around us. I use the word "competing" because it has been made clear to all of the students here at the Summit that the worldviews of today are in a constant struggle for our minds. Not only have we been learning how these worldviews struggle for us, but we have also been learning how to recognize and respond to their efforts.

The speakers here are absolutely amazing. Each one knows their respected topics like the back of their hand and they're able to explain concepts incredibly well. One of my favorite times of the day is the "open forums". That's a time in the afternoon when a speaker from the day will gather on the front porch with the students and hold a Q&A. We get to clear up ambiguity from the earlier lecture, and we get to interact with our teachers in a non threatening environment. Initially, some of these guys, with their doctorate degrees and their vast knowledge on such tough issues, easily seem intimidating (at least to me). But when you're out of the classroom and just hanging out on the porch, relaxing in some rocking chairs, you get to see these smart professors in a more personal light and the intimidation flies out the window (or rather, over the banister). And the speakers are always so nice to answer whatever questions we have because they really have a genuine desire to see us come to understand our times (if they didn't then why on earth would they be at Summit? Simply their presence here shows that they care).

So I guess, to put it succinctly, my experience at Summit thus far has been extremely life changing. It's been the craziest week of my life as far as the amount of information I'm gaining everyday! But I've met so many awesome people from staff, to speakers, and fellow students alike. And I feel so securely that I'm learning things here that will definitely change the way I live my life in the future, the things by which I allow myself to be influenced, and the way I view God and myself in regard to what He expects of me as His ambassador.

By Sarah Stovall

One of the greatest things about being in Manitou Springs is the surroundings. It's this gorgeous landscape of mountains, red rocks and trees. I wish you all could see the morning fog as it wraps around the neighboring places. It is the essence of beauty.

For free time yesterday afternoon a group of five of my new girlfriends and I decided to hike Red Mountain, a trail a mile or two away from campus. Before I had come to Colorado, for my birthday my parents gave me a Camelback (a backpack with a water pouch for hiking and the like). I was excited to have to chance to use my new Camelback and offered to help out carrying my friends' things.

A while along, the weight of the Camelback became heavier. I wasn't used to the high altitude or steep terrain, and the extra weight started wearing on me. Meanwhile, it began to rain rather hard. So, even though we were maybe five minutes from the top, soaking wet, chilled by the breeze and tired from the hike--we decided to turn around before the trail got to muddy.

On the way back down, one of my trail mates asked if they could carry the Camelback for a while, to help share the load. From that point on it was much easier, and this hike got me thinking metaphorically.

Often, Christianity is likened to a mountain. God is at the top and if believers truly desire Him, they start to climb the mountain. This is all good, but what makes it difficult is ignorance. The less you know, the harder it is to find what you're looking for. It's like my backpack. At first my new Christian passion/zeal carried me up. But, the farther you go the more discipline it requires. Ignorance is the backpack weighing you down.

Not that having questions is a bad thing. It's good. In fact, some could say it is what makes us start climbing in the first place. That does not mean we should stay there, slavery to our lack of knowledge.

Many of us here have had friends or mentors who've come along beside us and helped us answer out questions, pointing us towards the right paths, lightening our load. My trail mate was that person by taking my load and freeing me up to think about other things besides my burden.

Summit is the ultimate enlightening. I, and I would reason all my friends agree, have gained so much insight, that the world suddenly seems less dark. I feel I know more about understanding it.

While I cannot claim my backpack is completely empty or that I am close to getting to the top at all, But my backpack is now equipped with use of tools, and in m head the power of knowledge for how to use them.

"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him" Philippians 2:13

By Michael McNay

Today began with two words: cold and wet. After the past few days of pretty warm weather, though, it was a nice change. We heard again from Dr. Bauman who, as always, challenged us to really think about our faith and why we believe what we believe. We were also taught by Mr. Stonestreet, who discussed the importance of Christianity, our culture, and the family. Both men had awesome concepts to teach and really made us think about, well, everything! I really enjoy that aspect of the classroom because it opens my eyes to the reality that Christianity is so much more complex than I thought.

Today we also had Sports Time, which is probably my favorite activity by far because it gives me the opportunity to meet and hang out with other students who I don't usually get to associate with in the classroom or around the Summit building. It's also a really good opportunity to get to know the staff. The best part is simply getting to fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ in the middle of God's creation knowing that win or lose, I'm making friendships that will last forever.

One of the coolest aspects of Summit is the evenings. Praise and Worship is a time where everyone, staff and students, just come together and worship God. I really enjoy music and singing, and to hear 180+ voices joining together to praise God gives me chills every time. We also had small groups, which is great simply in that I get the chance to meet friends my age and really connect with them on a personal level. I never know what to expect from Small Groups except that it's going to be an awesome time! Finally, I like to end the day by joining with my friends and singing at the piano in the lecture hall. It really represents why I'm here: to meet Christian friends from all walks of life and join together in worshipping and serving the Lord. The friends I make here are amazing; everyone here is amazing. It may have only been a few days, but I feel like I've been here forever. Believe me, I'm not complaining!

By Hannah Jones

Hello everyone! I am from Mesa, AZ... and Brian and Cheri Stegall, if you're reading this, thanks for sending me here. What a blessing! Anyway, since all of you parents are dying to know about the lives of your children right now, I will begin:

Today we started our day (as usual) with Dr. Noebel's infamous "Bible Hour." We discussed why we should study the Bible at all from a secular point of view, and discovered that the Bible has had, and continues to have, a tremendous impact on the United States and western culture in general. We also learned that having Biblical knowledge is a sign of a true scholar, and shows that one is well-rounded in their education.

Some new developments occurred today. After our session entitled "The Meaning of Meaning" (yeah... chew on that one a while... the open forum on the front porch afterward was packed with intrigued listeners), groups of students formed a musical worship group and the Summit's "Excellence Students" curriculum was also introduced. I have the lucky privilege of being in both; I play the piano for the new worship team and also decided to join the Excellence Program. The program features activities ranging from performing community service to memorizing scripture... as well as scoring 130 out of 180 on a Bible test that all of the students here took today. We are all anxiously awaiting our results. The program also includes such things as witnessing to someone on the streets while here, maintaining a spotless room, and spending some quiet time with God every day.

To close the day, we watched a movie about our founding fathers and the myths surrounding the First Amendment clause of separation of church and state. It's simply fascinating what I'm not being told in the public school system! I am so thankful for the chance to be here and learn how to navigate through the different worldviews I will be hit on the head with in college. Praise God!