We Must Reclaim the Church Before We Can Even Begin to Reclaim the Culture<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
By Brannon Howse  
My friend and Worldview Weekend speaker Ken Ham has written an excellent book with Britt Beemer and Todd Hillard entitled, Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. Ham worked with a professional pollster to survey those who went to church every week or nearly every week and they deliberately polled conservative congregations, not liberal ones.  Let me share some highlights from their book that confirm that the church needs to be reclaimed before we even attempt to reclaim the culture.
·        A mass exodus is underway. Most youth of today will not be coming to church tomorrow. Nationwide polls and denominational reports are showing that the next generation is calling it quits on the traditional church. And it's not just happening on the nominal fringe; it's happening at the core of the faith.
·        Only 11 percent of those who have left the Church did so during the college years. Almost 90 percent of them were lost in middle school and high school. By the time they got to college they were already gone! About 40 percent are leaving the Church during elementary and middle school years!
·        If you look around in your church today, two-thirds of those who are sitting among us have already left in their hearts; it will only take a couple years before their bodies are absent as well.
·        The numbers indicate that Sunday school actually didn't do anything to help them develop a Christian worldview...The brutal conclusion is that, on the whole, the Sunday school programs of today are statistical failures.
·        Part of the concern is that the mere existence of youth ministry and Sunday school allows parents to shrug off their responsibility as the primary teachers, mentors, and pastors to their family.[1]
The answer to this crisis is Biblical worldview and apologetics training. The church in America has had billions of dollars at their disposal in modern times, with which to fulfill the Great Commission-making disciples of Jesus Christ. Training and equipping adults and students in apologetics and a Biblical worldview is how this is accomplished. Yet, with all their billions of dollars, the modern-church has largely failed. Untold billions have been spent on buildings and entertainment. This news report details that one church denomination has over 7 billion in their annuity fund. I mention this just to back up my claim that the modern church has had billions and billions at its disposal by which to aggressively teach a comprehensive Biblical worldview yet surveys reveal that only 1% of adults have a Biblical worldview, only 51% of our pastors have a Biblical worldview and our teens are leaving the church in huge numbers because of lack of Biblical worldview training.   
Yes, there are some churches in America that are being led by Godly pastors that are doing a great job and for them I am thankful. But this little group is just that. We have a few churches sponsor our conference each year but for the majority of our conferences we are simply renting their building. We have even had several churches tell us they would be very happy for us to rent their building for $7,000 to $10,000.
In fact, over the past few years we have found ourselves increasingly renting hotel ballrooms. We have numerous churches each year tell us that they do not let outside groups use their building. Thus, we have rented hotel ballrooms while "evangelical" churches sit empty down the street. Even after we explain to these churches that we are attempting to hold a free Biblical worldview conference in their town and we are willing to defer custodial fees and any other expenses we are still told no.
Many of the churches we talk to do not even understand what it is we are trying to accomplish. They are not familiar with the meaning of worldview or apologetics training.
Some of the churches understand perfectly what we are attempting to accomplish but they tell us we would not be welcome to rent their facility because their once evangelical church now embraces postmodernism, mysticism, rejects the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture and most of the essential Christian doctrines.
Even among our truly evangelical, Bible-believing churches, how many churches teach the Biblical worldview for law, science, economics, history, family, social issues, and education? At church do adults or students learn about the lie of global warming, radical environmentalism, socialism, evolution, postmodernism, situational ethics, political correctness, population control, the myth of the separation of church and state, the Biblical worldview for marriage, the Biblical role of men and women and the lie of feminism? Every one of these issues can and must be addressed from the Bible and when we do so, we are not being political, we are making disciples that think and live like Christians.
Because the church is not answering the real-world questions of our students and the public school system is, Christian youth increasingly believe that at church we deal with "spiritual" issue but at school we talk about "real life" issues. The truth is, all issues are spiritual; every issue can be examined in light of Biblical principles but not if the church is only teaching Bible stories instead of Biblical principles contained in those Bible stories.
I founded Worldview Weekend in 1993 and all our conferences had an admission fee until three years ago. Because the church in America has largely neglected worldview and apologetic training and because the only hope for America is Biblical Christians that will oppose the evil that is washing over our nation, Worldview Weekend has been holding free Worldview Weekend Rallies for the past three years.
The window of freedom is closing on America and soon I, and our other speakers, could be prosecuted for the Biblical truth we are teaching. Hate-crime laws would do just this. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. As our religious liberties are lost so will our liberty.  Just this week, national news outlets reported that government officials would like to fine broadcasters up to $250 million dollars for programming that does not meet the government's approval. A principle and athletic director in Florida are going on trial for praying with adults over a booster club luncheon. If these men are found guilty they could be incarcerated. This is happening in America.
Worldview Weekend is training, equipping, and encouraging individuals of all ages that will be just like these men.  Our nation needs Christians that will stand up and speak out with the truth of a Biblical worldview even in the face of persecution and prosecution. By the end of 2009, we will have held almost 50, free Worldview Weekend Rallies just in 2009 alone. These free rallies are on a Friday night, Saturday night, or Sunday night, and they are attended by elementary students, middle-school students, high-school students, college students, adults, and senior adults. You can see our entire fall schedule at www.worldviewweekendrally.com
At the end of 2009, we will have trained around 50,000 adults and students in person. This does not include our online training institute, DVDs, our free magazines, our free websites and our free radio program. Please click here to read the testimonials of students and adults that have been impacted by our free Worldview Weekend Rally.
As we will be explaining in detail at our Worldview Weekend Rallies this fall, the worldview war in America is connected to four major forces; occultism/pagan spirituality, the apostate church, corrupt government/corporate officials and the educational establishment. All four of these groups are aggressively working at the national and international level to accomplish their ultimate goal of global governance as predicted by many New Age writers like Alice Bailey. The Bible predicts this will occur and at this year's rallies we will look at how God would have us to respond to what is happening at break-neck speed.
Our focus must be on preserving our families and preparing them for what is to come. Our focus must be on evangelism and Biblical discipleship and preparing those that can lead the remnant. Our current schedule has us going to 22 cities in ten weeks to host the free, Worldview Weekend Rally. Each rally is free but you must register online and print out a ticket so we do not over-fill the building. This would have happen in a few cities but because we had a count, we were able to move the conference to a larger auditorium.
Here is just a sample of some of the topics we will cover at our rallies this fall:How This Happened to America, Where We Are Going and The Biblical Response; Biblical Prophecies Being Fulfilled That Reveal the Supernatural Nature of God's Word; How This Can Be The Greatest Hour For the American Church; How to Prepare Committed Christians For What is Coming; The Worldviews and People Destroying America From the Grave and How Every Teen and Adult Must Respond To Be Protected; Refuting Evolution; What Happened to the Dinosaurs; The Impact of Evolution on America; Political Correctness is Cultural Marxism;  What the Bible Has to Say About The Coming One-World Religion, One-World Economy and Global Governance. How to Contend for the Faith in the 21st Century; Why Oprah's Pagan Spirituality is Doubling in America Every Eighteen Months and a Christian Response; Why Worldview Training Matters and Students Want it and much more.
 For us to keep our fall schedule as is, I need your help.
1.)  If you see we are coming to a city near you will you please got to this website and order a quantity of our free magazines to distribute in your area? We really need your help in getting out the word that we are coming to town. Please get them to your local churches, Christian schools, home-school groups, Bible studies and others that will help distribute them. –Thank you. If we see people are not registering for a rally then we will know that that city is not interested in having the free Worldview Weekend Rally as a resource in their community and we will be forced to cancel the event. This has only happen three times in our 16 year history but it will happen again if a community does not want the rally.
2.)  We need you to pray that the Lord bless us with a great attendance of youth and adults. Please pray for our travel in safety, our health and that we will see lives impacted and changed to His honor and glory. Please let us know you are praying for us with an e-mail info@worldviewweekend.com or by offering feedback to this article at the bottom of the page. We would like to know we have thousands of you praying for this fall's conferences.
3.)  We need your financial support. Will you help us equip thousands of adults and students with the ability to contend for the faith as we are commanded to do in the book of Jude? We must raise the funds to cover the several thousand dollars that each of these events will cost. Please partner with us in this vital and life-changing work. You can make a tax-deductible contribution by clicking here. If you prefer to send a check please send to:Worldview Weekend Foundation1016 W. Poplar Ave #106-228Collierville, TN 38017
Thank you in advance for your help and prayers.
Sincerely, Brannon Howse 

[1] Ken Ham & Britt Beemer with Todd Hillard, Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it (Master Books, Green Forest, AR., 2009) p. 22, 33, 41,