The decades-old battle over prayer and the teaching of Scripture in public schools can be won through programs like Ohio-based LifeWise Academy, a thriving Bible study curriculum that is integrated into the weekly class schedules of tens of thousands of American children. According to the organization’s website, the program makes use of “released time,” which is time set aside during school hours, typically an hour a day or a week, for students to receive off-campus private religious education.

The criteria for LifeWise and similar non-profit religious organizations to operate during public-school hours include that the instruction be given at a location outside the school, that the sponsoring organization and/or the students’ families must bear the cost, and that parental consent must be given. LifeWise easily meets these criteria, as does the Bible program offered by South Carolina-based School Ministries. While this organization has not seen the explosive growth of LifeWise, School Ministries added 33 school districts last year and has a goal of reaching 250,000 children by 2030.

Executive Director of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and former Chairman of the Madison County, Illinois Board, Kurt Prenzler, reports that LifeWise has grown “from serving two school districts in 2018 to more than 600 in 2024, with the goal of serving 1,000 districts by 2026.” Prenzler relates that, after reviewing the group’s financials and talking with a representative, he found LifeWise to be “a very fast-growing and successful ministry,” with solid fundraising capabilities.

Banning the Bible & School Prayer

During the early 1960s, two Supreme Court cases officially banned prayer and Bible instruction from public education. These were Engel v. Vitale in 1962, when the court held that “reciting state-written prayers in public schools was unconstitutional government promotion of religion.” Although the ruling didn’t specifically outlaw prayer itself, the end result was in practice exactly that. In 1963, the second case, School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp, struck down “school-sponsored Bible reading and the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.”

According to FreedomForum.org, the Justices in the Abington case “decided 8-1 that such practices violated the neutrality toward religion required of public schools by the establishment clause. By neutrality, the court meant not taking sides in religion and remaining neutral among religions as well as between religion and nonreligion.”

Many parents and concerned citizens reacted negatively to these court decisions, charging that God had successfully been “kicked out” of public schools. Freedom Forum noted that some educators and religious leaders “focused on the need to study religion as part of a good education” rather than that God had been banished from the schools.

A renewed push to reinstate the Bible in public-school curricula began in 2019, but as yet only the State of Oklahoma is working to codify it in its new State Academic Standards. While Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and several other states have initiated attempts to include the Bible as part of an English Language Arts or Social Studies curriculum, so far only the use of “released time” has actually been successful in providing religious education during the public-school day.

The concept of released time religious instruction dates back to 1905 and has been upheld multiple times at the U.S. Supreme Court. LifeWise points out that guidelines for usage of this time “both guard against government establishment of any one religion and allow expression of the right to the ‘free exercise of religion,’ also protected by the First Amendment.”

Kurt Prenzler believes the fast growth of LifeWise and similar ministries is the result of “a need that is recognized by many people, including volunteers, contributors, parents, and perhaps even some public-school board members and administrators.” He explains that “a lack of Bible education in the public schools” has fueled this need, and that one result is bad behavior in school — which is a problem for public school teachers. (For more on this topic, see Education Reporter, August 2024.)

About LifeWise Academy

The LifeWise Academy website explains that its programs are “powered by The Gospel Project,” and that the curriculum “takes students through the entire Bible over five years with a three-fold focus on Head, Heart, and Hands.” For example, it focuses on “head” by simply teaching what the Bible says, what happened in the story, and what it tells kids about God, themselves, or the world.

The curriculum also touches the “heart” by examining how the Bible story ties into and points to the big picture of the gospel. Students consider human failure, sinfulness, and the need of a savior as well as Jesus’ victory in accomplishing for the human family what we could not achieve for ourselves.

Finally, LifeWise focuses on “hands” by exploring ways students can live out the changed character the gospel produces ... the lessons show how Jesus changes a person’s desires, actions, and character to be more like His.

Each LifeWise lesson also reviews a “Living LifeWise” character trait. The order in which the lessons are taught is flexible and can be modified as the teacher deems necessary.

LifeWise in action in Illinois

Luann Stoller is the director of the Princeville LifeWise ministry in west central Illinois near Peoria. Several other small towns in this conservative area also have LifeWise programs. The Princeville program began in September 2024 with 77 children in grades K-5 and now has 113 students enrolled out of a total of 280.

Education Reporter caught up with Stoller as she was preparing to leave for her 30-minute Thursday LifeWise class. She explained that a planned expansion to include middle school students in Princeville has been approved and will begin next fall. When asked if her program is connected to others in the area, she said: “Not directly. We operate individually, but we are all closely connected with the corporate level ministry based in Columbus, Ohio.”

The Princeville class uses the students’ PE time. “We have a bus and meet at a small Baptist church with three classes in the morning and three in the afternoon” Stollar described. “Our largest group is 24 kids. Because the time is so short, we use every minute to teach, even during the bus ride. Every lesson involves focusing on a character trait as well as a Bible passage — for example, hope. We outfitted the bus with video monitors, and we play a video on way to the church. We use the ride back as prayer time.”

While LifeWise Academy programs vary, Stoller says hers has one paid director and one paid teacher. “We have four volunteers in both the morning and the afternoon sessions.” She explained that LifeWise programs are ranked in terms of student enrollment, finances, and fundraising, and she is proud that her small-town program earned a ranking of “10” in the fundraising category.

She further told Education Reporter that a LifeWise program has been launched in the greater Chicago area’s western suburb of Aurora, characterizing this development as “huge.”

Although an obviously Christian ministry, LifeWise is not exclusive to any single denomination; rather, the organization requires that at least three denominations be involved in its programs, which they refer to as “multidenominational.” Five denominations are involved in the Princeville program: Catholic, Apostolic Christian, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian. Representatives of these varied denominations come together “to support and celebrate the mission of bringing Bible education to public school students during school hours.”

The classes focus on “core themes of the Bible and emphasize the gospel of Jesus Christ,” which is “foundational to Christian belief and widely agreed upon by the various denominations that support LifeWise Academy.” The programs generally avoid doctrinal specifics.

Observers like Prenzler appreciate that LifeWise programs go above and beyond merely spreading the gospel. “I love the fact that the Bible release time groups are local,” Prenzler says, and explains that the programs have additional benefits:

1. Training grassroots activists. The release time programs produce Christian citizens who are learning to be activists — how to impact local government, in this case local public schools. They are teaching everyday people to form committees; plan and communicate with local government schools, learn the law, raise money, etc. They are learning that Christians can be successful in the public square, which is important.
2. Exposing the mistake of taking the Bible away from children. The success of these programs is visible, not only to Christian volunteers and parents, but also to the public-school establishment. The public schools have tried to become the church, tried to produce the “fruits” of Christian virtue without God, such as patience, kindness, love, joy, peace, and goodness. LifeWise emphasizes character-building, and it quickly becomes apparent that these Bible release time programs do a far better job of producing fruit, and people are noticing.

Prenzler adds that, in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville, the famed political scientist, historian, and author of Democracy in America: “The Christian release time programs in some ways produce a predictable American response; see a problem and form a voluntary group to address it.”

He explains that the process for starting a LifeWise program begins with “obtaining 50 signatures on a petition of persons within the school district.” This exercise indicates to LifeWise that there is interest in the community to move forward. The next step is to form a committee representing at least three religious denominations.

Prenzler has proven to be a valuable resource for promoting Bible released time programs by helping to recruit committee members in Illinois school districts. Readers may contact him at kurt@phyllisschlafly.com for more information, or may contact the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles by email or phone using this link.

The day may come when prayer and Bible study are restored to American public education and God is again permitted in the public square, but the continued growth of LifeWise, School Ministries, and similar programs may help turn our public-school system around in the short term.

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