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About Highlands Ministries· A Brief History A Brief HistoryI was six years old when my family arrived in the Ligonier valley in southwest Pennsylvania. My family moved from suburban Cincinnati where my father served at a large church so that he could start the Ligonier Valley Study Center. The idea at first was that the center would be a place of training for those involved in para-church ministries. It would be a sort of seminary for laymen, teaching them the things of God so that they in turn could instruct those under their care on high school and college campuses around the nation. Students stayed in the homes of the staff, and ate their meals with us. My theological education was forged through table talk, conversations set in the context of food and fellowship. In time the Ligonier Valley Study Center became Ligonier Ministries. Teaching moved from conversations around the table to outreach through the media, and Ligonier enjoyed explosive growth, awakening hundreds of thousands of Christians to the holiness of God in all its fullness. Through radio, conferencing, video and print, Ligonier became the leading Reformed ministry in the country. I began working at Ligonier in 1989. It was a delight to be a part of a burgeoning ministry. I was, and am grateful to God for how He has worked through Ligonier. For all His blessings, however, I knew we had lost something. The blessing of growth cost us the opportunity to teach in a more personal setting, face to face, through conversation. In 1996 I moved with my family to the mountains of southwest Virginia to begin the work of the Highlands Study Center (now Highlands Ministries) and to plant Saint Peter Presbyterian Church. Our goal was to recover the work of discipleship through personal interaction. Finding the church awash in worldliness, we set about helping Christians live more simple, separate, and deliberate lives for the glory of God and the building of His kingdom. Since that time we have kept to our vision, teaching principally in small group settings. Our Couples Camps, held several times each year, are restricted to ten couples at a time as we spend three days together considering the nature and calling of the family, the sovereignty of God and the kingdom of God. Our Pastors Camps, wherein we spend three days considering together the nature and calling of the church, are likewise limited to ten church leaders at a time. In addition to these labors we have begun to prepare men for gospel ministry in our Highlands Hall program, and, through our Highlands Academy have taught older home schooled students classes on everything from the Westminster Shorter Catechism to Western Civilization to the writings of G.K. Chesterton. We likewise host a local Bible study each week, again with crowds of a manageable size. All these endeavors fit into our philosophy of teaching which is simply this—education is conversation. Even our popular Basement Tapes are education given in the context of conversation. For over a decade now we have labored in this vineyard. We have been blessed to witness a bounty of fruit. Lives have been changed, for generations to come. We are a small ministry, with low overhead, and rather simple goals. We want to continue to speak with the people of God about the things of God. Despite our small stature, we have been blessed with a hearty faith, one that believes we can make known the reign of Christ, one conversation at a time.
R.C. Sproul Jr.
What is Highlands Ministries?Highlands Ministries exists to help Christians live more simple, separate, and deliberate lives to the glory of God and for the building of His kingdom.That's a big job, one done not simply, but deliberately. Born out of a ministry of Saint Peter Presbyterian Church, we stand with the Westminster Standards. Our hope is to help believers apply those principles to the way we live our lives. To that end we have a number of different ministries. Conferences and Seminars. In addition to all the teaching we do locally, (including a number of conferences we have sponsored locally) both Laurence Windham and R.C. Sproul Jr. do a significant amount of teaching at conferences and seminars around the country. We have addressed everything from the sovereignty of God to family relationships to education to the doctrine of justification, to a Christian view of the state, to how to live more simple, separate and deliberate lives. These conferences are often available on CD as well. Please call us at 877-878-2238 if you'd like to have Laurence or R.C. speak at your conference. Also, you can host a Highlands Ministries conference in your hometown. See our Host a Conference page for all the information. Couples Camp. Three times a year we speak with married couples, ten at a time, about the sovereignty of God, the biblical role of the family, and the kingdom of God. We gather for these conversations at the Sproul home over the course of two and a half days, enjoying not just a set of lectures, but enjoying meals and conversations together. Pastors Camp. Once a year, hoping to encourage local bodies of believers to grow in joyful gratitude and love among the brethren, we meet for three days with pastors and elders, again, ten at a time, to consider together the nature and calling of the church. We meet in a log lodge in a local state park, and feast not only on God's Word, but on Laurence's and R.C.'s favorite recipes. Highlands Hall. Believing that shepherds are best prepared among the sheep rather than in the academy, we have set about the task of preparing men for gospel ministry. Following a discipleship model, we read together some of the great works of our spiritual fathers, and consider them together in conversation, in light of every day pastoral circumstances. Our desire is not only to prepare pastors, but to raise up godly men. (As of January, 2009 a ministry of Saint Peter Presbyterian Church). Basement Tapes. Believing education is conversation, we gather monthly to have a conversation on topics related to the good life. We send them out to folks who commit to supporting the ministry monthly. If you'd like to begin a conversation of supporting our work, give us a call toll-free at 877-878-2238. These are also available for sale on CD in our online catalog. Tuesday Night Bible Study. Every Tuesday night students of all ages, and from many different churches gather to study the Word of God from a Reformed perspective. We have studied through Joshua, Ecclesiastes, Hosea, the Epistles of Peter, the Epistles of John, as well as many topical studies on everything from the doctrine of God, to the nature of the family, to issues dividing the church. These studies are also available on CD as a part of our Sound Teaching series. The Highlands Academy. While we are deeply committed to homeschooling, we understand that we parents often are at a loss, given the educations we received. As an aid to homeschoolers we offer several classes to older homeschoolers and their parents. We have taught Logic, Rhetoric, Basic History of the United States, Modern American History, Contemporary American History, Western Civilization, Epistemology, Homer's Odyssey, Contemporary Culture, Art and Latin. Our Social Agenda. It's not what you think. While we have some definite ideas about the social outworking of the gospel, this is what we do for fun, how we rejoice in the Lord as a community. Every summer over a hundred of our closest friends gather for our annual ice cream social. And every fall we give thanks for God's grace in the Reformation with several days of feasting, dancing, singing and remembering. Quotes From Our Friends"Not your ordinary emasculated Christian ministry!" Rhett W. Who Are These Guys?
Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary, and Grove City College. He received his Doctorate of Ministry in 2001. R.C. was the founding pastor of and is a teaching elder at Saint Peter Presbyterian Church, and Founder, Chairman and Teacher of Highlands Ministries. He has written or edited ten books, and contributed to several others. He once wrote for World magazine, and for the Covenant Syndicate. The important thing is that he is the husband of Denise, and the father of Darby, Campbell, Shannon, Delaney, Erin Claire, Maili, and Reilly. At Highlands Ministries, R.C. teaches the Tuesday Night Bible study, the Highlands Academy classes, the Highlands Hall students, and serves as editor of Every Thought Captive. When not busy teaching, or playing with the children, he is snow skiing, golfing, or trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle.
Laurence Windham has served as senior pastor at Saint Peter Presbyterian Church and the Director of Student Affairs at Highlands Ministries. Before coming to work here he studied at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, worked at Ligonier Ministries, and served as a campus minister at the University of Central Florida for Reformed University Fellowship (the campus ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America). The important thing is that he is the husband of Angela, and the father of Lauren, Alayna, Ethan, Garrett, and Miles. Laurence is the host of the Basement Tapes and contributes to each issue Every Thought Captive.
Eric Owens grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a graduate of Geneva College (Business) and the Reformed Theological Seminary (Theology) where he met Laurence and RC. After his formal schooling, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked for the Evangelical Studies Project of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a think tank established to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues. He then spent ten years helping to build an elite graduate school, The Institute of World Politics, an independent school of statecraft and national security affairs. Twelve years in Washington being enough, Eric moved to Bristol, Virginia to get a piece of the simple life and joined Highlands Ministries in 2005. Eric and his wife, Lindsay live in Bristol and are expecting their first child in early 2010.
Mark Dewey is our latest "permanent" host of The Basement Tapes. He recently moved back to the Bristol area after five years in Michigan where he planted Christ the King Church and served as her pastor. Mark is the husband of Monique and they have eleven equally special children with Amos being the latest born in 2009. Mark's newest vocation is a ministry to baseball players where he can combine his two passions, teaching the gospel and playing children's games. He is best known in these circles as the first professional athlete that R.C. defeated in horseshoes (with some help from Eric).
Jonathan Daugherty is a regular contributor to the Basement Tapes and Every Thought Captive. Jonathan also arranged and performed—with his band, Maker's Mark—the great intro music for our Sound Teaching series, The Son of God Goes Forth to War, written by Greg Wilbur. Not one to settle into a single role, he has at various times and in various combinations worked as a funeral director, draftsman, cabinetmaker, carpenter, limousine driver, bellhop, luthier, and DJ. Jonathan and his wife Katie decided to move to Bristol in 2000 and become members of the Saint Peter community before they attended the second Summer Camp for Couples. Being steeped in aesthetics and agrarianism, Jonathan is responsible for deepening and enriching our community's understanding in those areas; being steeped in old-time and bluegrass music, and being accomplished on the guitar, banjo, and fiddle, he has made homemade music an increasingly vital part of the community's activities. Most important to him and to us is his being a godly husband to Katie, and a godly father to his six children (seventh on the way).
The Highlands Fellows
The Highlands Fellows are like-minded pastors from around the country who work with the ministry by writing for Every Thought Captive, offering advice, spreading word about our ministry work and sharing with our people stories of God's faithfulness from their own lives and the lives of their flocks. We are pleased to call them our brothers and friends.
Rev. Jay Barfield, Pastor of Christ Covenant Reformed Church, Billings, Montana. Jay is a 'Bama boy who spent some time with us here in southwestern Virginia where he prepared for the ministry under the watchful eyes of RC and Laurence. He was a regular on the Basement Tapes for several years and now contributes a regular column for Every Thought Captive. Jay and his wife Kim have six children.
Rev. James McDonald, Pastor of Providence Church, Peoria, Illinois: He is husband to Stacy and the father of ten children, and grandfather to one. James is also the president of Family Reformation Ministries. Things He likes: The Word of God and the dead guys (Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Edwards, Spurgeon, Whitfield, Van Til, a number of puritans), warm camp fires, a decent Cabernet, walking with his bride.
Rev. Kevin Swanson, Pastor of Reformation Church (OPC), Castle Rock, Colorado. A second generation homeschooler, Kevin Swanson with his wife, Brenda are now homeschooling their five children (9 – 18 years old) out on the eastern plains of Colorado. For the last 6 years Kevin has hosted a daily radio program from deep in the recesses of his basement, that now reaches 80 countries around the world. His message - to bring a Christian relational life back to family and church, applying God's law to every area of life. His goal: to plant gardens in the ashes of the rapidly-disintegrating humanist empires. Kevin has also served as the Executive Director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado for the last eleven years. He has also authored Upgrade-10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child, The Second Mayflower, the Family Bible Study Guide Series, and others.Kevin be contacted via email at kevin@generationswithvision.com.
Rev. Jeff Swanson, Pastor of Christ the King Church, New Era, MI. He is the husband of one wife, Kelle, and father to seven children. A farmer in his heart, he spends much of his working life around cows and “sheep.” Jeff and family benefit from his work at a dairy which specializes in cheese and ice cream. If he wasn't so “freakishly” tall, Jeff could be considered “Hobbit-ish”, loving all things that grow. Jeff loves to plow the lives of his family and his congregation as they seek to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Not only does Jeff consider himself a fisher of men, but also a fisher of fishes. A life of peace, communing with family and friends, finds Jeff often enjoying good fellowship, good cheese, good beer, good wine, and good bread together in community.
Rev. Steven Warhurst, Associate Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Kingsport, Tennessee.
Rev. Marion Lovett, Pastor of Heritage Church, Centerville, Tennessee.
Rev. Mark Robinette, Pastor of Foundation Church, Columbus, Ohio.
Rev. Roger Erber, Pastor of Christ's Church, Harvard, Illinois.
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