Inaugural Class of Centurions Commissioned

Graduates Head Back to Their Communities to Initiate Change

LANSDOWNE, Va., May 25, 2005—Founded on the premise that the Christian faith is relevant to every part of life, The Wilberforce Forum's Centurion Program was created to help Christians better understand and articulate their faith in their communities. 

Graduating its first ever class this spring, the annual program invites 100 Christian men and women from across the nation who are influential in their communities to take part in a year-long study designed to discuss why Christian worldview matters and to equip participants to examine the implications of living in a society with competing worldviews.

It is the belief of The Wilberforce Forum, the thinking, teaching, and advocacy division of Prison Fellowship, and the belief of its founder, Charles Colson, that absolute moral truth is knowable, teachable, and can be defended in the public square to affect change in our culture.

"A Christian worldview is not a set of positions and propositions to be memorized and repeated. It is born out of critical thinking and built on a theological foundation. Only then is the student prepared to address particular issues and go on to teach others," said Colson.

Participants in the Centurions program learn from Colson as well as other leading Christian worldview thinkers as they discuss topics ranging from politics and education to the arts. Those enrolled in the self-paced study are linked together through three weekend residencies, Web conferences, personal contacts, and an ongoing password-accessed Internet community with resources from the Wilberforce Forum.

The Centurions, who come from across North America and the Cayman Islands, also learn the basics of other major worldviews now competing in the marketplace of ideas in Western culture.

Participation in the Centurions program requires more than a simple commitment to a year of learning. Graduates of the program pledge to use the training to help their churches and communities learn how to think as Christians and to live out a biblical worldview.

A second group of 100 participants have already begun their course of study.

Graduate Donald McLaughlin commended the Centurions program and what he learned, "[it] gave me the tools necessary to build a solid intellectual foundation. The experience deepened my faith and increased my desire and ability to share Christianity with others."

Prison Fellowship is the world's largest prison outreach and criminal justice reform organization with programs in all 50 states and in more than 110 countries. Founded by former Nixon counsel and Watergate figure Charles Colson and led by former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, Prison Fellowship is dedicated to the Christian principles of caring for the "least of these" in society and in valuing the dignity of all human life.

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