PEERS 2007 Project

Dan Smithwick, president of the Nehemiah Institute is currently recruiting churches to participate in a wide sampling of adults and high school seniors to document the “state of the church.” In his words:

I have been saying for some time that the trend reflected on the enclosed PEERS Trend Chart is not likely to change until we reach the adults in churches, starting with the pastors. Somehow, someway, we have to make this travesty (the near-complete capture of youth from Christian homes stolen to the Humanistic/Socialistic worldview) known to church leaders and get them to make this a first priority in the congregations. With that thought in mind, I have developed a plan for getting this story before 1,000 churches this year.  I am calling it the PEERS 2007 Project . . . in essence; it is to get 100,000 adults in churches to take the PEERS test, including their high schools seniors. 

With that I am going to do the following:

1. Publish a major report on the ‘state of the church’ regarding worldview understanding.
2. Highlight the difference between adult and youth views regarding Biblical worldview thinking.
3. Contribute 10% of revenue received back to the 50 top scoring seniors as scholarship money for a college of their choice—up to $10,000 to top scoring students.

The latest PEERS Test results trend chart (AKA, “Biblical worldview SAT” assessing the individual’s ability to develop a distinctly Scriptural way of thinking about every aspect of life—politics and government, education, economics, religion, and social issues) is alarming and predictable, but an effective tool for leaders to use in communicating the importance of our mission—educating children in a solid Biblical worldview where Christ is the heart of every subject and every area of life—producing Biblical thinkers, scholars, statesmen, leaders.

Urge your pastors and churches to participate in the sampling for this campaign.  Beyond the obvious benefit of equipping us with more empirical evidence, Dan is offering scholarship financial rewards!
The ‘state of the church’ PEERS 2007 Project, to conduct 100,000 PEERS tests among adults in local churches is intended to create a current “worldview baseline” composed of adults from several hundred churches among all major denominations.  Participating churches will receive Discount Coupons for follow-up worldview training materials and the opportunity for high school seniors to receive scholarship funds for a college of their choice.

Key points of project:
Cost: $7 per test, online version; $10 per test, booklet format

Period of testing time:  March 1 to July 31, 2007
Project will be closed when 100,000 participants has been reached.

Participants:   
- High school seniors, current school year
- Adult church members
Note:  Minimum of 50 individuals per church to participate; registration and purchase of tests must be done through local church.

Feedback given:
- Personal PEERS Scorecard (for each participant)
- Group Summary Report Booklet (for each church)
- Executive Summary Report booklet, issued upon completion of project (sent to each church)
- Recommended worldview training material list

Note: Executive Summary booklet will provide full worldview analysis for all participants including church ranking and denomination ranking.  Each church rank revealed only to that church and not revealed by name in Executive Summary report.  Strict confidentiality of personal results.

Rewards:
10% of revenue received from project will be paid out in scholarship funds for top 50 high school seniors based on Composite Score of PEERS Test.  With full project, scholarship funds are expected to total $75K - $100K with highest scoring student receiving 10% of fund, paid to school of choice.  Balance of scholarship funds paid on a sliding scale for remaining students (see reverse).  Strict proctoring guidelines given to ensure integrity of testing.  Complete listing of winners will be provided to participating churches.

Questions:
Call Nehemiah Institute, 1-800-948-3101

PEERS Scholarship Program

(hypothetical with 100,000 tests at $10 per test)

Rank   1st Place 2nd Place 3rd-5th 6th-10th 11th-20th 21st-29th 30th-50th Total

Award   $10,000 7,500 5,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 100,000

Scale based on full project of 100,000 tests with $1M in revenue.
Scale will be reduced proportionally based on final net revenue received.
Tie-breakers will be conducted via random draw.

Download the PEERS Registration Form (pdf, 21 kb)

Download the Test Proctoring Instructions (pdf, 22 kb)