Why LEAD?
Minnesota Family Council‘s LEAD program offers a unique combination of worldview study, real-world leadership training, and hands-on experience of the legislative process. Throughout the week, students become equipped to live out their faith in all areas of life and learn how the gospel shapes the way we approach culture.
We believe in breaking the curse of low expectations. Our culture often tells us, “Don’t expect students to do too much.” One teacher felt that his students would have trouble handling the rigorous requirements of the program. However, after seeing his students rise to the challenge, he said, “One thing is certain: we are not demanding enough from these students!” Teens thrive when we set the bar high!
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
Our goal is to inspire and equip students to be leaders in their communities—right now and as they launch into adulthood. LEAD challenges students to rise above low expectations and equips them for a lifetime of culture-shaping impact. Every year we bring in speakers from a variety of backgrounds who can share with our students what it looks like to practice citizenship worthy of the gospel.
WORLDVIEW BUILDING
During our seminars, students learn basic worldview principles and also get to dive deeper as they wrestle with tough questions in a safe environment and consider how the gospel speaks to our culture.
LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE
What happens at the Capitol affects each one of us. Teens learn the legislative process in a hands-on way by interacting with real bills that have been proposed here in Minnesota. This gives them the opportunity to put their leadership training into practice. In addition to research and analysis of their bills, they also get to give a press conference, a committee meeting, and argue their bills on the Minnesota House floor at the end of the week!
House Track
First-time students are sworn-in as members of the House of Representatives. Designed to challenge students to understand and apply biblical principles to current issues, the House Track gives students the chance to wrestle through current issues in a safe environment while learning to work from all sides of an issue.
Senate Track
Building on what they learned in the House Track, returning students sharpen their critical thinking, strategy, and communication skills through the amendment process. As they do, this advanced track encourages them to deepen their faith as they discover their capabilities and God’s plan for them.
LEAD’s program was first developed as Student Statesmanship Institute (SSI) in the mid-90s by James Muffett and other Michigan team members. Their vision was to train young men and women in statesmanship, citizenship, and biblical worldview so that they could apply Christian principles to their world.
.
When Tom Prichard, formerly of Minnesota Family Council and Institute, visited Michigan in 2013, he saw LEAD in action and was struck by the unique and dynamic experience it offered teens. He felt Minnesota Family Council needed to bring the leadership training of this program to Minnesota.
.
Culture in Minnesota has increasingly deviated from biblical principles. Minnesota Family Council believes in raising up a generation of Christians who are equipped to practice citizenship worthy of the gospel—in their families, schools, and professions.
- The Bible is the inspired, infallible and authoritative Word of God.
- There is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- The Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God and the Savior of all humanity, was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life culminating in His vicarious and atoning death through His blood, bodily resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father. He will come a second time at the end of this age.
- Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for salvation, which is by grace, through repentance and faith in what Jesus did on the cross.
- It is the present ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit that enables the Christian to live a godly life.
- There will be a resurrection of both the saved and the lost; those that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and those that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- There is a spiritual unity of all true believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Staff
Patience Griswold, LEAD Program Director
Patience has been involved with LEAD as a volunteer and staffer for nearly a decade after participating as a student in Minnesota’s first LEAD program. In her years with LEAD, she has been an Aide-de-Camp, Senate Track Coordinator, and Program Assistant. She stepped into her current role in July of 2021.
Before coming to Minnesota Family Council, Patience taught logic, history, literature, and debate in a classical school. She is also a writer, and an alumna of Bethlehem College and Seminary and the Colson Fellows program. In her free time, Patience enjoys reading, hiking, drinking coffee with family or friends, and keeping house plants alive… well, most of them…
Questions? Send Patience an email