The Vision
by Laurence Windham

"Well, it all began about three years ago..." (I invite you, friend, to sit back and get comfortable as I disclose the inside story as to how the Highlands Study Center came to be.)

One day while working in the warehouse at Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida, I came across an old banner from the Ligonier Valley Study Center in Ligonier, PA. I knew I was looking at a piece of history that would kindle all kinds of emotions and memories of my good friend, R. C. Sproul Jr. So I waited until he wasn't around and hung the banner in his office. I expected him to appreciate the gesture, and then return it to the confines of the warehouse. He didn't give it back. It stayed, hanging in his office.

How are strong, lasting relationships formed? They can spring from mutual interests, ethnicity, common pursuits. Ours was formed by a cause. Over the course of several yens of fellowship we came to realize how much we respected each other. We found also that we both had a prophetic nature. Not the prophecy stuff, but the zeal to clarify what God has said about how we are to live our lives for Him. The tie that binds us is our desire to see Christians form their lives around the faith, rather than thinking Christianity is the pursuit of the American dream with God thrown in.

For weeks R.C looked at that banner until he could take it no longer. Around 9:00 PM I received a call, "Laurence, this is R.C., can you come over right now? I need to talk to you about something."

Growing up in a setting like the old Ligonier Study Center can have, as you might imagine, quite an effect on your life. R.C. Jr. had always entertained the dream of going back home and doing it again. He had seen firsthand how such an environment had shaped so many lives. He knew the value of having a place for people to go and study for weeks, months, even years. Though I had never even visited a study center, I was enamored with the ministries of Francis Schaeffer and Dr. Sproul.

After meeting with a couple of young men from the northeast interior of Canada at a Ligonier conference in Memphis, I was pondering the idea of going there to start a church and study center.

Soon after R.C's phone call I arrived at his home. For hours we talked about our mutual desire to, by the grace of God, create a place where people could come as resident students and learn. After 18 months of praying, planning and setbacks, the Highlands Study Center officially began on September 24 with about 30 people in attendance. Our first resident student came May 24. Our college ministry began this past September. And the ministry shows no signs of slowing down. For this we are grateful to God.

Many of you have supported the ministry with your prayers, attendance, and finances. This is all very encouraging to us. It is good to know that there are a number of people out there bound by the same cause. So you understand why we write the way we do. Our desire is to rock the boat, not sink it. We are distressed over the direction many churches, denominations and individuals are taking in the name of Christ. Our battle is one of ideologies, philosophies and worldviews. Sometimes I wish the battles were more physical in nature. At least that way you could see how you had done by day's end, counting the number of enemy dead, and how the next day's battle was arrayed. But the fight to bring every thought captive is compounded by the fact that most of our teaching and writing is not directed at the enemy camp but at the enemy's ideas that have found their way into our own hearts.

So we teach on, believing our cause is congruent with the commission Christ gave us, (the Highlands Study Center is a ministry of Saint Peter Presbyterian Church.) And if you sometimes think we go to the edge ... remember that we live there. Not by choice, but by calling. We would rather die with our convictions than live in peace with compromise. This has not come without cost. There is comfort in knowing many of you share the front line with us, have borne similar cost for your stand, and share with us the reality of the Highlands Study Center.