A Brief History

I 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 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.

In the King's service,
R.C. Sproul Jr.

What is the Highlands Study Center?

The Highlands Study Center 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.

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.

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.