Editor’s Note:  The response to the short course mentioned below has been overwhelming and we are sold out for the live classes. However, anyone who registers on the waiting list will still receive the video of each day’s live session with course materials by 7 PM eastern each day.

In just a few weeks’ time, we find ourselves in a whole new world. Many of us are working from home. Churches are closed. Like everyone else, all of my scheduled speaking events are cancelled. College students are back home, and schools are closed. (Or, as Oprah might say, “You get to homeschool, and you get to homeschool, and you get to homeschool!”)

While it’s not clear how long these new arrangements will last, it does make Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 5 quite relevant: “Make the most of time, because the days are evil.”

As a parent, I want to do that. Sure, I’ve got plenty of things to do working from home, but I also have unexpected family time. How can we redeem it?

According to one report, streaming video game platforms are setting new records for users and sessions. Makes sense, but we’ll find it far easier to squander our time than actually redeem it.

With all the news about the coronavirus, it’s essential to talk together with kids about what it means to have faith and to deal with fears, and to pray together as families about both.

There’s also a great opportunity in the days ahead to talk through the critical big issues of our culture. With that opportunity in mind, the Colson Center is offering a free 5-day online live short course for students and their parents called “A Crash Course in Worldview and Culture,” featuring worldview and apologetics guru Sean McDowell, youth and family expert Brett Kunkle, and me. The course is based on the books that Brett and I wrote, A Practical Guide to Culture and A Student’s Guide to Culture.

The course will be held Monday to Friday next week, at 1:00 PM Eastern time. Each session will be an hour and fifteen minutes and will be hosted live with interaction and Q&A time.

I’ll kick off the first session on Monday talking about “Fish Don’t Know They’re Wet: Why (and How) Culture Matters.” We’ll talk about what culture is and how Christians should think about culture. How we can shape it, and how it shapes us…

On Tuesday, Brett Kunkle, founder and president of Maven, will lead a session called, “The Moment and the Story:  Why (and How) Worldview Matters.” This session will help students think through not only their own worldview, but other worldviews too – a critical analysis tool in today’s world.

Sean McDowell will teach on Wednesday about “Worldview Essentials: Grounding our Faith in the Bible.” This is an especially valuable session for your students, who face challenges to their faith and the authority of Scripture all the time, especially at school or college.

On Thursday, Brett will teach on “Being Alone Together in the Information Age: Issues of Technology and Social Media.” In other words, he’ll talk about all the issues surrounding technology and social media. Brett really understands how our smartphones and devices can shape our hearts and minds, and he will help us deal with them as parents and as families, especially during all of this extra time we’re enjoying together.

I’ll wrap things up on Friday with a frank but age-appropriate talk, “Bad Ideas Have Victims: What the Sexual Revolution Has Done to Us.”

This short course next week is absolutely free. You can register here. Everyone who signs up will receive the videos and the PowerPoints of each session afterwards, so don’t worry if you cannot make a live session or you want to review the content again later.

This is a resource that can be used by families, youth groups, Christian school classes that have gone online, college students at home, and even grandparents who want to learn a bit more about the world their grandkids face.

Again, you can register for next week’s short course HERE.

It will be a great way we can redeem the time—together.