Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Haylee Lawver: Equipping Youth To Be Godly Leaders & Engage Culture

Transcript

Haylee Lawver: Equipping Youth To Be Godly Leaders & Engage Culture · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:00
  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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  defending biblical Christianity, no topic, off limits.
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  And now, here's your host, David Fierazzo.
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  Friends, family and Christ, thank you so much for tuning in.
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  God bless you.
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  I've got a great guest today.
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  We're going to talk about the youth movement in Wisconsin and around America.
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  There's a great website I want to give you before we dive in.
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  It's lead Wisconsin.
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  The website is leadwi.org, that's LEAD, leadwi.org.
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  It's connected with Wisconsin Family Council.
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  But before we do that, I want to give you an update on our conference, everything's the planning
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  stages, things are going well, we're promoting it.
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  If you could please get the information on the World View Matters conference to your
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  pastor, maybe you can get your congregation, make them aware of the conference.
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  So the website, worldviewmattersconference.com, we're pretty good for sponsors, we're
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  thankful for all the people that have been supporting us.
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  As you know, we've been talking about this for months and months, it's coming up now
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  less than a month away, 12 speakers, 15 sessions, two days on the biblical worldview, all
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  kinds of topics to equip the body of Christ.
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  So the theme is redeem the time and we'd love for you to share it on social media, please
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  share it on social media, worldviewmattersconference.com.
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  Now, on our bringing our guest today, she is the lead, well, she's actually the director
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  of lead Wisconsin.
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  Her name is Haley Lover and she's with us today and we're so thankful to talk about this
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  new movement, this youth movement that we hope grows.
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  Haley, good to see you.
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  Thanks for your time today.
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  Oh, great to see you too.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Yeah, sure.
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  You're most welcome.
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  So the website leadwisconsin.org, you've been in your position as director for, has it
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  been less than a year?
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  It has been longer than that.
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  It has been less for a year.
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  So our previous director moved to Canada for a ministry position.
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  So I was able to kind of follow her around last year and get an understanding of how the
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  role works and I took over around September.
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  So I'm still getting my, getting a good basis under me as I'm helping grow this program.
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  Great.
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  Well, you're, like I mentioned earlier, Wisconsin Family Council, we've had Julian Appling
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  on.
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  For many years, Daniel Degner, he's been on as well.
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  But tell us a little bit about your background and then we'll jump into what lead is and how
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  to get more young people where it's available.
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  It's out there.
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  Yeah.
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  So I am a graduate of Maranatha Baptist University of Watertown, Wisconsin and I got to know
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  Julian Appling through an internship that I had in college actually.
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  So I got introduced to her and I helped her with a get out the vote movement in 2024.
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  And then she introduced me to Daniel Degner, our current president of Wisconsin Family
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  Council.
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  And then I started working from them last March.
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  So it has been really wonderful to learn from both Jolaine and Daniel and different people
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  within Wisconsin Family Council and Wisconsin Family Action.
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  So it's just been a really great blessing and I'm honored to be here.
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  So lead Wisconsin, it was started in 2021.
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  They tried to do it in 2020, but then COVID happened.
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  So it was first done at M.B.U.'s campus in Watertown in 2021 and we had to cap registration
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  at 80 campers because there were so many people who wanted to come.
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  And now we usually have around 130 and we're hoping to see that number grow extensively
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  over the next five years.
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  So I just want to mention just looking back, I mean, I see on
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  the website Charlie Kirk and I know he spoke at one of the earlier events, Carl Kirby.
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  We've had him on the podcast.
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  Actually, he's going to be on next week with us.
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  Alex McFarlane, love him.
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  He's also been on our podcast, Jolaine, of course.
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  So you've had some great speakers on the biblical worldview on apologetics.
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  So you've got an event coming up and not lead, but Wisconsin Family Council, Wisconsin
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  Family Action.
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  Would you please tell us about the gala coming up.
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  It's May 1st and 2nd, the same weekend as the World of the Matters Conference, but
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  we're supporting other Wisconsin Ministries and non-profit.
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  So please tell us about that.
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  So we are celebrating our 40th anniversary of Wisconsin Family Council on May 1st at
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  the Ingleside Hotel in Milwaukee.
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  And the goal of the event is really just to honor the really amazing past of WFC, everything
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  that has been accomplished through this organization.
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  And through the various people who have been a part of it over the last 40 years, we definitely
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  are going to be honoring Jolaine Appling for all of the work that she has done.
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  She recently stepped away from the president role.
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  She's now our president emeritus, but she has really been one of the central figures
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  of this organization over the last few years or over the last, I believe she was there
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  for about over 25 years.
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  So she was there for a long time.
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  And so we're just celebrating WFC, celebrating our future, everything that's going to be going
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  into that.
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  And we have a really exciting speaker, Katie Faust, who's going to be coming in, and as
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  well as honoring a few other people.
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  So it's going to be a really great time.
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  You can get tickets on WF FamilyCouncil.org if you're interested in attending.
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  WI FamilyCouncil.org Katie Faust has been on our program, them, before us, great organization.
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  I love what they're doing.
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  And then just some of the work that they're doing, it's really amazing.
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  So that's, she's wonderful speaker for you guys.
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  Congrats on 40 years.
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  I know you haven't, you're not even 40 years old, but Jolaine, Jolaine's been around, did
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  you say 25 years?
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  She's worked so hard all these years and done so much for the state of Wisconsin.
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  For the family, for conservative movements, for politics.
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  Just amazing the worth that Jolaine has done so it, rightfully so please tell her hello
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  for us, okay?
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  I will.
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  All right, so I want to go back to what lead is.
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  It says equipping teenagers or equipping teens to become effective, godly leaders who
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  engage the culture from a biblical perspective.
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  So Haley, before we go on and talk about the website and then what you put out, great
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  newsletter, what you put out in an e-mail Monday on the science, right?
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  I don't know why there's a debate, but there is on what science is compared to the Bible.
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  So we're going to talk a little bit about that.
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  But first, it's amazing that a lot of Christians are not getting equipped today.
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  We talk about that all the time.
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  I interview pastors.
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  I interview all kinds of people and Christian ministry and the biblical worldview is declining.
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  So this effort that you are trying to equip teenagers to, first of all, in the word of god,
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  to be godly leaders and then to be salt and light to engage the culture, this is very important
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  work that you're doing.
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  Could you speak to just that and your mission first before we move on?
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  Yeah.
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  So at Wisconsin Family Council, one of the reasons why Jillane started a lead chapter
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  in Wisconsin, because it's originally a break off of a mission in cap that we decided we
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  needed to see in this state is because it is so important to train up the next generation
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  to understand God's word, to understand what a biblical worldview is and help that inform
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  the way that they vote, how they get involved in politics and elections and things like
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  that.
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  And although we're not training our campers necessarily to go and become the next assembly
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  members or senators, we want them to have the tools that they'll need to understand
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  our culture.
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  Because without the next generation, the future, we won't have it.
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  The future really does belong to the next generation.
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  And so that is our entire goal.
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  That's why we have such amazing speakers come in, people like Charlie Kirk and Carl Kirby.
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  And all of these amazing people who really speak to the next generation about how they
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  can understand what their role is in culture and politics and government from a biblical
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  perspective.
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  That's what we're all about.
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  We want to see these students be equipped.
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  We want to see them really understand just from God's word what their role is.
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  So that's kind of what our whole mission, what we're all about.
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  So chances are there are probably not a lot of teenagers watching this podcast because
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  we talk about a lot of cultural stuff.
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  We talk politics.
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  We talk Bible, biblical worldview, Bible prophecy, church issues, church discernment and impacting
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  culture.
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  But parents are watching, parents and grandparents.
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  So how can a parent that's watching right now that maybe has a teenager or a grandparent
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  of a Christian family teenager, how can they get their teens involved with this?
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  What would be some of the steps other than going to the website, checking that out, go
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  ahead, Haley.
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  Yeah, so right now we have registration open for lead Wisconsin 2026.
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  So you can go on our website leadwi.org and you can register your campers on there.
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  And then we also have social media pages.
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  So we have a Facebook account and also an Instagram page called lead Wisconsin.
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  If you want to just follow along with the different speakers we have lined up or any news that
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  we have, you can follow us on there.
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  So lead L-E-A-D, L-E-A-D, Wisconsin, leadwi.org.
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  So you mentioned campers.
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  We didn't talk about that.
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  We didn't talk about the events.
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  We didn't talk about actually camping, explain that please.
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  Yeah, so the camp, it is a time of fun.
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  So a lot of times learn about lead.
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  They think it's going to be all work and it's not going to be like a fun camp because there
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  is a lot of work that goes into it.
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  There are creating speeches, a lot of studying.
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  So there is a lot of work that goes into it, but we also have lots of different games.
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  They have free time.
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  We've done some slip and slide kickball the last few years, which has been a favorite
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  with the campers.
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  We have our different sessions going on.
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  There's a lot of fun that goes into camp.
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  It's not just the work, but we have four tracks.
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  So we have assembly, senate, media, and business.
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  And in the assembly track, they are offline as assembly members in the Wisconsin assembly,
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  the same in the senate track, and they're working to pass and fail bills.
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  And in the senate, they're actually creating their own amendments to bills.
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  And so they're working on those all week and we go to the Wisconsin State Capitol at
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  the end of the week and they get to present their arguments for or against their bills.
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  And then the whole track gets to vote.
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  So it's a really fun time.
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  And then in our media track, they are member, they'll become journalists or broadcast members.
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  And they're creating a daily newspaper.
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  The broadcast is creating a daily broadcast, talking about different events that are going
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  around on campus, the different bills that the assembly and senate are trying to pass
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  or fail, different events.
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  We call our game time feats of strength.
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  So our journalists will often cover the fun stuff that we do during that time.
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  And then our business track goes through and creates, they're usually split up into groups
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  of three or four and they actually create their own businesses and get to present them
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  to the camp at the end of the week.
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  So there's lots of fun, there's lots of hard work, there's lots of leadership skills
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  that get taught, but it's it's a really amazing time.
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  Wow, that's a lot, that's a lot, great opportunities for young people, for teenagers, media.
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  Oh my goodness, do we need Christians in media?
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  Wow, I love the media research center and the work that they do, news, busters.
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  I want to ask you about the lead Tribune.
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  It sounds like, you know, there's, you know, young people doing news reports, things like
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  that.
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  Tell us a little bit about that and how kids are getting involved with the lead Tribune.
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  All right, so when our campus sign up for the media track, they're allowed to choose if
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  they want to do the broadcast, whether news anchors or videographers, editors, or they
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  can choose to be journalists, and the journalists create the lead Tribune.
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  So it is a real daily newspaper that gets printed off every morning and the campers write
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  articles, they interview our senators and assembly people in our, in the different tracks.
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  So they'll publish interviews, there's letters to the editor, they, they really are allowed
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  to cover what they want to cover.
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  And they're giving guidance by their track or, yeah, their track directors, but for the
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  most part, we're letting them just kind of go into it and use their skills, become journalists
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  right about what they're passionate about, what they think will be interesting to their
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  fellow campers.
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  And it's a really fun time.
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  Fantastic.
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  I just want to mention again, to simplify for parents and grandparents to simplify leadw i dot
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  o r g lead w i for Wisconsin dot or g.
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  And if you just scroll over the about at the top of the page, they're just the camp details
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  is the very first item camp details and you can find out so much more information there.
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  But now on transition with you, Haley, you've got a great background from where you went
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  to college.
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  You obviously are from a Christian family.
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  You know the Lord, you, you've studied the Bible.
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  I want to go back to on the about page under topics.
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  I mean, these are all biblical worldview issues, life, making the case for the unborn, religious
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  freedom.
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  Oh my goodness, religious freedom has been under attack in this country.
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  When we need to young people, young Christian families to impact that, worldviews, communism,
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  socialism, also creationism, do we have the scientific proof, leadership, marriage and
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  family, racial issues, social media, the good bad and the ugly.
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  But I want to focus on science.
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  Why?
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  Because that's the really exceptional newsletter you put out on Monday.
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  And you started off by saying, trust the science.
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  You've probably heard that phrase or something like it recently.
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  Our world is built around science and technology and then it goes on.
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  But then you, you note this and this is very important friends.
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  You say, even some Christians think they must reject science in order to cling to faith
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  or in order to believe the Bible or to trust in God.
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  And that is just not true.
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  I mean, the simple answer is, I mean, the word science basically means knowledge.
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  Does it not?
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  Really, go ahead and talk a little bit about this and why you decided to write on this topic
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  in your email newsletter.
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  So I am not an expert in science by any means.
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  But I think about people like Ken Ham, ministries like answers and genesis and the way that if
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  you do have an interest in science, if it's something that you feel like God has given
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  you a gift for and you're called to study, you can use that gift.
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  These young people who are coming up, the future scientists of our world can use that
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  gift to show evidence for a creator and help people understand just the beauty and intricacy
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  of God's design and his creation.
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  Amen.
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  I'm glad you put this in your newsletter.
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  It's a very important topic because Christians kind of think, here's science and they go,
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  oh, and I don't know how we got to that where the church is not leading this movement,
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  leading this conversation.
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  We're, by the way, I don't know who said this.
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  Have you ever heard science doesn't speak, but scientists do.
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  And unfortunately most scientists happen to be atheists or they don't believe in God as
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  creator and it's just, it really is astounding, particularly with all the evidence for creation
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  and God out there.
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  It really is amazing.
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  So people listen to scientists, but where do they get their information, right?
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  Science means knowledge.
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  So reason with me here, Haley, where do they get their information, these atheists scientists
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  to think, yeah, I have all this knowledge, but the Bible is a book of wisdom and knowledge
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  and everything that we need included in its pages, isn't it?
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  Yeah, absolutely it is.
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  And I believe for a lot of scientists, it takes faith to be an atheist.
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  I mean, they aren't people of no faith, they just don't have faith in God.
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  They have faith in their atheism in science, science is their God.
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  And so I believe that that's why a lot of times scientists get their ideas in the way
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  that they understand the world and different scientific topics so confused with what science
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  is actually proving in the reality of it.
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  So I believe that's why oftentimes scientists tend to be atheists, they often don't believe
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  in God.
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  Because they're putting their faith just in the science with no higher authority whatsoever.
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  And it definitely causes them to confuse what they're finding even within their own research.
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  There's a lot of crazy science out there.
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  You think of the radical environmentalism and the climate change movement.
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  I remember on the podcast last week with Ken Ham, he said, is there climate change?
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  Yes, climate has been changing since the global flood.
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  Climate has been changing, but it's not man changing and it's God who, oh, my goodness.
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  If we just Christians, we just need to get in the Bible.
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  So a couple of your other bullet points, Haley, that really good stuff you put out, Christians
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  can develop medicines, technologies to ease human suffering.
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  They can conduct research with integrity and compassion and use science as an opportunity
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  to share the gospel with their colleagues.
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  Isn't that what we're called to do?
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  And then Christians can also use science to support God's design.
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  Let me read a little bit more and then let you respond.
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  Despite what our culture claims, science supports life in the womb.
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  I call it preborn human lives and mothers' wombs and distinct biological sexes.
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  So let me just ask you as a young person, Haley Lover, why is there so much confusion today
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  over something so simple that a great grandparents would have never been confused about male and female?
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  Why do you think that is?
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  Well, that's kind of a hard question to answer because it doesn't make a lot of sense.
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  There's so many people in politics and in leadership who are so confused about this,
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  who even five, ten years ago would have thought it would be insane to have these points of view.
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  And I think it comes back to the fact that when something catches on in culture,
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  oftentimes people who are in positions of leadership will grasp onto it.
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  And this particular issue, a lot of times they're trying to make people feel bad.
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  You know, it's about, well, if this person feels that way,
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  why is it my position to say anything against it?
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  But the Bible is clear that there is truth and we're supposed to stand up for what truth is.
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  And being loving and compassionate requires us to tell people the truth.
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  It's not loving and compassionate to tell somebody that they're a man when they're actually a woman or vice versa.
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  That's not loving and compassionate.
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  People who, this particular issue, there should be love and compassion surrounding it,
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  but it needs to be grounded in truth.
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  And it's been very heartbreaking to see so many people affected by it,
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  especially teenagers.
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  We've seen so many teenagers affected by this.
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  And that's another reason why I think lead is so important is because we talk to teens about these issues.
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  Teenagers need that are confused about something like gender.
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  They need compassion and help from people who are going to tell them the truth
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  and help them become okay with their bodies.
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  And so that's why I truly believe that trying to help the next generation
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  really understand these issues from a biblical perspective is so important.
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  Yes, worldview matters. I agree, Haley.
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  There's a, there's a plug for the podcast name.
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  I want to mention over at Answers and Genesis,
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  you put this in your newsletter.
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  There's all kinds of information that they have great resources there.
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  If you just look up Answers and Genesis.org slash science,
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  there's a whole page on this that you can, what is science?
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  I love this quote. The Bible is the foundation for science.
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  Non-Christians must borrow biblical ideas,
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  such as an orderly universe that obeys laws in order to do science.
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  So I think Frank Turk wrote this book stealing from God.
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  And he also wrote a book. I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
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  So as you said, they have faith,
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  but it's just not in the one true living God.
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  So in the last a minute and a half,
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  Haley, just share a little bit more about lead.
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  I would love more people to check out the website and get involved.
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  But whatever is on your heart,
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  I know your heart is for young people to get teenagers equipped
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  to become godly leaders and go ahead and just share whatever else you'd like
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  in the last minute and a half.
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  Yeah, so if those who are listening,
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  know of any teens that you think could really benefit from this camp,
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  I would encourage you to tell them about it.
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  Tell their parents if you have kids, sign your kids up.
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  We are living in such a dark time in history.
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  And this camp really is an opportunity to give a little bit of light to teens
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  during such an influential time in their lives.
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  And we really want to help them understand
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  these really difficult issues that they're facing at a young age
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  from a global world view.
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  We want to equip them with leadership skills and help them
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  really develop godly friendships, have godly mentors,
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  and also while hearing from really amazing world view speakers.
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  So if you're interested at all,
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  please go to the website.
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  You can follow us on our social media platforms.
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  And we would be honored to talk with you about the camp further.
• 23:29
  So yeah, thank you for your time today.
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  Yes, thank you, Haley Laver, the director of lead Wisconsin,
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  LED lead, w i dot org.
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  Quick question.
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  Can people from outside of Wisconsin go to the camp teenagers?
• 23:42
  Yes, they can.
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  Good.
• 23:45
  Good deal.
• 23:45
  All right, appreciate your time.
• 23:46
  Thanks for all you're doing.
• 23:47
  Keep it up.
• 23:48
  Keep the faith and stay strong in that biblical world view.
• 23:51
  Hold on really, we'll talk to you again.
• 23:53
  Thank you.
• 23:55
  God bless you friends.
• 23:56
  And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.
• 23:59
  See you next time.