TrueU is a DVD-based apologetics curriculum. Dr. Del Tackett, architect and voice of Focus on the Family's The Truth Project®, describes this endeavor this way:
"TrueU is an apologetics training series primarily geared to help prepare high school students for the rigorous challenges and attacks that will confront them on the university campus. My guess is that it will end up benefiting a whole lot more folks than just high school seniors."
It is important to clarify that TrueU is not "The Truth Project for teens." As envisioned by Dr. Tackett and our staff, TrueU will be, in essence, a series of "prequels" (or lead-in studies) to The Truth Project. (See the FAQ below, about TrueU's format, for some important information regarding the lessons' complexity).
TrueU is designed primarily to help students solidify their Christian faith with foundational apologetics training. This will equip young people to stand strong in the university environment, and also serve as a precursor to the in-depth study presented in The Truth Project of how to live out a Christian worldview in everyday life.
We would encourage those who complete TrueU to immediately join a Truth Project small group, if possible, and continue exploring the practical day-to-day application of a biblical worldview.
The primary target group for TrueU is students ages 15-22 — i.e., high school students who are preparing to go to college and undergraduate students who have already begun to experience an onslaught of challenges both in and out of the classroom.
We believe, however, that adults will also find the teaching very valuable. We envision TrueU to be a great resource for youth groups, Sunday School classes, home-based small groups, homeschools, and individuals who want to strengthen their faith.
Surveys show that a disturbingly high percentage of students who enter college as professing Christians turn away from their faith before graduating. This is traceable to a lack of preparation to withstand and counter the false claims that bombard believers in the university environment. Our objective is to help turn this tide by giving TrueU participants confidence that the Christian faith, and the truth we find in the Bible, is based on solid evidence that stands up to hostile scrutiny.
The TrueU curriculum is comprised of multiple elements — a 40-minute stand-alone introductory DVD titled The Toughest Test in College, followed by four sets of video lessons on DVD. As currently planned, each lesson set will consist of ten 30-minute sessions (for a potential total of 40 lessons covering about 20 hours of material). Two lesson sets have been filmed so far.
The "style" of presentation is similar to that of The Truth Project. The bulk of the content features a classroom setting with a host lecturer presenting the material to about 25 on-camera students.
Note: Since much of the discussion is aimed at countering philosophical and scientific objections to the Christian faith that are often put forth in a university setting, the TrueU lessons are "academic" and fairly challenging in nature (e.g., in-depth exploration of the structure of the DNA molecule, discussion of mathematical probabilities, etc.). Some of the material is actually more complex than what is presented in The Truth Project. However, the goal of this resource is to equip participants to confidently answer "scientific" arguments that are frequently leveled against biblical faith. Thus, the evidence presented is on par with what collegians can expect to encounter in a university biology or philosophy course.
An introductory DVD — The Toughest Test in College — is available to download through this site, or if you purchase the first DVD set, Does God Exist?, you will receive The Toughest Test in College as a bonus disc.
Set # 1 — TrueU: Does God Exist? — may be purchased online.
(Note: Set # 1 includes the complete Toughest Test introductory video as a Bonus Extra, as well as a 64-page booklet which gives a brief overview of each lesson, provides suggested questions for group discussion, and highlights key quotes referenced in the video presentations).
Set # 2 — TrueU: Is the Bible Reliable? — is anticipated to be released in late 2010.
The third and fourth sets of TrueU lessons are under development and will hopefully be filmed later this year, depending on God's provision in terms of technological and financial resources.
We don’t view TrueU as a "teen resource" per se, but rather a tool to be used by parents, youth workers, and other leaders to help students solidify their own faith. The curriculum is being designed for small group use — and we are producing supplemental materials for that setting — although it can also be viewed by individuals.
We believe TrueU will be an especially powerful teaching tool for parents and teens to view together. Our recommendation is that students and parents make time to watch the videos together and discuss them before the young people leave home and go to college. This will not only prepare the students for the challenges they will face, but also give dads and moms a framework for offering support and encouragement.
The initial component of TrueU is a 40-minute introductory DVD titled The Toughest Test in College. This presentation centers around a video format similar to The Truth Project's "expert commentaries" — in which highly qualified individuals from various disciplines address the obstacles that Christian young people face at the university level. It also includes testimonies from a number of college students about the specific challenges they encountered in their respective undergraduate environments.
The first set of 10 lessons — TrueU: Does God Exist? — focuses on recent findings in the physical and biological sciences, as well as mathematical probabilities, which provide a compelling case against the common argument that belief in God is "just a blind leap of faith." As noted above, some of these discussions are fairly deep (for example, the complex design found at the most minute levels of molecular biology).
The second set of 10 lessons — TrueU: Is the Bible Reliable? — examines evidence from archaeology and historiography that supports the factual accuracy of the Bible. To quote Dr. Tackett:
"The old skeptical view that the Bible contains little or no historical value has been increasingly shown to be a poorly-informed, non-scientific position. Those who still hold those views, and use them to [try to] undermine the Bible in classrooms today, show they either lack knowledge of recent archaeological findings or simply hold a prejudicial and hostile presupposition to the Bible itself."
Sets Three and Four are still being written and developed.
Each set of ten TrueU lessons includes a 64-page booklet which gives a brief overview of each lesson, provides suggested questions for group discussion, and highlights key quotes referenced in the video presentations.
As an extension of his work with The Truth Project, Dr. Tackett is the "architect" and visionary behind TrueU and has served as Senior Editor.
The first two sets of lessons are hosted by Stephen Meyer, Ph.D.
Dr. Meyer serves as Director and Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, in Seattle, Washington. He holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in the History and Philosophy of Science, having written his doctoral dissertation on the methodology of historical sciences and the history of origin of life biology. Dr. Meyer earned undergraduate degrees in physics and geology, and worked as a geophysicist prior to undertaking his Ph.D. studies. Before joining the Discovery Institute, he taught at the collegiate level for twelve years.
Along with writing many technical articles for scientific publications, and numerous editorials for magazines and newspapers, Dr. Meyer has contributed to several books, including co-editing Science and Evidence of Design in the Universe and Darwinism, Design and Public Education. He is the author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, Summer 2009).
Dr. Meyer is a past guest on the Focus on the Family radio program and was a contributing expert for The Truth Project. His work in these venues led Dr. Del Tackett to invite him to take a leading role in TrueU, since Del believes that Dr. Meyer's background has uniquely equipped him to address and counter many of the scientific and philosophical challenges that Christian students experience on the university campus.
Dr. Meyer was also featured in the 2008 documentary film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, hosted by Ben Stein. In 2004, a peer-reviewed article by Dr. Meyer advocating Intelligent Design — titled "The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories" — was published in a scientific journal associated with the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The publication of this article ignited a firestorm of controversy in American scientific and higher education circles. The former managing editor of the journal, Dr. Richard Sternberg, and Dr. Meyer are featured in Expelled sharing their perspectives on the situation and the broader state of higher education in America.
We will not be conducting conferences. No training is required to lead a TrueU study or to purchase the curriculum.
Certainly! Leading a TrueU group is not dependent upon experience with The Truth Project.
In contrast to The Truth Project, the TrueU curriculum will be sold through the same distribution channels as most other Focus-produced resources.
The introductory Toughest Test in College video may be downloaded for free or watched online.
Each regular TrueU DVD set (consisting of ten lessons) is $49.00 US.
Set #1: TrueU: Does God Exist?
A limited license for public showing in schools and churches is granted with the following parameters:
If you have further questions, please contact Focus on the Family's Legal Permissions department family-permission@custhelp.com
Yes, you are able to download all the promos on the downloads page.
We would value your prayers for the TrueU project, asking God to supply the manpower, technological, and financial resources to complete production, and to pave the way for a smooth launch of this endeavor. Ultimately, it is our prayer that the Lord will work through the TrueU curriculum to impact many people and draw them into close relationship with Himself.