This is a parent category so that all of the year categories can fall into it. This should clean up the categories part of the sidebar.
A new Honor Academy “charter” was established late last year (2009) in Branson West, Missouri, called the Honor Academy of the Ozarks (HOA). Its based in a church there called Living Word Church and it used to be The Internship at LWC. I don’t have much information as to what the routines were like with […]
C.R.’s Story: Honor Academy of the Ozarks Part 1 Read More »
MINISTRY PLACEMENT One of the most difficult aspects of my time at the Honor Academy was my ministry placement. I worked in finance. I found out later that the executive office had put a bid in for me, but it was the finance department’s turn to choose an intern, so I ended up there. I
Lauren’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
I was a January intern several years ago, and I’ve always been afraid to talk openly about my experiences at the Honor Academy—in part because I have this underlying fear that Ron Luce will somehow find a way to punish me, and partly because people don’t believe me when I tell them stories about being
Lauren’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
Summer Camps I worked in the Summer Camps department which at the time was a subdivision of the Honor Academy. Erin, my superior, didn’t like me from the beginning, which she made clear by being overtly irritated by my presence. Halfway through the year she openly told me that she didn’t like me. Summer Camps
Jacqueline’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
Nutrition When I arrived at the HA I was healthy and strong. The diet was so different than what I was accustomed to : very little efficient protein, legumes, and vegetables. There was plenty of pasta, denatured breads, soda, fruit juice, cereals, and desserts. After consuming this very high sugar-starch diet for a couple months
Jacqueline’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
To understand my Honor Academy Experience best I will share some defining moments in my life before I lived on the Teen Mania campus. My parents divorced when I was 7 years old. During the divorce my mother had temporary custody. At that same time I began to fall in love with Jesus. In those
Jacqueline’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
The OTHER massively diff part of my story is fast-forwarded 12 months later. I’m a Core Advisor. I love my Core to bits. I love leadership. I love it all. I also started to fall in love with a hottie worship leader named Joel. We were both CA’s, related on a ton of different levels,
Jessica’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
My story starts out similar to most. ATF+Zeal+Parental Consent=August 99 Arrival! First year started off rough…my Core Advisor left weeks after Gauntlet…followed by my Intern Advisor…leaving an overwhelming feeling of aimlessness. After the January’s graduated,I became an ACA. I was excited to have a role. I worked in Leader Development recruiting Team Leader’s for mission
Jessica’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
I came in contact with Teen Mania Ministries through an ATF when I was in high school. I was “saved” at an ATF. During my first ATF they had a break out session for those that were interested in the Honor Academy. The break out session made the HA sound a lot like the Ministry
Another Shannon’s Story Read More »
Since my first Acquire the Fire, I knew I wanted to go to the Honor Academy. It took me a few years to make it a reality, but it eventually happened. At first, things were good. They kept us so busy during Gauntlet that I didn’t really have time to think about whether or not
I was an intern with Teen Mania Ministries in 1995 and 1996. It has been a long time since my involvement with Teen Mania, and my memories have faded considerably, I felt compelled to sound my voice, mainly as a part of my healing process, but also out of concern for future potential interns. SHOCK
(To read part 1 of Amber’s story, click here.) Our Gauntlet “week” was more like a month long as leadership scurried to adjust and make plans for the interns based on the new surroundings and resources. We had to run a mile every day – nothing compared to the 3 miles I have read is now
Amber’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
Just to let you know, I have waited for going on 14 years to write my experiences down and have someone hear me and care. At first I wrote a few things down on the alumni website but I was largely ignored or occasionally confronted or my posts were deleted as not conforming to the
Amber’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
I was put on probation at one point during the year for not having enough money. My honor ring was taken away, which was an important outward sign; not to be allowed to wear the honor ring was something to be ashamed of. The part that seemed most unjust to me was that I was
Katie’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
I was assigned to the International Operations department, (moderator note: this dept. is now Global Expeditions) as a recruiter for Team Leaders. Apparently this was one of the higher level work assignments, in the informal ranking system of jobs, where grounds and kitchen are on the bottom, Acquire the Fire calling somewhere in the middle,
Katie’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
(Moderator’s Note: Katie (yes, her real name!) recently sent me the letter that she sent to the Board of Directors. If you are just now joining us, the Board of Directors is looking into the allegations of spiritual abuse made on this blog. They are looking for former interns to tell their story so they
Katie’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
I want to start this by saying that I don’t hold any unforgiveness or bitterness towards any of my friends or staff members at Teen Mania. I just want to share the story of what happened to me during my undergrad year starting August 07. A lot of the people involved in the situation, I
The final installment in Erin’s story – her GI year. I did this new program called the G.I.I.E.T. (You’ve heard of I.E.T.? Intensive elective training? That was another thing started my year. This was the G.I. version.) MORE intense. Requires MORE dedication. It was totally promoted that if you could make it through the G.I.I.E.T.
Erin’s Story, Part 4 Read More »
I graduated the HA in 2008, and returned to participate in CCM in January 09, because I was so sure I was being called there (to a point where I blatantly disrespected my parents’ wishes and had a friend come and pick me and my stuff up, with $800 to my name that I was
Lindsay’s Story: On Leaving Early Read More »
I was an intern from 07-08. This is but a small glimpse of my experience at Teen Mania. One issue of concern was the stigma of exercise (which I’m fairly certain RA has already touched on). The attitude at the HA is that everybody is capable of the exact same workout regimen, and anybody who
Lindsay’s Story: Corporate Exercise, Injury and Shaming Read More »
Andrew (not his real name) sent in this amazing story. It really outlines the double standard within the leadership at Teen Mania. They teach that your word is your bond and that you should always be honorable, yet they routinely lie and break their word. And they will continue to do so with total impunity
I was an August intern, from the class of 2000. I was K-Crew, Breakfast Crew – and I LOVED Teen Mania. Don’t get me wrong – I still believe God brought me there. I had a deep peace that it was where I was supposed to be. And there were many good things He
I read your website last night about recovering from the Honor Academy and it was life changing for me. I have been on 4 trips with TM and have been graduated from the HA for 5 years. Everything made so much sense to me, the more articles I read on your site the more everything
We did this new L.T.E. (Life Transforming Event) called “World Awareness.” They didn’t tell us what was going on and it wasn’t optional. It was said to be called “The Movie LTE” we were going to watch movies about persecution and talk about it. We went in for our first movie then all the
Erin’s Story, Part 2 Read More »
This is part 1 of Erin’s story. Check back tomorrow for part 2. I was a January intern in 2007. I think that says SO MUCH right there.(Many of us lovingly referred to the common miss- treatment of the January intern as the ‘Jan-Shaft’) I was welcomed to my new room on day one with
Erin’s Story, Part 1 Read More »
