LifeWise taking over Hilliard scuba facility as religious nonprofit sees rapid growth

The exponential growth of the LifeWise Academy is evident from the sprawl at a small ranch home refitted as an office just outside downtown Hilliard.

In addition to the filled home on Grace Street, LifeWise also has a studio in a garage in the back and operates out of three adjacent storefronts in an unassuming strip on Lattimer Street, connected through the backyard of the ranch.

"We've been here forever and people in Hilliard don't even know we're here," LifeWise founder Joel Penton said. "We just have long since outgrown it."

Now, a prominent Hilliard site, once home to an 18-foot deep scuba diving facility, will soon be the hub of the growing Hilliard-based Christian non-profit that teaches public school children the Bible during school hours, which now has over 30,000 students in the program after launching in 2019.

LifeWise purchased the former Aquatic Adventures building located by Interstate 270 off Cemetery Road in Hilliard for nearly $3 million, with plans for a renovated training facility to help power the organization's national ambitions for the future.

"With the exponential growth of LifeWise, I want to go somewhere that will accommodate us for some time," Penton said.

Nearly $3 million purchase to turn scuba facility into nonprofit hub

LifeWise acquired the property located on Lyman Road off Cemetery Road in Hilliard from former owners in late 2023 for $2.8 million, according to Franklin County property transfers.

The new LifeWise facility will be named the LifeWise Skestos Center, after George Skestos, a major supporter of LifeWise. Penton said the nonprofit wants to turn the 23,000 square-foot property into a training, meeting and office space. Penton said the project aims to be done by Thanksgiving this year.

"The building choice itself, we wanted to demonstrate a level of permanence to central Ohio that, we want to be here and invest here — and it's a visible place too," Penton said.

The former Aquatic Adventures space features a six-lane, 25-yard lap pool, retail areas, changing facilities and offices, and conference rooms in addition to the main, 18-foot-deep pool measuring 25 by 45 feet, according to Ruscilli Construction.

While the space may seem like a mismatch for a nonprofit focused on Bible education for public school students, Penton said the footprint of the building fit the needs of a growing organization.

"As we looked at it, we just kind of forgot about the pools: 'Oh, that large pool area is really the perfect size for like a training room, and the smaller one is a great size for the studio,'" Penton said.

Once the pools are filled in, the new Skestos Center will include office space, training and conference rooms as well as a studio for the nonprofit's multimedia efforts.

LifeWise facility to honor Jim Tressel

The facility will also feature a "Tressel Coaching Hall," named in honor of former OSU coach Jim Tressel, to train LifeWise teachers from across the country. Penton, a former OSU defensive lineman, played under Tressel and asked him if he would allow his name on the room for training.

"He's been an encouragement and a champion to a degree," Penton said. "He's not super publicly tied to it but I asked him, I said, 'Can we honor you by putting your name on the training room,' and he said "Sure, but call it a coaching room.'"

What is LifeWise Academy?

LifeWise Academy, founded in 2018, is a division of Stand for Truth, an event-based nonprofit ministry with a mission to reach public school students. It offers Bible education during school hour that is off school property, privately funded and parent-permitted, often during an elective class period.

In the United States, school districts may offer the option of released time for religious instruction in compliance with the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case, McCollum v. Board of Education and the 1952 decision, Zorach v. Clauson, The Dispatch previously reported.

The curriculum promises to teach students the entire Bible in five years, according to the LifeWise website.

LifeWise seeing 'exponential growth'

In 2019, LifeWise launched in just two schools. Today, it serves 300 schools across 13 states and employs nearly 1,000 people, Penton said.

"People want a program like this, you know, the demand is there," Penton said. "When communities find out about it, they want to do it — and when people hear about it, and hear the story, they want to support it."

With the "exponential growth" has come expanded opportunities for nonprofit fundraising. Penton said the Skestos Center project is funded in part by thousands of individual donors.

"Like any healthy nonprofit, we have some large donors, a good number of mid-sized donors and a lot of smaller donors," Penton said.

As the nonprofit continues to grow, Penton said he sees an opportunity with the "3,000 school districts in the nation, 90,000 school buildings 50 million public school students."

"We would like to try to make Bible education available to all during school hours," Penton said.

Rapid expansion drawing increasing attention, criticism

LifeWise, however, is not without its opposition. In April, Sammi Lawrence of the Freedom from Religion Foundation warned about the "disturbingly rapid growth" of LifeWise in FreeThought Now, a publication focused on separation of church and state and education about nontheism.

"Religious organizations seeking to further erode the wall of separation know that weaseling their way into public schools is their best bet to indoctrinate children," Lawrence wrote, saying religious release pushed the boundaries of the First Amendment. "Release time bible classes are one tool that religious organizations turn to in order to get their foot into the schoolhouse door."

Last year, Lawrence and the Freedom from Religion Foundation also sent mailers to hundreds of Ohio public school school districts urging them to not adopt a religious release policy or work to repeal existing policies.

LifeWise was also the subject of recent stories by NBC and MSNBC, which featured some people who were concerned that some students may feel pressured to attend LifeWise by having students encourage their classmates to attend.

However, local districts with religious release policies have received few complaints since implementing them. Whitehall City Schools, which had students featured in the NBC and MSNBC pieces, told The Dispatch the district has not received any formal complaints about LifeWise.

Stacie Raterman, spokesperson for Hilliard City Schools also said that it has not received a single formal complaint about the program since the Hilliard Board of Education voted to allow students to elect to attend its off-site programming for religious instruction in 2022.

She also said there aren't really problems in transporting program participants to and from the LifeWise instruction sites.

“It seems to be running OK,” Raterman said.

A spokesperson for Westerville City Schools also said the district has not received any complaints regarding LifeWise since the district began allowing it.

Penton said the message of LifeWise just focuses on teaching the Bible, and stays away from politics and emphasized that LifeWise is completely voluntary and up to parents. Penton said he invites "people to come in and look and see what we actually do."

"The truth is that on Sunday mornings, in churches across America, there's people of all different political leanings gathering together — LifeWise is for everybody," Penton said. "So that's one of the things it's a little sad to us because we don't want anybody who feels like they can't or shouldn't participate because of political stuff."

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

@Colebehr_report

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Former Hilliard scuba diving facility to be new LifeWise headquarters