Our history

The Anchorsaway curriculum is not written from a religious or a church perspective, but rather through the eyes of a former agnostic who wanted to build a strong biblical worldview into her four children that would serve as the essential foundation for their faith so that they would not just survive but thrive in their walk with Jesus.

After becoming a Christ-follower, Nancy Fitzgerald did extensive research on Christianity and many other religious beliefs. She was trying to answer questions she had about God and Christianity in particular. Is there truth? How can one know for sure that Christianity is not a hoax? Did Christ really die and rise again and if so, what difference does that make in a life? Is Christianity verifiable as well as transformational? Such questions led to years of study and a depth of reason-based faith that has answered Nancy’s own questions as a skeptic.

When her oldest son was preparing for college, Nancy posed a question of what he would do if his roommate were an atheist. He had no clue. It was at that moment that Anchorsaway was birthed. Nancy realized that it was not enough to take her children to church, pray with them and have family Bible studies. What they needed in addition to all of this, was to develop their own authentic faith that would come with a desire to know God and to live their faith out in all of life. Unless they saw the urgency of living it out and being prepared to give the reason for the hope they had in Jesus, with gentleness and respect, they would miss fulfilling God’s greatest purpose for them. Over the next several months, Nancy put together some answers to questions that went unanswered in her own life and created a curriculum. Nancy used material from her favorite Christian apologetic writers including: Chuck Colson, Josh McDowell, David Noebel, Henry Morris and James Kennedy. Her hope was that, beginning with her son and some of his friends from church, they would develop a firm foundation of faith that would answer their own questions about God, and prepare them to answer faith questions from others who were not yet Christ followers.

The first class of 6 students went well. In the few years following, the curriculum was expanded and the classes were moved from the church into Nancy’s home to accommodate those who did not feel comfortable going into a church building. For the next 15 years, classes grew from 6 students to 150 as they stuffed themselves into Nancy’s home with live feeds in the basement. The students came one evening a week from January through April. Their questions were being answered and they were surprised to learn that the Christian faith is verifiable as well as transformational. Nancy studied under Chuck Colson for a year and was convinced that the curriculum must be published, teachers must be trained and students must be taught so that they would be used by God to change culture. Today the curriculum has been made available to students and adults around the United States and in 14 different countries.