Producing Evangelistic Students: An Interview with Greg Stier

Every now and then we take a break from the normal routine to interview a friend, author, ministry leader or youth worker we think would have something to share with the youth worker nation. Today we talk to Greg Stier, founder of Dare 2 Share (dare2share.org), which is a ministry dedicated to equipping students to share their faith. Greg is a long-time friend of Simply Youth Ministry and will be speaking in a general session at the upcoming SYMC Conference in March.

1. Dude, many of our readers haven't met you before—tell us about yourself!
 
For 10 years I was a church planter and pastor of Grace Church in Arvada, Colorado. Although I loved this amazing church, God used the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 as a wake-up call for me to focus full-time on reaching the next generation for Christ. I resigned my post as pastor and began to mobilize teens for evangelism through Dare 2 Share.

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I've been married for 21 years to the love of my life, Debbie. We have two great kids who, unfortunately for my wife, have my spastic genes. We couldn't have kids for 10 years and wondered if God would ever bless us with children. We were so thrilled that he did! Being a husband and daddy has taught me more theology than any Bible class I've ever sat through. It's humbling and exhilarating all at the same time!    

When I'm not traveling the nation equipping youth leaders and teens for evangelism, I'm hanging out with the fam. We live in the great state of Colorado and love to hike together. This summer my son and I had the opportunity to climb our first two "14ers" (mountains that are 14,000 feet or higher in elevation). It was great fun...even though I thought my lungs were going to burst.

One more thing...I'm a movie freak.

2. How did you become so passionate about student evangelism?

I was raised in a family of body-building, tobacco-chewing, beer-drinking thugs (and that's just the women!). Seriously, my family was bad to the bone. The Denver “mafia” knew my five fighting uncles as “the crazy brothers.” So when the mafia thinks your family is dysfunctional you have some serious issues.

But this church from the suburbs reached out to the city and, as a result, my entire family came to Christ. As a kid I witnessed the spiritual transformation of every one my family members from violent troublemaker to passionate Christ follower. This church also had a killer youth ministry who discipled us—that is, had us growing deep in our relationship with Christ and understanding theology, as well as training and expecting us to share our faith. They also had high expectations when it came to leadership and they gave teenagers significant responsibilities in leading the youth ministry, which I think is critical. There's no way I'd be doing Dare 2 Share if I hadn't seen it modeled in this amazing youth ministry setting first.
Bottom line as to why I'm so passionate about student evangelism? I believe in the power of the gospel and the potential of teenagers!
 
3. Yesterday we talked about producing evangelistic students; what is the biggest key in your mind for students to "get it"? 

They have to have their hearts broken for their friends who don't know Jesus. They need to get their "Jesus eyes" on. 

When I was a teenager my youth pastor challenged me to go to a local shopping mall and do some people watching for 30 minutes. He told me to put an imaginary tag on people's foreheads as they walked by which read, "Bound for Hell." I did just that. For 30 minutes I thought about the hell they were headed to and the hell they were going through apart from Jesus. By the time it was over I was crying. For the first time I saw people through the eyes of Christ and my heart has been broken ever since.
 
As we put our teens in situations to interact with unreached people (mission trips, local outreaches, etc), we will have the opportunity to teach them to put their Jesus eyes on. Then, as their hearts begin to break for the lost, evangelism becomes much more natural. 
 
4. Tell us about a time you were rejected after sharing your faith. How can leaders prepare students for the adversity they face in times like that?

There have been many times I've been rejected. The hardest was my Uncle Richard. He was the one holdout of my uncles who refused to believe in Jesus. It took 12 years of sharing and being rejected by him before he finally succumbed to Jesus (just before succumbing to cancer). 

I think youth leaders can prepare their students by helping them realize that rejection is part of the discipleship process. Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

At Dare 2 Share we do a thing called "Persecution University." If a teen gets rejected for sharing Jesus, they become a PU grad and get a standing ovation from the thousands of teens in the auditorium. Of course some Christians get persecuted, not for sharing their faith, but for the way they are sharing their faith. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about helping teens to humbly share the good news and then realize that, if their friends reject them, they are entering a fraternity of persecution that's 2,000 years old. I find that teens who truly realize this have their faith steeled and sealed deep inside their souls. 

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FREE "Bread and Body Skit" from Group Mission Trips
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5. You are an excitable guy! What are you most excited about at Dare 2 Share!

We are seeing teenagers truly share their faith, and youth groups are growing in maturity and in numbers as a result!  We are witnessing how evangelism accelerates the discipleship process in ways no traditional model can emulate. It's great fun to watch the exciting messiness of a youth group growing with new and raw teen disciples.

I'm also excited about the way the Lord has opened up the door for this movement to be scalable outside of our Dare 2 Share events. From training curriculum to our free online training material to webinars to an upcoming Dare 2 Share mobile app (coming soon) we are pumped up to see that God is moving beyond our training conferences to accelerate teen evangelism training. Of course, the Dare 2 Share conferences are as exciting as ever and we are adding more and more new cities to the tour. I love what God does through these catalytic training events!
 
But what excites me most is that I believe we could witness a true revival in this nation within my lifetime. And I'm fully convinced teenagers and youth leaders will be on the leading edge of this next great awakening. I'm a student of past revivals and, to be honest, I'm tired of reading about revivals—I want to be a part of one!