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My buddy Art (yes the one that I tell stories about) won a radio contest yesterday for being Denver’s oldest virgin. I was the one who actually called him up and told him about it. I had overheard it while scanning the radio stations (a bad habit of mine) on the way home from the gym yesterday.

I heard the interview between him and Lewis and Floorwax, the two DJs of the show, on the radio. These guys, who tend to get pretty risque at times, asked Art why he was still a virgin at the age of 45. Was he saving himself for the right woman? His answer was AWESOME! He said,

“No! I’m saving myself for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ!”

The tone of the radio show changed. You could tell these two radio jocks respected him for his boldness and sincerity. They implied that virgin men could be a little effeminate and Art shot back with “Hey, I just got back from 2 1/2 years in Iraq. I had my truck blown up by I.E.D.s twice and have had sniper rounds whiz by my head.” The tone changed again. Art may be a virgin but he is the last guy you would want to call a wimp. Like he told a guy in the army who was making fun of him for still being a virgin, “You know what’s worse than being a virgin? Getting your rear kicked by one.” Conversation over.

As the rest of the 10 minute or so radio interview unfolded Art made it clear that he looked at his body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and that, as a 45 year old virgin, he uses all of that pent up energy to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Maybe we should come out with a new movie called “The 45 Year Old Virgin” starring my buddy Art. We could follow him around and watch his exploits for Jesus as he shares the gospel with everything that moves. We could watch as he consecrates his life to advance the kingdom of Christ. It wouldn’t be a comedy. It would be a documentary that would rock all of our worlds.

Oh by the way he won front row tickets to The Police concert last night at Redrocks for being Denver’s oldest virgin. I can’t wait to hear about the people he told about Jesus. Who knows maybe he got to witness to Sting himself?

May God raise up an army of consecrated soldiers just like Art to advance his kingdom cause!

Since I found out that Nicolae Ceauşescu and I could be related (see previous post) revolution has gone from a simmer to a boil in my soul. Blood ties to Romanian dictators will do that.

But the revolution I’m talking about is not political (although it will have political impact). It is not moral (although it could lead to moral reformation). No, the revolution I’m talking about is the revolution of the soul that can only come through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And where does revolution take place? Before it spills over into the streets it boils over in the soul. When Gypsy Smith revolutionary evangelist from Britain was asked by a young pastor, “How do I start a revival at my church? his answer was powerful. He replied, “Go home and get a piece of chalk. Go into your closet and draw a circle on the floor. Kneel down in the middle of the circle and ask God to start the revival inside the chalk mark. When He has answered your prayer, the revival has begun.”

What I have begun to realize is that revolution will not start with big arena events like we do at Dare 2 Share. It will start with one adult, one youth leader and one teenager with a piece of chalk. It will start when you and I choose to live the revolution, to be the revolution in our own homes, neighborhood and work places.

Just like God whittled down an army of 32,000 to 300 so that he could show himself powerful in defeating an army that probably numbered in the hundreds of thousands, God desires to use small squadrons of spiritual revolutionaries to beat down the overwhelming forces of the Evil One that stand against them.

With that in mind this week I’m starting a podcast series called “”300 Strong”. I’m going to be unveiling our plan for the revolution of youth ministry through a grass roots movement of 300 chalk wielding rebels who will be the revolution in their own spheres of influence.

My goal is to find 300 revolutionary adults across the nation who will commit themselves to live out six areas of youth ministry revolution:

1. Pray for the spiritual transformation of the next generation.

2. Set the pace for the next generation by going wide with the gospel personally.

3. Set the example for the next generation by growing deep in your relationship with God.

4. Train your own children to grow deep and go wide.

5. Energize and equip teenagers to evangelize and mobilize their world for Christ.

6. Financially invest in teen focused, Great Commission causes.

I’m looking for 300 revolutionaries across the nation who will commit themselves these six principles. As this unfolds over the next few months in our Dare 2 Share Uncensored Podcasts you will discover how you can get your very own Dare 2 Share 300 Strong MAP (Mutual Accountability Plan). This simpe MAP will help you live out the revolution in practical and powerful ways.

Our board has committed to doing these MAPs so we can keep each other accountable. And I’m going to be inviting every person on our staff to do the same during this podcast series.

So stay tuned to D2S Uncensored Podcasts over the next several weeks. You will learn how you can start the revolution in your own life and pass it on to your kids, your kids friends, your friends kids and the youth group at your church.

You say you want a revolution? Well here we go. But be warned. Like every true revolution this one comes with a pricetag…everything.

Nicolae Ceauşescu (January 26, 1918–December 25, 1989) was the leader of Romania from 1965 until December 1989, when a revolution and coup removed him from power. He was a brutal dictator and was finally executed by revolutionaries in a kind of kangaroo court.

I had heard of him before but didn’t really pay much attention until a donor sent me a picture of him as a younger man. Holy Canoli. You tell me if I’m crazy or if this guy could pass for my twin brother.

If he is a distant relative then maybe that explains some of my leadership style tendencies… I’ll blame it on bad genes!

It’s always interesting to me when I hear people share what they believe about the existence of God and which God they believe in. Some people believe in Allah, others in nothingness (ala “The Buddha”), some in an accomodating God who accepts everyone and others in no God at all. Hindus believe there are something like three hundred million gods!

It’s even more interesting to me when I hear why people believe what they believe about God. Ask most people from most religions why they believe what they believe and they’ll give an answer that swirls around their holy book. But which holy book is right? Is it the Bible? The Koran? The Book of Mormon? Tom Cruise’s handy guide to all things Scientology?

Some say they believe what they believe about God because of the difference he, she or it has made in their lives. But just because something has made a difference doesn’t make that something God. And if a Muslim, Christian, Mormon and Jew all claim that their God has made a difference in their lives then which god is the real God?

There’s a hymn (a old timey church worship song) that makes reference to Christ’s resurrection. It goes, “you ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart.” But if you ask a Mormon why they believe the Book of Mormon is true and they’ll respond that they get a burning in their bosom when they read it. And you ask a Muslim and they’ll tell you the difference Allah has made in their lives.

So how do you know? How can you know?

Let me tell you how I know. Le me take you on my personal journey of embracing Jesus as the only way of salvation and the God of the Bible being the true and only God.

As a young child I always found myself staring up into the sky looking at the stars, especially when we went camping in the mountains. I remember thinking that al this stuff had to come from Someone way bigger than me. That Someone had to be big, strong, smart and totally in control. That Someone had to be God. Little did I know that I was engaging in what some call The Teleological Argument. It simply goes like this: design requires a designer.

You don’t look at a beautiful painting and think “Wow, what an accident!” You think, “Wow, what an artist!” The same is true of the ultimate masterpiece, the universe itself. There had to be a big brain behind the intricate design of it all. There had to be a big power behind it all to make the concept a reality. From the amazing human body to the vastness of the universe to the suprisingly complex world of the micro universe (protons, neutrons, quarks, etc) there has to be a God.

I knew it as a child and so did you. Romans 1:19-20 reminds us that we all knew it, “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it palain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Down deep inside we all know there is a God. The universe makes that clear. Atheistic evolution is just a smokescreen to keep us from seeing His Presence. But, inevitably, the fog lifts for all of us and in our heart of hearts we know He is there.

On June 23rd, 1974 I trusted in Jesus as my Savior. Through His Spirit He came to live inside my soul. It may not prove Christianity to anyone else but the changes I saw Him make in my life proved it to me. He gave me hope, purpose and forgiveness. My story was not enough to prove his existence to anyone else but it was more than enough for me.

Then I started really studying his Word and began to sense that this was truth. And it claimed again and again to be the truth, the God inspired truth (Proverbs 30:5; John 17:17: 2 Timothy 3:16.)

As I grew older and began to share my faith in my early teens I would point my friends to the sky, tell them about the difference Jesus made in my life and then take them to the Scriptures. Some of them believed. But some of them did not.

They started asking me questions like,

“How do you know your experiences are any less valid than someone from a different religion?”

“How do you know that your God is the right God?”

As I wrestled with these excellent questions over the years I began to put myself in the shoes of God. If I were God, I wondered, how would I prove my way was the only way to the world? Here’s what I have deduced over the last four decades of my life on this earth:

1. I would make people look up.

I would create an amazing earth and a breathtaking sky to get everyone’s attention. That would be my bullhorn that would scream, “I am here and I am not silent! This is not an accident! All of this was made by me for you! You can see that I am powerful by the creation itself! You can see that I am good because I’m giving you so many good things to enjoy! You can see that I am because I AM!”

2. I would send people a holy book.

I wouldn’t send it all at once. I would send it over the course of 1,500 years from forty different men from all sorts of cultural backgrounds. Why would I do that? Because the only way such a wide-ranging book from such wide-ranging authors would completely agree on everything they touched on would be if I was the real Author behind it all. My Spirit would prove that this book was from God through the sheer fact that every word on every page is totally non contradictory with everything else on every other page!

Anyone could claim to have written a holy book (Joseph Smith, Mohammed, etc) but this book was not the brain child of one person with a vivid imagination. It was a project that took 15 decades to complete and even longer to compile. The miracle of the Bible is its absence of errors. Those who claim that it is full of errors usually haven’t read it through once. I have studied it again and again over the last forty two years of my life and I have yet to find one legitimate error. The only way that could happen is that it was completely inspired by God Himself.

3. I would give proofs in that book that were indisputable.

As I studied the Word of God over the years I began to see that there was an indisputable pile of proof that showed the Bible was divine in origin. I began to realize that if I were God I wouldn’t just give them a holy book and tell them “just believe it.” I would give them reasons to believe that were powerful.

Did you know that the Old Testament contains over three hundred prophecies about Jesus that were literally and fully fulfilled in him? These aren’t wussy prophecies that are relatively unclear and written in a way that could be taken in several ways. These are specific prophecies like:

The place where Jesus would be born (Mich 5:2)

That he would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)

How Jesus would die (Psalm 22)

That Jesus would rise again (Psalm 16:8-11)

And on and on and on the list goes. And not just about Jesus. The Old Testament is jammed full of fulfilled prophecies. Daniel, written about five centuries before Jesus hit the earth crawling, is packed full of amazing prophecies.

Did you know that the book of Daniel predicts the coming of Medo Persian kingdom, the Greek Kingdom, the coming of Alexander the Great, the four generals that would take over after his death, the Roman kingdom and the date of Christ’s death with extreme accuracy?The only way that could happen if there was a divine being, who was above the realm of time and space, who could predict the future because He saw it more clearly than you or I see the past or present.

There’s a lot more proof than what I have listed here. Check out some of the books written by my buddies Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel and Alex MacFarland to get more good stuff. Search their books on Amazon and bust out ye olde’ credit card. You won’t be disappointed.

4. I would send my Son and have Him die and then raise Him from the dead.

Check out this passage in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6,

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

Jesus appeared to over 500 people after he arose from the dead. Many of them were willing to die for what they had seen. As someone has said, many will die for what they think to be the truth. But nobody will die for what they know to be a lie. The early martyrs who had seen Jesus after his resurrection from the dead were willing to die for what they knew to be the truth…He is alive!

So why do I believe in the God of the Bible?

I see His handywork in the sky. I sense His presence in my soul. I’ve seen the difference in my life. I read His book that is perfect and amazing and a miracle in and of itself. I read the fulfilled prophecies that could never be predicted without God providing the insight into the future. I embrace the resurrected Jesus, the same Jesus that the early Christians were willing to die for because they were eyewitnesses of His presence. And that resurrected Jesus has transformed my life.

My reasons for believing are part relational, part rational and part experiential. The relational and experiential were enough for me to believe in Jesus on June 23rd, 1974. But the rational reasons to believe gave me more confidence over the years that my faith was more than just a personal belief. It was the truth. God gave proof of this faith as the true faith by raising Jesus from the dead.

I don’t care why you believe in Jesus. Whether it is a relational, experiential or rational reason I’m just thrilled that you believe. But know this. You have full bodied, multi dimensional reasons to believe in God. These reasons encompass your heart, soul and mind. They range from the beauty in the sky to fulfilled prophecies to personal transformation to the warm fuzzies in your heart when you think about Him. Isn’t it just like God to give us every reason to believe in Him with every level of our humanity?

Your mission is to share these reasons to believe with every person that you know.

Go for it.

People fall into two general categories. There are those who like The Office and there are those who don’t. Regardless of which category you personally fall into check out our own Dare 2 Share version of “The Office“. What’s funny is that these are real Dare 2 Share employees and we didn’t really have a script. It’s Dare 2 Share goofy fun. If you like it forward it to a friend. If you don’t like it forget you ever saw it and don’t judge me…judger.

“Teenagers”…I love teenagers, love them. I love the fact that God has given me the privilege of unleashing these change agents for ultimate activism, the salvation of the soul. Teens don’t know the rules of engagement when it comes to evangelism and even if they did they’d break them. Maybe that’s why I love the old French quote, “The most dangerous swordsman in France is the one whose never wielded a sword.” These young swordsmen , like the early disciples, can be used to swing the sword of God’s Word with abandon and in so doing exponentially advance the kingdom of God.

“Energize”…I like this word because of the directed momentum it implies. I want to see an army of young energizer rabbits beating the drum of outreach nonstop until they drop. Teens reaching teens with the love of Jesus in the power of Christ which leads me to my next swirling word.

“Evangelize”…I know that the “e word” has got bad connotations among some groups. But the word itself is a very good word. It means “to proclaim the good news”. My hope is to “rebrand” evangelism as something great, as a monumental privilege that we are to engage in with love, humility and courage.

“Mobilize”…I’ve struggled with what we are actually trying to do at Dare 2 Share. Are we mobilizing multipliers or multiplying mobilizers? I think it’s the latter. We are not big enough to do the hard work of mobilization. That would mean we would have to have staff everywhere to mobilize the movement to reach teenagers in each community. Instead I think we are more poised to multiply mobilizers. We throw down the gauntlet of teen evangelism and get others to pick it up and run toward the finish line in their own communities. Of course we are there to encourage, pray, coach and resource, but it is the teenager, youth leaders and ministry partners that actually have to finish the race for young souls in their world (as we will in ours!)

There’s another word that I love when it comes to Dare 2 Share and that is “team“. I thank God for the team he has given us at D2S to help accomplish the unbelievably lofty goal of reaching every teenager through a teenager they know. Our excellent staff, powerful prayer warriors, passionate volunteers and generous donors all comprise the teams that make Dare 2 Share go.

Pray with me that God raises up more of each so that we can see God do great things in and through this ministry in the years to follow!

I love Acts 4:31. Luke writes these words about a prayer service gone viral in this powerful passage,

“After they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

There is a nice and neat three point outline in this short, twenty six word verse (sorry, no poem). Here it goes:

1. The building was shaken with the power of prayer.

When’s the last time you and a group of your friends rocked the house with prayer. I contend that most Christians pray like wusses. The result? Wussy churches, wussy Christians and wussy living.

It’s time to man up and pray like God wants us to. What does this kind of prayer look like? It is focused on God (”Our Father”), his purposes (”thy kingdom come”) and asks boldly for requests (”our daily bread”) and forgiveness (”forgive us our debts”).

2. The believers were shaken with the power of the Spirit.

The act of prayer is an act of dependence. We are telling God that we can’t do it and that only He can. This act of faith allows the Spirit of God to take control of us and “fill us” with His power and presence. Why is this vital? Because Jesus made it clear in John 15 that apart from Him we can do nothing. Want to make a difference for Christ on your campus, at your job, in your neighborhood? Then get filled with His Spirit and allow Him to live His life through you. But be warned. His presence will shake everything up.

3. The city was shaken with the power of the gospel.

This is the natural outcome of “power prayer” and getting filled with the Spirit. If you pray, get empowered by God’s Holy Spirit, then, among the many outputs is evangelism. Prayer and proclamation are meant to mix like nitrogen and glycerin. Together they are explosive and dangerous in the most positive way imaginable.

Why am I telling you all this? Two reasons. First of all, I want us all to live this outline personally. Let us start on our knees and finish in the streets. Let us be characterized by passionate building-shaking prayer, his power and the verbal proclamation of the gospel (notice the three p’s? I can’t help myself! I’m OCD over aliteration!) Secondly, let us preach this outline in our youth groups, small groups, campus groups and family groups. This fun little outline communicates what is missing in the 21st Century church today. It’s time to bring it back!

Jerry Lee Lewis you ain’t got nothing on the Holy Spirit! Talk about a whole lot of shaking going on!

Westword, a popular left leaning newspaper along the frontrange of Colorado, did a headline news story on me and Dare 2 Share that came out this week. To be honest I was kind of freaked out in the weeks leading up to the story. I was nervous that maybe the article would paint a slanted picture of what we’re all about. But now that I’ve read the article I’m actually pretty pleased with it.

Jessica Centers, the reporter who interviewed a bunch of us (my good friend Rick Long who now pastors Grace Church where I used to preach, Emma the Buddhist from GOSPEL Journey Maui, Zane, my uncle Jack, my lovely wife and a few others) did a great job of capturing my heart and the mission of Dare 2 Share. I love the tagline to the online edition of Westword,

“Greg Stier is raising up an army of adolescents to save your soul”

You bet I am. All of us at Dare 2 Share are!

There were a few things I cringed at. Sometimes when three hours worth of interviews are chopped up it doesn’t communicate as intended. But overall I think Jessica did a solid, pretty stinking unbiased job of reporting who, what and why we are.

Check it out for yourself here. But be warned there are a few f bombs and such (no, not from me!) Let me know what you think of the article.

Please pray for me as I head off to Salt Lake for the National Evangelical Free Church Student Conference. I went to this as an attendee back when I was dating my wife and thought to myself, “Self, I’d like to speak at this someday.” It’s hard to believe that twentysomething years later that I’m about to!

Pray that God does something big in the hearts and souls of the students who attend. My goal is that they take the double dare and share Jesus with EVERYONE in their social network (in God’s timing, in God’s power and with God’s love).

And who knows? Maybe I’ll meet a few Mormons to chat with along the way.

Temple Square here I come.

Okay I made it back last night from Shirleysburg, PA (yes, out in the middle of nowhere) from Creationfest. It was awesome. Thursday morning I preached on “Heaven, Hell and everything in between”, a sermon that was based on Daniel 12:2-4 that says,

“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”

This is a very preachable passage because it talks about heaven (”some to everlasting life”) and hell (”others to shame and everlasting contempt”) and the “everything” we are to do in between (”shine like the brightness of the heavens” and “lead many to righteousness”).

So in this sermon I spent time describing the glory of heaven and the horrors of hell and then challenging everyone to “shine and share” in between, shine the light of Jesus with our lives and share the hope of Jesus with our lips. I also did something I’ve never done before. I read
A Letter from Heaven and A Letter from Hell in the same sermon.

These are dramatic pieces I wrote twenty something years ago at a camp in Glendo, Wyoming. They are meant to ask the question if you got a letter from the afterlife from someone you never told about Jesus (letter from hell) or someone you lead to Christ (letter from heaven) what would they say to you? The letter from hell has become a bit of a youtube/Godtube sensation with a dramatic audio piece we did several years ago. A youth group we know and love added graphics…pretty intense.

Nobody seems to preach on hell anymore. Many Christians are so enamored by the bright side of the historic Christian faith they never take time to look at the dark side. But heaven seems much more glorious and attractive when it is painted on the backdrop of everlasting judgment.

As horrible as hell will be, heaven will be infinitely more awesome. I loved reading the letter from heaven to the crowd at Creation…cool stuff.

Yesterday I got to train everyone to share their faith using the GOSPEL. Many took the double dare to share the gospel with everyone they know, in God’s timing, in God’s power and with God’s love and to start with one person they know within 48 hours of coming home from Creation!

Please pray for them as they seek to share the good news of Jesus with their friends. If you were at Creation and took the double dare please share your story with me!