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My hands tremble and my heart aches
As I see the storm ahead.
Gale force winds and pounding waves
Are sure to leave us dead.

I call “all hands” and out they come.
We take the sails down.
We tie the knots and take our spots
Fearing we’ll be drown.

It’s coming closer. We are headed in.
The squall is almost here.
But just before the storm collides
Something quells our crew’s fear.

A voice pierces the salty air.
It’s crude and way off tune.
But the words and not the melody
Removes our sense of doom.

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found
Twas blind but now I see.”

The words ring true in trepid hearts,
Once lost in sin and shame.
But now redeemed we cannot lose
Even in the grave!

The storm still rages but we are ready.
Our tasks we will perform.
For the same great Captain who guides our ship
Is the One who made the storm!

The storm is there to make us strong,
To rid our souls of doubt.
So that when the storm is over
We know what trust is all about.

He is our Master and Commander.
Our sins He gladly bore.
The same great God who saved our souls
Will get us safely to the shore.

Until that time we brave the storm.
The winds we face with faith,
Not in our own seamanship
But in the One who made the waves.

1. Pray for Josh and sibs to start mobilizing.
2. Reach one barista for Christ this month.
3. Expand morning devo routine.
4. Take Jeremy witnessing.
5. Give Shreddin the Gnar book to each of the sibs and hold accountable to read it.
6. Continue monthly support of D2S.

To start your own MAP go here.

Often I find myself wishing others a “Happy New Year!” around this time. As if that really matters. Honestly who cares if our year is a happy one?

Ask parents fifty years ago what they most wanted for their kids their answers would hover somewhere around the idea of wanting their children to have a strong character. Today its one form or another of “I just want my kids to be happy.” What’s funny is that in our quest to make our kids happy we have turned them into crabby, whining “I want my way” selfish brats who are never happy enough. You’ve seen these kids in Target and I’ve seen them in my own house from time to time. When my kids start acting like this it’s time for a trip to the bathroom for a “chat”, a very painful chat.

Happiness has become the mantra of middle class America. Maybe that’s why 2008 was not so great. The sky fell right along with the Nasdaq right onto our Gingerbread houses. But that’s okay they were getting foreclosed on anyway.

To be honest it feels like God is taking this nation to the woodshed for a “chat”. The end goal? To beat the plastic happiness out of us and make us more holy. He is bringing us to our knees by hitting us where it hurts…our pocketbooks.

And what about happiness? I think real happiness is a byproduct of genuine holiness. But this kind of “happiness” is not the silly, sloppy kind of New Year’s Eve frivolity. Its a genuine joy that oozes out of every pore. Its knowing that, in spite of the economics of our country or household, God is doing something in us greater than we could ever imagine.

So instead of wishing you a Happy New Year…I am wishing you and me a holy one.

Holy New Year!

Last week I got this in e-mail from my friend and former co-worker Mick Thornton,

“This is a video of a famous atheist (Penn Gillete from Penn & Teller, the Vegas Magician guys) from a few weeks ago. A guy after a show tells him about Jesus and gives him a Bible, and Penn is very complimentary about the whole deal. His entire point of the vlog is to talk about how good of a man the guy is. Penn the atheist talks in this video about how hateful you must be if you believe in Jesus and don’t tell other people about him. very interesting. great illustration.”

Check this video out for yourself here.

I love Penn’s line in his vlog “how much do you have to hate someone not to proselytize them?” I love the fact that he, one of the most famous atheists on the planet, is adamant that if he really believed in heaven and hell he would do everything in his power to get people out of hell and into heaven.

In other words this wildly popular entertainer views evangelism as an act of love, not hate. He sees it for what it is, sincere people doing their best to keep other people from suffering eternal damnation. Too bad many in ministry today don’t see evangelism the same way. Many who claim the name of Christ seek to reframe, marginalize or ignore it as a relic of modernity. When they do talk about evangelism in a postmodern culture they try to take the sting off of it, making the gospel sound like a nice little bedtime story that a person can weave into their own narrative in their ongoing journey toward spirituality…or whatever.

But, try as we may, evangelism at it’s most elemental level is trying to save a person from the flames of hell. It is rescuing them from something, to something, from condemnation to transformation through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

John put it this way in the third chapter and thirty sixth verse of his gospel, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” I’m sure Penn would appreciate John’s candor.

Here is Jesus’ “vlog” on the whole subject in John 5:24, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Of course we should communicate the gospel in love and sincerity. We should seek to communicate it out of a pure heart and tell the gospel story in a compelling way. But, as we evangelize we need to remember what is at stake for those who reject it’s message. This will add the missing ingredient in much of what passes off as evangelism today…urgency.

Those who claim the Name of Christ and who scorn evangelism as an intrusive act of heartless coercion should take a cue from Penn, John or, better yet, Jesus Himself. Evangelism at its core is the ultimate act of love. It is seeking to save somebody from hell.

In my last post I talked about how my little boy Jeremy committed all the money he had saved to help Dare 2 Share in our time of financial need. This weekend he worked for hours cleaning (to make money to donate) and gathering stuff to be sold (so that the money raised could be donated).

To be honest his passion about this whole thing is blowing me away. You have to understand that this entire initiative was proposed and executed by him, not me. He is the one who keeps bringing it up. And the little guy won’t let it go. What I thought was originally going to be a few dollars has ballooned to $38.86, a fortune for a 1st Grader. And he’s given it all to D2S. I marched the money into the office this morning, a proud daddy.

He explained to me that what we did at Dare 2 Share was too important not to have the money we need. “Daddy, you need to train these teenagers to tell others about Jesus and I’ll help you get all the money you need to train them” has been his mantra in one way or another since Christmas day.

Yesterday after church he was telling his little buddy Christian about his decision to fund D2S. Now Christian (who is seven years old too) wants to be a monthly donor to D2S. He is going to set aside some of his allowance to fund the ministry.

In a way Jeremy is inspiring a micro giving revolution of sorts. It may not be huge amounts of money but those gifts represent a huge amount of heart. And a big heart, not the amount of the actual gift, is what grace giving is all about.

I’m inspired too Jeremy and Christian. With donors like you and God’s blessing we cannot fail.

Viva La Revolution!

I love the story of the Widow’s mite in Luke 21:1-3, “As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ‘I tell you the truth,’ he said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’”

If I could get into a time machine I’d love to go back and watch the looks on the faces of the disciples as Jesus explained to them what real giving is all about. It’s not about giving out of an excess of money but an excess of generosity.

Last night Jeremy (my sweet and quirky seven year old) demonstrated this to me as I put him to bed. The conversation went something like this,

“Jeremy, did you have a great Christmas?”

“I know daddy. It’s about Jesus”…then just out of the blue he said, “Daddy I’ve been thinking about Dare 2 Share lately.”

“Okay” I said, not understanding the abrupt switch in the subject of our Christmas conversation.

He continued, “I know that Dare 2 Share needs money right now. You and I can go out and set up a stand on the sidewalk and tell everyone who goes by that Dare 2 Share needs money. They will give and we can get all of the money you need to do the conferences. Maybe we can go door to door and collect money for Dare 2 Share. Don’t worry daddy, I’ll do all the talking. I’m a kid and they will listen to me.”

I didn’t understand why he was bringing all of this up and then I began to realize that he has heard all my prayers these last few months for God’s financial provision for the ministry of Dare 2 Share. Everyday when I drop him off at school I pray for him, his mommy, his sister and for God to come through in a big way for the ministry. The economy has been seriously impacting us. Donations are way down compared to last year. To be honest I didn’t think that that part of my prayer was getting through to Jeremy in our daily prayers and that’s fine. After all, when I pray in the car with my kids I’m talking to God not them.

But it was getting through. Jeremy must have been ruminating on our situation at Dare 2 Share for awhile. So, as we laid there together on his bed, he continued his fundraising brainstorm,

“Daddy what do you think? Can we start going door to door tomorrow?”

“Uh, Jeremy, those are all great ideas. Let’s keep thinking and praying about what we can do to raise money for Dare 2 Share. Thank you for being concerned.”

And then out of the blue he blurted something that choked me up good, “Daddy, I am going to give you all the money I have saved for toys. I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t need any more toys. Dare 2 Share needs the money and I’m going to give all my money to you to give to Dare 2 Share. Will you take all my money daddy and give it to Dare 2 Share?”

“Of course I will Jeremy. I am so proud of you.”

I am and I will. When I get home today (I’m typing this from Starbucks) I am going to take down his piggy bank and empty it out. Monday morning I’m going to march it into our office and give it to the powers that be. That money is sacred money. It probably will amount to three dollars and fifty six cents but it represents all the money that my little boy has and he has given it as a gift to God through the ministry of Dare 2 Share. I would not dare rob him of the joy of giving like the Widow did in Luke 21.

Now before you think of me as a cold hearted daddy who would dare take every penny from his kid’s piggybank just know this, I am convinced that Jeremy will be blessed way beyond the gift that he has given. God will honor his sacrifice for the cause of Christ. I’m not taking this gift because $3.56 will make any significant difference. I’m taking his gift because Dare 2 Share needs this kind of donor, ones that are willing to dig deep out of a heart of generosity.

God will provide for the needs of Dare 2 Share. I am confident that as long as we have donors like Jeremy in the pipeline (and we do have other donors like Jeremy) we are going to be taken care of. Why? Because of the generosity that this kind of generosity inspires and because of the divine blessing that these kinds of gifts trigger! I believe God will bless and multiply my little boy’s gift like he did the loaves and fishes of the little boy in the crowd of 5,000 in John 6. God will take the fact that little Jeremy emptied out his entire “lunch box” for the sake of the kingdom, his handful of loaves and fishes so to speak, and exponentially expand its impact. There will be baskets left over because his gift was a gift from the heart. It was a gift of everything he had.

I love my boy.

I love God’s kingdom.

I love the privilege of giving and I’m going to give more as a result of Jeremy’s example.

May his generosity inspire you as well this holiday season.

What’s the worst Christmas gift you ever got or bought?

Probably the worst Christmas gift I ever got was some kind of European man purse. I opened it up and immediately said, “I hate this. I will never use it.” To add insult to fashion injury, the person who had bought it for me (with perfectly proper motives by the way) was sitting right there eagerly waiting for me to like it.

Ho, Ho, Holy cow. It was another awkward moment inspired by the not-too-bright Greg Stier.

That was probably the worst present I ever got. The worst one I ever bought was for my wife. It was our first Christmas together and I was genuinely excited for her to open it up. I’m usually the “wait until Christmas morning” kind of present opener. But I couldn’t wait. I told her “you have to open this now.” I was almost shaking with excitement. I had wrapped the present in a hat box and, to be honest, the wrapping job I did was exquisite (by my cut and paste standards anyway.) She excitedly tore open the wrapping while looking up at me saying, “What is it?” She could tell I was excited. I’m sure she was wondering if it was jewelry, tickets for a cruise or something ultra cool like that. She finally tore away the last shred of paper, opened the box, cleared away the wrapping tissue and stared in astonishment at my gift.

It was a gun.

Yes, that’s right, I gave my wife a .25 caliber handgun on our first Christmas together as a married couple. She looked up and asked, “Are you serious?” I said, “well, yes.” She then asked, “Where are the bullets? I want to use it right now!” This I took as a threat.

In that moment I discovered a few things about my wife:

1. She hates guns.

2. Under the right circumstances she can have a temper.

3. She hates guns.

In that moment I discovered a few things about myself:

1. I’m an idiot.

2. Under the right circumstances I can run pretty fast.

3. I’m an idiot.

Ho, Ho, Holy Crap.

Okay you gotta spot me a few things on this story. I come from an inner city “gun club” kind of family. My grandparents’ room was like an arsenal. Guns were just part of life growing up. They used them for hunting and home protection, very aggressive home protection.

I was taught how to use a .357 magnum as a 5 year old. My family taught me how to kill an intruder if he broke into our house. They told me to aim at the torso for maximum impact. They, matter-of-factly explained to me that head shots were too risky. They even instructed me in the fine art of dragging somebody’s body into the house off of the porch if I happened to shoot them through the door while they were trying to break in. They mentioned something about liability or something like that. I’m actually not kidding about this. I was raised in a rough part of town where robberies were common and so, before first grade, I knew how to lock and load. To be honest I thought this was part of the growing up process for every kid in the United States. Later I moved to the suburbs and realzied that this wasn’t the case.

On the other hand my wife was raised in a gun free, middle class family where violence was something you read about in the newspaper. So you can see the problem with my six round Christmas gift.

How did I resolve the situation? I returned the gun for a full refund and bought my wife a nice leather coat.

Now let me take a hard right turn to a spiritual point. The best Christmas gift we can give to somebody this holiday season is the gospel of Jesus. So, as you wrap and unwrap gifts for and from family and friends make sure you give the ultimate gift to those around you, the reason for the season, Jesus Christ Himself. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9: “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

No batteries necessary…or bullets for that matter.

Merry Christmas!

Someone once said, “Maturity is coming to the place where you started and knowing that place for the first time.” That’s how I am feeling about my ministry experience at Dare 2 Share right now. When we started eighteen years ago I had one focus: to equip teenagers to share their faith. During our training events we saturated local shopping malls during the outreach time. We equipped teenagers to strike up conversations with complete strangers in the mall. I challenged them to keep on sharing their faith after the conference to friends and strangers alike. At that time we were not called “Dare 2 Share” but “Warriors for Christ.” The name was appropriate for our style of evangelism, a frontal assault on the kingdom of darkness. We didn’t knock on the door, we kicked it in.

But over the last almost two decades of ministry some things have taken place that have begun to transform our approach. Here are a few of the catalysts that have begun to change the way we do ministry:

1. My wife.

I am married to a wonderful woman who is wired in a super-relational way. She is not loud and obnoxious like you know who. She doesn’t crave to be the center of attention. Instead she loves to come alongside and listen. She likes to serve others. Does she share her faith? Yes. Does she do it like me? No. But she is very effective at sharing Jesus with those around her, both with her life and her lips. She thinks a Mall is for shopping and her relationships are for witnessing.

As a result of her influence I began to investigate the Scriptures and discovered four different styles of evangelism: Talkers, Stalkers, Buddies and Brains. Paul was a talker (creative, winsome, chatty.) Peter was a stalker (the first one to speak up and the last one to shut up.) Barnabas was a buddy (super relational.) And Luke was a brain (the Josh McDowell/Lee Strobel of his day.) I am kind of a talker/stalker mix. My wife is a buddy.

This epiphany started with my wife and has saturated the way we do evangelism training at Dare 2 Share. I want teenagers to witness, not like me, but how the Holy Spirit has wired them to witness. I thank God for using my wife to open my eyes to this.

2. Discovering the untapped power of the average youth group

About ten years ago our goal was launching campus ministries on every school. We called these campus ministries “T.A.S.K. Forces (Training, Accountability, Strategy and Kneeling in prayer). We used to break up everyone who attended our training conferences into campus groups (sorry homeschoolers) and have them pray for their campuses and adopt them for evangelism.

It was about that time I had a group of youth leaders confront me and say, “Hey, we don’t need another campus meeting to send our teenagers to. We need to know how to build our youth groups with new converts.” As a result of that intervention we developed e-teams, and the Pray-Pursue-Persuade strategy. Now we equip youth leaders to train their teenagers to pray for their friends, pursue them spiritually and persuade them to come to Christ and connect to the youth minisitry. Of course the lotus for this ministry is still primarily the campus. But the emphasis is building youth group numbers with new converts as opposed to youth group hoppers (aka “sheep swopping”.) Youth leaders have been challenged through D2S to give the gospel every week and challenge their teens to P-P-P. Thousands of youth ministries have adopted this approach. As a result many of these youth ministries are still growing with new conversion growth on a consistent basis.

3. The Deep and Wide Strategy

About five years ago or so I began to think through the youth ministry models that most American youth groups were following. They seemed to be either deep (focused on theology, God’s Word, didactic teaching, note taking), wide (evangelistic, outreach driven, attractional and “fun”) or neither deep or wide (relational, shallow devotionals and occassional outreaches). I started thinking about the Great Commission where Jesus commands us to go deep (”teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”) and wide (”Go and make disciples of all nations”) at the same time.

Since then we have been chipping away at this Deep and Wide model of youth ministry. The idea is that we have a Biblical responsibility to take our teenagers deep into the Word as we are taking them wide into the world. The way we push our teenagers out of spiritual apathy into spiritual interest, then excitement and passion is by being intentional about it. We must be intentional in our prayers (after all the Holy Spirit is the only One who can truly bring about spiritual transformation) and we must be intentional in our programs.

Think of Deep and Wide as a tree. If we want our teenagers to have wide branches full of spiritual fruit, then we must help them have deep roots. We prune and cultivate the branches (help them go wide) as we fertilize and water the roots (help them grow deep). We do this simultaneously.

As a result of the Deep and Wide idea we changed our mission statement four years ago from “energizing a generation to evangelize the world” to “energizng teenagers to know, live, share and own their faith.” In other words we were going to take the responsibility of helping youth leaders take their teenagers deep and wide at the same time and provide them with the tools, training and resources to take them deep and wide. This was a bigger undertaking than we had imagined.

4. GOSPEL Journey Maui

I have always been relentless when it came to evangelism. But filming GOSPEL Journey Maui somehow made me much more relational. Since the filming we have stayed in contact withe GJM cast members and have continued the conversation. I think this experience has changed me.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still relentless. But when it comes to evangelism I am much more relational now than I was twelve months ago. I am realizing that just because someone doesn’t trust in Jesus right away that doesn’t mean that they won’t. We must stay on the GOSPEL Journey with them until they do. And, after they do, we must help them start their new journey with Jesus.

The words “relentless” and “relational” have become a kind of unofficial yin and yang of the way we equip teenagers to approach evangelism. The power between these two gravitational pulls have been, in my opinion, what has been missing, not only in my evangelism, but in most outreach approaches. Either we are so relational that we fail to bring it up or we are so relentless that we scare people away. But when these two aspects of evangelism come together there is some kind of, well, evangelism explosion. This R and R mix reminds me of how Jesus approached evangelism. He was every bit as relentless as He was relational. We need to become more like Him. I need to become more like Him.

4. The Dare 2 Share Board

About 9 months ago the board at Dare 2 Share began to challenge me to narrow the focus of our ministry to one thing. I will never forget Rick Montera looking at our mission statement (know, live, share, own) our goals 10-12 national super conferences and our strategic plan (bigger conferences, bigger staff, deep and wide curriculum, etc) and saying, “For the first time I don’t know what the heck we are doing as an organization.” I tried to explain but to no avail. Finally the board gave the executive team at Dare 2 Share one prime directive, to find our one prime directive. They explained that the whole “know, live, share and own” was like having four bull’s eyes while we have only one arrow. They basically said, “Pick which one of those you want to do. Do you want to equip teenagers to know, live, share or own their faith? Because you can’t do them all.”

For the last nine months the executive team has been pounding out proposed mission statements, strategic principles and BHAGs (Big “Holy” Audacious Goals). The board has been sending us back to the drawing board again and again. But, just weeks ago, they finally agreed that we had discovered our new plan. Rick Montera, our chairman, exclaimed, “Now this is clear, simple and a narrowed focus. This is what we should be doing.”

So here it goes…

The Mission: “Mobilizing teenagers to relentlessly and relationally reach their generation for Christ.”

The word “mobilize” means to “recruit, prepare and activate for a cause” and that’s what we want to do. We are back to equipping teenagers to share their faith but not in a headhunter way. Instead we want them to be intensely relational and relentless at the same time. We want them to make more and more friends so they can introduce them to their best friend, Jesus Christ. And we want them to keep loving them, serving them and sharing Jesus with them no matter how they respond.

The Strategy:

1. To inspire youth leaders to own this mission with us.

We understand that the only way we are going to reach the teens of this country for Christ is if youth leaders own this mission with us. There are 350,000 Protestant Churches in America. If only 1% of them fully owned this mission with us we would see a sweeping youth movement in this country.

2. To arm them with tools and training so they can accomplish this mission with us.

We want Dare 2 Share to be the place that youth leaders go to for evangelism training and outreach resources. We want to be the place that youth leaders trust to give them tools that are culturally relevant, theologically solid and evangelistically effective. Whether it be tools like GOSPEL Journey Maui or Venti Jesus Please we want to continually arm youth leaders with tools they can use to mobilize their teenagers to relationally and relentlessly reach their generation for Christ.

3. To unleash the Deep and Wide strategy so they can sustain the mission without us.

Although we are stepping off the grow deep resources (bye bye “you’re next” kind of books) we still want to promote the Deep and Wide strategy. We will either work with other discipleship oriented organizations or recommend solid grow deep curriculum or both. But we are going to be phasing out or re-tooling all of our grow deep stuff to help teenagers go wide.

I, with the help of my buddy Tim Schmoyer and my co-worker Jane Dratz, re-wrote the Deep and Wide strategy just a few months ago. It is available free of charge on Dare 2 Share’s website. I want youth leaders to lock and load it into the context of their youth ministry.

Again, don’t miss the point of this point. Although we are not going to be producing “grow deep” resources anymore we are going to be promoting the Deep and Wide idea. Why? Think of the tree. Fruitful branches won’t be fruitful for long without deep roots. Youth leaders need to take their teenagers deep and wide. We will passionately promote the idea but we will no longer develop the deep resources. We are the go wide guys.

Our BHAG: “To mobilize teenagers on every high school and middle school campus in America to relationally and relentlessly reach as many teenagers as they can for Christ and mobilize their Christian friends to do the same.”

Our goal is not to start a campus meeting but a campus movement. The last thing teenagers need is another meeting to go to. But what they do need is to be part of a cause, an eternal cause, the ultimate cause. This cause is the salvation of every teenager in their sphere of influence and the mobilization of the ones who respond to the gospel with that same cause. According to a 2007 MTV global study the average teenager has 53 online and face to face friends. So we are not trying to get teenagers to reach their whole campus for Christ. We are trying to get them to reach their 53 (or whatever their number is) and mobilize the ones who respond to do the same. When this happens reaching the campus is a byproduct as opposed to the goal.

Our Prayer: To get one adult champion for each of these teenagers who will pray for, encourage and support these teenagers in their mission.

Our entire donor program is going to be built around arming these adults with tools to mobilize teenagers for this mission. As a matter of fact if you are interested in being one of these adults go here.

The Metrics:

A metric is a measurement of effectiveness. Although these aren’t official yet here are a few of the ones we are toying with:

1. Campuses “claimed” for Christ. When a youth leader calls his/her students to do this and a group of two or more teenagers take the challenge on their campus then there is, at the very least, a measurement of activity. We will have to figure out how to measure productivity as we go along.

2. New conversion growth in the context of the youth group. For us the best measure of the effectiveness of this initiative will be a growing percentage of new converts in the average participating youth group. In other words if a youth group initially has 1% of their teenagers in attendance who came to Christ as a result of their teenagers either leading their friends to Christ or bringing them out to youth group but as a result of this intiative they move to 5% and then on to 10% or more then we will know that this initiative is being effective.

3. The number of new converts that are being mobilized to evangelize. The secret of this intiative is the exponential aspect of it. The goal is not just to “add” through evangelism but multiply through mobilization. How do we gauge this number? I have no idea…yet.

When does all of this launch? Next school year. How are we going to accomplish all of this? I have no idea. What’s the plan to accomplish all of this? You, me and the Holy Spirit…not in that order. We are going to go for it and figure out all of the strategies and tactics along the way. Pray and duct tape baby…pray and duct tape.

I just realized that this is not a blog, this is a manifesto. So that’s what I’m going to call it. But a manifesto is no good unless others sign on. We can’t accomplish this mission without you.

Now that we have come to the place where we started and know that place for the very first time, I feel re-invigorated and ready to rock. Some things may be changing at Dare 2 Share but the pulse of our heartbeat is pounding louder than ever…to mobilize teenagers to relationally and relentlessly reach their generation for Christ.

Pray for us. Join with us.

Okay, I have actually been on TV preacher central, otherwise known as TBN, twice. Once with Luis Palau (yipee!) and once with Ted Haggard (insert awkward silence here.) Another time on another big haired Christian station I once high fived a dude that was raising his hands in praise. The well dressed older gentlemen was sitting next to me on live Christian TV as I told the story of how God used Dare 2 Share to transform one teenager’s life. As I told the story, looking straight into the camera, I saw his praise hand raise up out of the corner of my eye. Being saved in a Baptist church I thought he was going for the high five but instead he was doing the hand praise arm raise. Without thinking I turned to him and slapped his upstetched hand as if he were a football player not a TV preacher…another awkward silence moment brought to you by Greg Stier. The camera man was laughing so hard he literally shook the camera with his “oh my gosh I can’t believe that just happened on live Christian TV” giggles.

But while on Christian television I never once asked for money, wore a $3,000 suit or sported any TV preacher bling. Why all of these qualifications? To assure you that, in spite of a sermon I preached last week, I am not a TV preacher. Although a few of the things I referred to in my sermon may, at first, sound a little TV preacheresque keep listening. It is actually the anti-TV preacher view of giving. The point of my passage, 2 Corinthians 9, is not that we give to get but that we give to get to give! There’s a big difference between the two.

You can listen to the sermon here.

If you like it you can high five my praise hand later.

I really like Tim Schmoyer. He is a youth leader in Minnesota who is truly making a difference. Tim runs timschmoyer.com, a website that ministers to youth leaders by providing tips, tools and thought provoking articles.

One of the reasons I really appreciate Tim is that he is truly committed to carrying out the mandate (aka “The Great Commission”) that Jesus calls us to accomplish. In a youth ministry world filled with a fog of “which way do we go” confusion, Tim is committed to the lost art of making disciples. He is truly helping his youth group and others to go deep and wide. He is taking teenagers deep into the Word through discipleship and wide into the world through evangelism and he is challenging other youth leaders to join him. Tim gave me so much straight up, solid input about Dare 2 Share’s Deep and Wide Youth Ministry paper that I ended up re-writing it with virtually all of his input. Tim is solid in his theology, passionate in his mission and honest in his critiques. I love that!

In Tim’s passion to go wide he has developed a killer website that I am begging you and your youth group to use. It is onlinemissionstrip.com. Tim has developed a way for any youth leader to use the web to launch an evangelism campaign through his/her youth group in a very simple way. This is truly a free missions trip. There is free pre-trip training designed by my buddy Brian Ford. There are tons of Dare 2 Share resources on this site of well. Best of all there is a follow through strategy that could truly help build your youth group with new conversion growth. Wouldn’t it be great to have all of your teenagers bring friends to your youth group that they had led to Christ online? Can you imagine the excitement and spiritual momentum that your youth group would experience?

Go to www.onlinemissionstrip.com right now and sign your youth group up. If you are not a youth leader tell your youth leader about it. The trip launches February 1st.

Don’t miss it!