I am within rock throwing distance to the St. Louis Arch (no I didn’t, but I thought about it) and our Dare 2 Share team is doing final preparations for the training conference tonight and tomorrow. I can’t wait. It is going to be, God willing, a catalytic and transformational weekend for thousands of teenagers and hundreds of churches.
I really like this city. Why? Several reasons: I have family here, the Arch is cool and the food is very good. It is home to our largest regional conference for the last few years (sorry Denver…you’re slacking!) But more than anything I love this city, not just becasue of the quantity of people but the quality of people who attend. People call Missouri “The Show Me State.” And the people here have definitely shown me that they are serious about the advancement of the gospel of Jesus through an army of teenagers.
Can’t help but reflect back to the Fall of 1997 when we had 241 teenagers at North County Community Church right here. Just a tad over eleven years later we are expecting between 8-9,000 teenagers. How have these events grown? It’s not because of our “huge” marketing budget I assure you. These events have grown from youth leaders, teenagers and donors showing others the vision and mission of Dare 2 Share. This event has EXPLODED through word of mouth!
Thank you St. Louis for showing me, once again, that you are serious about mobilizing the next generation to relationally and relentlessly reach their generation for Christ!
