Now that the dust of the Survive Tour have settled I thought that I would share with you a couple of my musings about this particular conference tour.
Let me start by thanking everyone involved in making this tour a reality. From our own amazing and hard working Dare 2 Share staff to all of the organizations we work side-by-side with to execute these training events (Outside the Box Ministries, Legacy, Torn Curtain Arts Ministries and Universal Stylz.) Great job everyone!
This year it wasn’t just our volunteers but our volunteer staff that really saved the day. Thank you so much for the sacrifice and investment you made to minister to these teenagers for a weekend.
Lincoln Brewster rocks. I love that dude. He is a godly, humble man. And he has a special way of unveiling the presence of God as he leads worship. And what can I say about The Washington Projects? They were awesome both on stage and off.
I thank God for Derwin and Zane. Both have become good friends and, I believe, have the capacity for making a nation-shaking difference. My prayer is that God will use the platform of Dare 2 Share to give them a larger platform nationally and provide them some tools they can use to help their audiences follow through with a Deep and Wide life.
Paul Leavitt with Torn Curtain, once again, did an amazing job writing and directing the skits and the drama. As always he and I “tangoed” but in a good way. We work from different perspectives and I love the end product that we are able to come up with together.
The drama this year was a tough one for me. We usually end with more closure and a happier ending (happier than two martyrdom executions anyway). What helped me after the first few conferences was seeing my closing talk after the drama as the third act to the play. Because of the dramas abrupt ending it really set up my closing challenge to be willing not just to die for Christ, but to live for Christ. It also had a lot of youth groups talking late into the night. The drama grew on me over the tour. I think we are going to go back to a drama with a bit more closure (but with every bit as much tension) for next tour.
I loved the training portions of this tour. I really felt like Derwin, Zane and I were able to communicate some significant content that connected. It felt like the audience was tracking and I heard some great feedback afterward. I look at these conferences as fire and wood. The fire is the motivation and the wood is the content that the motivation burns on.
Giving the Double Dare (to share the gospel with all your friends) got me pumped up this year. Tens of thousands responded.
To be honest I’m kind of getting sick and tired of the “let’s save the children” approach we have taken in trying to get teenagers to keep their faith after they graduate. Sure I still use the great graduation evacuation statistic (70% graduating seniors walk away from the church after high school). But the Double Dare this year gave us a chance to be offensive and not purely defensive. As one soldier put it, “Nobody ever won a war by being defensive.”
Our goal is not to just keep kids from leaving the church. It is to raise up an army of Christian teenagers who are reaching every teenager in their world with the message and mission of Jesus. Imagine with me every teenager in America hearing the gospel through another teenager that they know. The Double Dare has started making that dream into a reality.
Sure the Survive Conference had some kinks (usually something i did) but all n all it was an amazing tour. I can’t wait for The Invincible Tour to start!
