gregstier.org

God opened a door so wide that if we didn’t walk through it we would have been disobedient to his Spirit. So we walked through it. It is the door to all of Asia. It is the door to world-wide missions and ministry. It is the door into the churches of South Korea.

Dare 2 Share Korea is becoming a reality.

Our good friends Mr. and Mrs. Foley at Seoul USA are leading the charge to make this all happen. Dare 2 Share Korean staff have already been hired and a Dare 2 Share conference is being planned in the near future.

What’s really great is that we have been training our Korean brothers and sisters in the principles we operate by and they are actually going to do the contextualizing and actual training. We are not going to try to pretend we know how to reach Korean teenagers. But what we are going to do is train our Korean fellow Dare 2 Shareites in the “above culture” principles that work with humans in general. Our Asian compadres will contextualize all of these principles and all of our stuff into Korean.

By the way they have had to coin their own term for teenager (since there is not a word for “teenager” in the Korean language). That word is “paranee” (par-ah-knee) which means “blue” or “horizon” or “revolution”. It has to do with the sky, with hope and change on the horizon. These Korean teenagers are the blue generation, who God is going to use to revolutionize everything.

You may be thinking “I thought that South Korea was the Christian capital of Asia?” You’d be right. The churches there are some of the biggest in the world. They are vibrant in prayer and global missions. And they are losing their young as fast as we are in America.

It’s time to raise up an army of on-fire teenagers in Korea and America who will set the pace for revival and transform their culture for Jesus by reaching every teenager they know with the message and mission of Jesus. It’s time to go global, not with Dare 2 Share the organization but with the principles we run by. To take a look at these principles go back and watch our first podcasts under the section “Ministry to the 10th power” section on Dare 2 Share Uncensored.

Pray for our Korean brothers and sisters as they are used of God to launch D2S Korea in a big way for the glory of Jesus!

There I was yesterday walking back and forth in front of Starbucks while blabbing away on my cellphone when I saw them, two high school girls in a parked jeep pointing and laughing at me. At first I thought they could be mocking someone else. But I looked around and there was nobody to mock but me. Even when our eyes met they continued to point and laugh.

It didn’t bother me much. I had gotten used to being laughed at by high school girls…in high school. I just went inside and continued my phone call.

After the day was done I finally realized why those girls were laughing at me. I had my cool Quicksilver shorts on inside out. These are the kinds of shorts that look very inside out when they are inside out. Tags galore, the back side stitching for pockets hanging everywhere should have been two glaring cues to my “can’t dress myself” dilemma. I don’t know how many people I encountered yesterday, but only two had the courage to point and mock and laugh out loud at the over forty guy who was wearing surfer hip clothes inside out.

Maybe I’ll start a trend.

Please pray for Paul Leavitt (the dude who co-writes and directs all things dramatic for the D2S conferences) and myself as we will be writing the drama and skits for the Invincible Tour over the next few days. He has a pretty solid idea for the drama. And hopefully we’ll get the right brainstorming mojo for the skits.

Pray that God pulls together a program that is Biblical, practical and transformational for every student who attends!

We are trying to solicit some input on the Dare 2 Share Uncensored Podcasts. We have been doing these for about a year now and are wondering what you think of them. Here’s a few questions that we’d like to ask you:

-Are you watching them? (some, none, most, all)

-How important is the “title” of the podcast to you?

-Do they minister to you?

-Do they equip you?

-How could they be improved?

-Would you like to be able to comment on each talk after it is given?

-Would you recommend them to a friend to watch?

If you haven’t seen a podcast yet click here and check the latest one out. Please give us your feedback and help us spread the word to others about this opportunity to share the message of Jesus and mission of Jesus!

I have a funny kid.

A few weeks ago I was singing in the car as I was taking Jeremy to school. Jeremy pleaded with me to stop. I asked him why he hated to hear me sing. He told me that I had a terrible voice. From there the conversation went like this.

“Jeremy, I have a good voice.”

“No, you don’t daddy. Your voice is bad, really bad. It hurts my feelings when you sing like that.”

“Jeremy, do you know how good my voice is?”

“Yeah,” he interupted. “People come from miles around just to kick you in the head.”

I laughed out loud and then spanked him (kidding).

——————————————————————————————————
I have a spiritual kid.

Last week we were out to eat and Jeremy had to use the restroom. So I walked him to the bathroom. Jeremy chose which “house” (aka “stall”) he wanted to live in for the next few minutes and locked the door behind him.

Sometimes when Jeremy uses a public restroom he likes to have small talk with me as I stand outside the stall door patiently(?) waiting for him. Often times there are other people in the bathroom which can lead to awkward moments. These times have ranged from embarassing (”Hey dad, I can see your shadow can you step away from the door?”) to really embarrassing (”Hey dad, you should see this one!”)

So when Jeremy said, “Hey dad…” this time I cringed, girding myself for the next sentence. Another guy was in the bathroom and rather preoccupied at “the wall.” But Jeremy surprised me with the words, “Hey dad, I’m really glad I’m going to heaven when I die.”

That took me and the dude at the wall off guard. “How do you know you are going to heaven Jeremy?” seizing the chance for an indirect witnessing opportunity.

“Because Jesus died for all my sins daddy and I believe in him.”

“Isn’t that awesome Jeremy?”

The guy hurried to get out before Jeremy gave an altar call.

I smiled and thanked God for my funny, spiritual kid. My prayer is that as Kailey grows up she will see in her big brother the light of Jesus and follow in his little footsteps.

Have you ever gone through a period of time where it felt like you were getting fired at from every corner? It’s at these times when we hear the bullets from the Dark One whiz by our heads that our tendency is to duck and cover.

That’s exactly what we shouldn’t do. Instead we should armor up.

I’m typing these words to myself just as much as I am to you. Right now we are undergoing a lot of pressure at Dare 2 Share. Although the conferences are over we are right in the middle of budgeting for next fiscal year (starts on July 1.) We have to raise a lot of money before our fiscal year concludes (ends on June 30th.)

What compounds all of this is the internal and external threat of the Evil One. He seems to be working overtime to distract, discourage and destroy our efforts but “greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.”

It’s very interesting to me that we are feeling the sting of his attacks as we prepare for The Invincible Tour, the training conference we do once every five years dealing with spiritual warfare and evangelism.

Please pray for us during this time of battle. Pray for wisdom, protection and provision so that we can continue to wage war with maximum impact for the kingdom of Jesus. I am fully convinced that, as we stay utterly dependent on the Spirit of God within us, that we will resist the devil and he will flee from us (after all that’s what the Bible promises us in James 4!)

How can I pray for you as you wage war with the devil for the souls of your friends who don’t know Jesus?

I got up early this morning to go do a little writing and was shocked to see that it’s snowing pretty hard! Probably four inches has fallen so far. It shows no signs of abating. Most of this week I’ve been up here in Breckenridge trying to finish a book that is under strict deadline. The weather has been pretty good most of the week but all of that changed this morning.

Is this the front end of a Spring blizzard? Will the sun shock us and come out later this afternoon and melt it all? You never know in Colorado. The weather is bi-polar here.

There’s something about writing a book in a snowstorm that feels right. It conjures up memories of campfires, hot chocolate and The Shining, a movie that terrified me as a teenager.

On second thought before I continue writing I’m going to make sure the front door is bolted and the axe is locked up. After all all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Please pray for me as I start working on another book project this week. Actually, I’ve worked on this particular one off and on over the last few years. I made the decision last night to scrap it all and start over from scratch.

For some reason this is the toughest writing project that I’ve ever tackled. That must mean that either I’m not up for the task talent wise (I hope this is not the reality) or that Satan is trying to prevent me from getting this one done. If this book comes out like I hope it will it could potentially get a lot of Christians sharing their faith and a lot of non Christians considering the claims of Christ.

Please pray for me as I try to tackle this overwhelming project.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

I read a blog post written by a friend of mine on Saturday. He highly recommended the movie Iron Man so I went to see it yesterday.

Wow. What a crazy thrill ride of a movie.

Thank you Brian for helping me find my “spiritual armor” analogy for the Invincible Tour. The scene where the armor goes on Tony is simply amazing. It reminds me of the armor of Christ that we are called to put on every day as we go out to wage war with the devil for the souls of humanity!
Check out Brian Ford’s blog for a full review and spiritual relevance stuff.

If you find the movie offensive in any way (it’s PG 13 for a reason) please put all your complaints on his blog as well. He loves answering them all with tender loving care while quoting from the original Greek of the New Testament to defend his point of view.

Love ya Brian!

“The best defense is a good offense.”

This statement is true in the sports world. I’ts true in the military world. And from now on I’m going to make sure it’s a reality in my world as well.

For the last several years I have been pushing the “stop the evacuation of our young people from the church” cause. But where does playing this kind of defense get you? At best it gets you a group of young adults who haven’t forsaken their faith during the college years. Later on (if these young adults continue to retain their faith) it gets you status quo church goers who live out a status quo Christianity and make a jack squat difference.

No more.

Defense is taking a back seat to offense in my world from now on. You don’t win wars against the devil by being defensive. You win by punching him in the throat for Jesus. You punch first. You punch fast. You punch hard with God’s power.

Pretty much that’s what Jesus promised to do in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The idea here is that Jesus is on the attack against death and the forces of darkness. He is using the people of God as his battering ram to punch through the gates of hell and free Satan’s captives through the truth of the gospel.

As Christians we are not called to hunker down and hide. We are called to charge headfirst, headlong and headstrong into the battle against Satan for the souls of those around us.

How does all this tie into Dare 2 Share? Simple. I’m taking a more “offensive” approach as the leader of this organization. Instead of merely “equipping teenagers to know, live, share and own their faith” I want to see God unleash these teenagers to reach every teenager in their world with the message and mission of Jesus.

When I use this warfare analogy I’m not at all talking about how we approach those who don’t know Jesus. We approach them with love, service, humility and truth. We don’t approach them with a clenched fist but with open hands to wash their feet. But we approach Satan with guns blazing drenched in the power of God and wrapped in the armor of Christ.

I long to see an army of Jesus loving, people serving teenagers who wage war with the underlord of the underworld in their underwear (just making sure you’re paying attention) for the souls of all their friends. My goal? Every teenager on this planet hearing the gospel from a teenager they know! I’m not done until every cutter becomes a healer, every sinner becomes a saint, every student becomes a soldier in the army of Jesus!

Let’s stop the defensiveness and go on the offense for Jesus! The end result? When teenagers graduate from high school they don’t evacuate the church but they do help evacuate lost souls from the kingdom of darkness! They become missionaries at their universities and workplaces. They don’t merely retain their faith, they regain lost ground for the kingdom of God by advancing the mission and message of Jesus everywhere they go!

This job is way too big for me to accomplish. But if all of us join together we can see God do something so big, so wonderful, so transformational that the ears of all who hear about it will tingle (I don’t know what that means but it sure sounds cool!)

Will you join me is this quest?