I sat down recently for a conversation with Greg Stier, the founder and CEO of Dare 2 Share. If you’re not familiar with the ministry, you really should check it out. It’s one of the most effective platforms I’ve seen to teach people how to witness for Christ. Greg was raised by a single mother in a violent inner-city home and understands firsthand what happens when the power of Gospel takes hold in a troubled family.
A recent article in Relevant magazine carried this headline: “Report: 47% of Christian Millennials Believe Evangelism Is Wrong.” Greg’s story bears witness to just how right evangelism really is, and why Promise Keepers is so committed to it.
Ken: What caused you to get so passionate about sharing your faith and training others to share their faith?
Greg: When I was a kid, I was raised in a violent inner-city home, and many of my uncles spent time in jail. On Friday night mom used to say, “Hey, wanna watch cops?” We would literally follow cop cars to the scenes of the crimes. Sometimes, though, they were on their way to our house.
I come from a broken family. I never knew my biological father. A preacher from the suburbs evangelized in the city on a dare and reached the toughest of my uncles with the gospel. When that happened, the rest of my uncles fell like dominoes. I watched the utter transformation of my family by the power of the gospel.
So as a kid I said, “I’ve got to spend the rest of my life training others to share the Good News of Christ.” I witnessed the power described in Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone it believes.” I think so many times we underestimate the power of the gospel to change our lives, change communities, change this nation and change the world.
I was the result of a short-term relationship. I never met my biological father. When my mom found out she was pregnant, she drove all the way from Denver to Boston by herself to have an illegal abortion. It was before Roe v. Wade. My grandparents somehow found out and pleaded with her, “We know you’re pregnant. Come back and have that child and we’ll help you raise him.” I didn’t know why when I was a child, but often my mother would look at me and just start crying. My grandma told me years later it was because my mom felt guilty. “Every time she saw you, she thought of that almost abortion,” she said.
I remember telling my mom the gospel because this preacher had trained me how to share Christ. I shared the gospel with my mother regularly from the time I was 11 or 12 to the time I was 15. My mom would always say, “I’m too sinful. I’ve done too many things wrong.” I would say, “Mom, it doesn’t matter. Jesus died on the cross.” When I was 15, I sat down at the kitchen table and said, “Mom, I’m tired of this. You’ve got to know Christ.” My mom said, “You mean to tell me that Jesus died for me on the cross and paid the price for all my sins—even the bad ones?” “Yes, Mom,” I replied, “they’re all bad, and Jesus paid the price for all of them.” She took a drag from her cigarette and said, “I believe.” She put her faith in Christ at that moment. It wasn’t instant perfection for her, of course, but she had joy for the first time in the deepest part of her soul, and today she’s doing great.
The Promise Keepers statement of faith begins with these words, “The gospel is good news, the very best news anyone can hear. Children can understand it; it is so profound that the wisest theologians will never exhaust its riches.” Let those words sink in: When we share the gospel, we are sharing the very best news anyone can hear. When we shrink from sharing the Gospel, we are deliberately withholding the very best news anyone can hear.
The Promise Keepers movement takes its name from our commitment to seven specific promises about how we will commit to applying the Bible in our lives on a daily basis. The seventh promise is about obedience: “A Promise Keeper is committed to influencing his world, being obedient to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.” Nothing is more right than sharing the gospel, and there is no better time than right now.
The full video of the conversation between Ken Harrison and Greg Stier is available here.
Charisma Media Staff