On this episode, we delve into the broader implications of equipping youth to share the gospel effectively, addressing the inherent barriers they encounter, including fear and societal expectations. Ultimately, we aspire to inspire listeners to cultivate these essential relationships and empower the next generation in their evangelistic endeavors.

Back Channel with Foth- This episode centers on the critical theme of identifying and nurturing trusted truth tellers within one's life and ministry. Dick elaborates on the significance of these individuals, who provide both encouragement and constructive criticism, thereby fostering personal and spiritual growth. He shares poignant anecdotes highlighting the profound impact that such relationships have had throughout his journey, emphasizing the necessity for these connections in navigating the complexities of faith.

Takeaways:

• In our discourse, we delineated the significance of identifying trusted truth tellers in both personal and ministerial realms, emphasizing their dual role in providing honest feedback and fostering spiritual growth.
• We explored the profound notion that trusted truth tellers may manifest as both seasonal and lifelong companions, underlining the importance of diverse perspectives in ministerial contexts.
• The conversation illuminated the imperative for youth to share their faith, as teenagers exhibit a remarkable propensity to embrace Christianity, thus presenting a unique opportunity for evangelism.
• We articulated the necessity for parents to model authentic faith in their daily lives, thereby instilling a genuine desire for their children to engage in evangelism and share the gospel.
• The dialogue underscored the evolving landscape of youth ministry, suggesting a strategic shift from merely inviting peers to church to actively encouraging youth to embark on personal evangelistic endeavors.
• Finally, we accentuated the critical role of local churches in fostering an environment conducive to evangelism, advocating for comprehensive training and equipping of youth for sharing their faith effectively.

Foreign.

Podcast.

So excited to be back with our friend of the podcast, Dick Foth, for another session of Back Channel with Foe.

And then we're going to jump into a conversation with Greg Steer.

Dick, welcome back to the podcast.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Dick.

Got two questions as always.

I don't think I've ever just asked you one or three, but it's normally two.

That's how I put them together.

So the first one is how have you found trusted truth tellers in your life and ministry?

That's a great combination of words, trusted truth tellers.

I would define trusted truth tellers as people who are willing to say to you both the good things and perhaps the hard things that you might consider bad at the moment or so forth.

I was very fortunate and I don't know that I found them.

I think the Lord in his grace gave them to me.

And I have five, I wrote down five names.

Roy Blakely, who turned out to be my father in law, but that I met when I was 10 years old at a kids camp where he was speaking.

He was a pastor and 30 years my senior, Alan Groff, when I got to Illinois was also a pastor down near the St. Louis area, but he was about 20 years, maybe not quite that much my senior.

Howard Momstad, a professor at the University of Illinois, also about that 20 years my senior again.

Paul McGarvey, Backfield High School football coach in that same time period.

So Alan Groff, Roy Blakely, Howard Momstad, all of these were in a timeframe when I was in my 20s and I was a church planter near the University of Illinois.

Paul McGarvey was a backfield football coach and, and then somebody who's my peer, just slightly older, Linda Warfel, who's all those folks I just named have now gone on to their reward.

They're with the Lord.

Lynn Warfel is still alive.

We're about the same age and he's a farmer.

I used to call him my gentleman farmer.

He's a scientist, brilliant guy.

Chat every now and again.

Those are people who both gave me counsel on the one hand when I asked questions about what do you do?

About whatever.

But also when I was struggling on occasion I would go to them and they would just give me wisdom and tell me the truth about one, the situation, not the character of God, about me.

That's so character of God and about you.

So when you're looking at trusted truth teller, those are two things you want.

You would want them to understand the characteristics of God and have a relationship with God.

And then what's, what's true about God?

What's true about this moment or your perception of this moment and what's true about you in terms of attitude?

Or.

Did you invite them in, Dick, or was that an intentional conversation or something just happened naturally?

I think because we were friends, that what's interesting about these folks is that all of us at one point or another traveled together.

I and one of them, or I and a couple of them travel together either in the United States on missions, kinds of things, or even overseas on things like that, or to other countries.

When you travel together, there's a kind of, as all of our listeners know, there's a kind of stripping away of pretense.

You see us in all of our moods and ups and downs and when we can't find our socks and all that kind of stuff.

So for sure it does.

People see you when you're crouched over, drooling on the airplane and you're.

Right.

Squeezing into places and standing passport control and all those different, all those different things.

So for sure.

Second question, are there truth tellers?

Are truth tellers trusted to truth tellers seasonal or lifelong or both?

It's a, it's a tongue twister trust truth tellers.

Maybe that's why the, maybe that's why the listeners sent that in.

They wanted just to hear me stumble over it.

So are they?

Are they?

The question is, are they seasonal or lifelong or both?

And the answer to that is yes.

And there are some folks when I was a president of this small college that we were close for that season because we were intensely involved in the mission together and there were challenges and dreams and all of that.

And over the years, it's been 30 years since I was that setting, maybe one or two of those have been maintained.

But when you have the same mission but perhaps different backgrounds, I find that the people who have different backgrounds than I and therefore different kinds of lenses on whatever it is, are most helpful.

Yeah.

In a lot of ways.

And in that particular setting, I would call that seasonal as opposed to maybe lifelong.

Yeah.

Good deal.

Good deal, Dick.

Always enjoy spending time with you on Back Channel with Foe.

We're going to go ahead and jump into our conversation with Greg, just insightful conversation on lessons he's learned on parenting and sharing the gospel.

Well, there's no time better than now to get started.

So here we go.

Greetings and welcome back to the Clarity podcast.

So excited to be here with a new friend today.

Greg.

Welcome to the podcast.

So glad to be here.

Aaron, Greg.

One of the advantages of being a podcast host is I get to do a lot of background work on people and try to figure out who they are and listen to them on YouTube and podcasts of them and other places.

So I've got to spend a little bit of time the last few weeks listening to your voice.

Will you share a little bit about yourself for those maybe who do not know you yet before I jump into asking you some questions?

Yeah.

So, born and raised in Denver.

I'm married 35 years to my wonderful wife Debbie.

I have two adult children.

I was not raised in a explicitly Christian home.

I was raised in a family full of bodybuilding, tobacco and beer drinking thugs.

As I said, matches the women.

My family was wild and intense and I was not.

I was like young Sheldon in the hood.

And a hillbilly preacher nicknamed Yankee planted a church in the suburbs of Denver and reached my toughest uncle with the gospel.

And that began a trajectory of transformation that eventually reached my whole family.

I was equipped to share the gospel when I was 12 and over the course of three years was able to lead my mom to Christ when I was 15, disciple her.

And I was an ordinary teenager with extraordinary training and just believe in the power of the gospel and the potential of young people.

And then the Columbine High School shooting took place about 20 minutes down the road and broke my heart and resigned from the church to mobilize churches around the world to mobilize teenagers to share the gospel.

So I've been doing that for a long time.

Wow.

When you say you at 12, you were equipped to share the gospel.

What, what does it.

What exactly you.

Could you unpack that for me?

Yeah, you know, like gospel urgency, fluency and strategy.

So like, why should I share the gospel as the urgency then?

What is the gospel?

I was trained in the gospel message, this kind of creedal form.

And then how do you share it?

How do you bring it up?

How do you lay it out?

How do you wrap it up?

And what do you do if they say no and what if you do if they say yes?

And what do you do if they say I'm not ready?

So all the basic stuff.

Yeah.

That most seminary grad pastors don't learn in seminary.

I learned as a middle schooler because we had this hillbilly pastor, hillbilly preacher trained us.

Yeah.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

I thought it was common knowledge And I graduated and realized, oh, my goodness, people don't know how to do this.

And so you have a passion for youth, for youth to be able to share their faith and to share the gospel.

What are some of the reasons you're focused on youth?

I'm sure you want everyone to share their faith, but as I've just spent some time listening to you and as I said reading about you, the focus on students and youth sharing their faith is.

Yeah, that's paramount for you.

Can you share about that?

And I do want everyone to share the gospel.

But here's the main reasons.

Number one, teenagers come to Christ quicker.

80% of those who come to Christ, who by the time they're 18.

So if I was a business person, I would focus on the demographic that was most likely to buy my product.

Right.

As a missionary, I would focus on the most open part of that demographic, which are globally, it's the young.

Yeah.

They come to Christ quicker, they spread the gospel faster.

A Tina gets a hold of this, can reach their sphere of influence, their immediate sphere of influence or social media sphere of influence.

And every great awakening has had young people on the leading edge of those.

Those awakenings.

So I'm like, you know, let's get to getting.

Why the getting's good.

Yeah.

And again, is good when they're young.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a basic reason.

But when people look at.

Maybe they'd say, well, the youth of today or the students of today.

So what are some of the barriers you run into?

Could I.

When you're trying to encourage youth or students to share their faith, what are some of the barriers you see that they run into and maybe you run into as you try to encourage them?

Well, I think fear.

I mean, obviously when you share the gospel, you self identify as a Christian, and not only a Christian, but a Christian who takes their face faith seriously enough to risk ridicule and rejection.

So actually, you know what, what happens when students get over that fear and they're willing to face that risk?

It actually helps them grow in their faith.

First call of discipleship is a call to die to yourself.

Right.

And that first death is not a physical death, it's a social death.

And evangelism requires a risk of socially dying.

And that helps students grow on their faith faster than anything.

So I think fear, I think ignorance.

What do I say?

Yeah, my friend says it's hot in here.

Do you say it's hot in hell too?

Let me tell you, how do you do that?

How do you make a segue what is the gospel?

So I think just not knowing what to say or if being thinking, man, if they ask me a question I have the answer to, I'll look stupid.

And then I just think, you know, standing out from the crowd, like when you evangelize, you stand out, you wreck the status quo.

And so the courage required for that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

And, yeah, I mean, I think there's, you know, a lot of reasons students don't share their faith.

And, and some of that is the institutional system we've built in youth ministry, which is, you know, well, and just invite your friends to come to the meeting and let the professionals handle it.

I think youth leaders have created a system.

You know, our youth ministry forefathers have created a system that is built on come and see.

Yeah.

And come and see is fine, but if you don't add, go and get to come and see.

Wow, you're gonna, you're gonna really limit the scope of your outreach because for every one kid that will come, there's 99 who won't.

Who's gonna reach the 99.

Wow.

And it's gotta be the, the student, fully equipped, trained, mobilized.

As you know, if they go to a public school, they're a federally funded missionary.

Yeah.

As far as I'm concerned.

And so how do you share with students that say, hey, Greg, I love to share, but I'm afraid they're going to ask me a question about maybe gender or sexuality or something that I don't, I don't know how to respond to.

Maybe.

I don't know, I don't, I don't know how to respond to it.

So I don't want to share my faith because of that.

How do you, how do you navigate that with them and, and maybe give them some wisdom on that?

There's a stronghold that's got to be torn down.

That stronghold is not just in teenagers, it's in adults.

And that is that I have to have all the answers first.

You do not have to have all the answers.

You need the gospel.

Okay.

And you need to be armed with this statement.

That's an excellent question.

I have no idea what the answer is, but I'll find out.

And then let's continue the conversation.

That's it should get out of jail free card.

Then you go back, the students go back, talk to the youth pastor, talk to their parents, talk to their pastor, go to GodQuestions.org go back and continue the conversation.

Yeah.

And in the process, the believing kid grows in their knowledge of Scripture, and it's what I call street apologetics.

Okay.

I think if you try to get all the answers first, you're, you're in a never ending, perpetual quest because there's always going to be some question you can't answer.

Well, just be honest.

That's a great question.

I don't know.

But give me a week.

Yeah.

And come back to it.

Come back.

Yeah.

It made me think.

My friend John, he teaches self defense and he, he says that's a lot of times people want to come in and be a ninja.

And he said, there's so many.

To be a ninja takes forever.

But he said, these are three basic things that I can teach you how to do.

And so what I'm hearing you say is you do need to understand the basics of the gospel.

You have to have that understanding and then the, the other things that come out, you can go to find out the answers at that time, but don't get so distracted by the things you don' but concentrated on the gospel that you do know.

Would that be fair or not so?

Or not fair?

Better phrase than me.

Yes.

If you want to be a gospel ninja.

No, just know the gospel, know where the answers are found, which is in the word of God, and go to GodQuestions.org.

Oh, man.

Yeah, they do such a good job.

My son was using it the other day.

He's like, dad, literally, I don't think I can ask a question.

The world of computers and tech that's out there.

So you've been, you've been doing, you've been, this has been a life focus for you for, for many years.

So what are the changes you've seen over the last 30 years and maybe some differences 30 years ago to now when it comes to youth or people in general sharing their faith in the world we live in.

I think 30 years ago, you know, most people had a general basic understanding of, you know, the Bible or, you know, kind of Christianity.

I think now it's just a free for all.

It's a wild West.

A lot of different, you know, I think a lot of, a lot of teenagers are more Hindu than Christian.

And they're not Hindu per se, but Hindus, you know, have what, 100 million gods, right?

So I think there's this mentality like, oh, that's cool.

Jesus is cool, Buddha was cool, Muhammad's cool.

They're all cool.

Yeah, as long as you pick a road, you know, and so it's, it's a more of the wild west out there when it comes to spiritual Beliefs on a positive side.

I think there's way more openness now, this generation of teenagers, easy to engage about the gospel.

And when they see Christianity pictured as a love story, that just happens to be true.

I think today you don't lead with apologetics with teenagers.

Okay.

You write the love letter of the gospel and then use apologetics as a P.S.

p.S.

It's all true.

Wow.

What Paul did in Acts 17 with the.

Of the areopagus, he told the story, and then he uses apologetics at the end.

He's given proof to this by raising Jesus from the dead.

That's when it blew up.

Some believed, some mocked, some said, we want to hear you again on this subject.

So I think today you don't lead like Josh McDowell did in the 70s with apologetics.

I think you leave them with apologetics.

Okay.

Wow.

Yeah.

And so some of the changes, you said, maybe they're more Buddhist than they are anything these days.

Has that been a cultural shift where everything is, or is that a generational shift where you're open to everything anymore?

Yeah, I think both.

I think both.

And I think, you know, teens scroll on their phones and they're getting sound truth and not so sound truth in sound bites.

And.

Okay.

It's all kind of this smorgasbord in their brain.

And, you know, we have to help clarify.

I think that's the one good thing about.

Not one good thing.

There's many good things.

But one good thing about the Christian faith is we have one basis of authority, and that's the word of God.

And I think kids are longing for that because they don't know.

They don't have a anchor.

Yeah.

You know, and they feel it.

Yeah.

And maybe that's why we're open to it.

You know, it's probably why Islam is growing as well around the world, is because there's anchor, you know, sure, it's a foundation and it's a terrible anchor, but there's something you can anchor your beliefs to.

Yeah.

You know, like Psalms, I guess.

Psalms 27:1 comes into mind.

Right.

He has my light and my salvation in whom shall I fear?

He's the stronghold of my life, and whom shall I be afraid.

And so getting back to that idea of fear of sharing your faith or maybe fear of.

Yeah.

Not.

Not being grounded to anything, knowing that Christ is a stronghold of our life.

Yeah.

At least it's a foundation.

Foundation for me.

So the barriers maybe that are in place today, that idea that maybe they're more Buddhist than anything students would be today, Whose responsibility is it, or is it all of our responsibilities to help to remove some of the barriers from youth sharing the, sharing their, their faith and also removing some of those barriers of maybe the fear that they have.

Is that, is that the larger church's responsibility?

Is that youth, Youth with youth?

Or is it everybody?

Or you're the, you're the gentleman that focuses on this.

So how can you give us some insight on that?

I, I mean, I think at the, at the end of the day, the ultimate youth leaders are mom and dad.

Okay.

So, you know, both my kids went to dare to share training.

They're plugged into churches that advance the gospel.

But you ask them, they're adults now, who share their faith.

What had the most impact on you?

They would say, mom and dad.

Right.

Because we lived it out.

And the restaurants we visited and the servers we talked to and the baristas we talked to and the neighbors we talked to, and they just, you know, were part of those conversations.

Sometimes I would say, hey, Jeremy, you know, you share your story or, or Kaylee, you know, tell this lady about Christ.

Was, it was a family deal.

It's part of the way we rolled.

In addition, we went to churches that prioritized evangelism and training and shipping.

And so it was every aspect possible.

I would say, number one would be family, mom and dad.

Number two would be.

Number three would be everybody else.

Okay, so with, with mom and dad focusing in on that, what are some.

You said living it out and living it out in front of them.

Any other words of wisdom, maybe for mom and dad who are listening in there may be struggling with that, getting their kids to encourage them to share their faith.

Or maybe their kids are in rebellion, not wanting to share their faith.

Just want to be sensitive to that today.

Any, any, any words of wisdom or insight for them?

Yeah, I mean, one is, you know, make it authentic, make it part of your life.

You know, I, I pray for Bob every day.

B O B.

A burden for the lost.

An opportunity to share Christ that day.

Okay.

And boldness to walk through the door when God opens it.

That's a prayer God loves to answer.

Yeah.

You know, more often than not, I have an opportunity to Christ, you know, so, I mean, not just.

I don't count behind the microphone stuff.

Okay.

You know, I'm talking about everyday life.

Right.

So let them see that in you.

And the more that you're not an evangelist, naturally, the better, because your kids know when you're.

That's your gift.

Yeah.

So my wife has a deeper Impact in many ways because my kids both know that I'm the evangelist.

She's the one with the gift of mercy, you know, so her face sharing is, you know, I think, very impacting.

I would say also, you know, our job as parents, and I think this is especially true for those of us who are in ministry.

You know, kids see the good, the bad and the ugly, right?

Yeah.

Adam and Eve had the perfect father in the perfect setting.

And they only had one rule, don't eat fruit from the fruit bowl.

And they blew it.

Yeah.

So if Adam and Eve could rebel in a perfect setting with a perfect father, with only one rule, our kids can rebel.

You know, I don't believe our job as parents is to make our kids serve Christ.

I believe our job as parents is to authentically serve Christ the best that we can.

To ask forgiveness when we blow it, which for me was every other day.

And to build a lighthouse that's so big and so tall and bright that even if they stray out of the harbor when the storms hit, they know where home is.

Yeah.

You know, so, you know, my son went through.

Our son went through a six month time of secret rebellion that included alcohol and marijuana and stuff that we didn't catch.

And he woke me up a year later and said, dad, I have to confess to you what happened last school year.

Yeah.

Wow.

One of the hard, dark nights of the soul.

All night hearing all this stuff.

He said, what are my consequences?

I said, well, you need to give us number one.

We didn't see this coming.

We need some time to figure those out.

And three days before the two weeks was over because we gave a two week time, which was punishment in and of itself.

God gave Deb and I, my wife and I, the answer.

We sat down that Saturday night.

He goes, what are my consequences?

He was worried we're going to turn him into the Christian school because the honor code and I'm kind of a. I'm a rules guy.

So that was my initial plan.

But my wife said, I think there's something else we need to do.

And so I had a sheet of paper with all the things he had done wrong.

And it was a long list because it wasn't just the drugs, wasn't just the marijuana and alcohol and vaping.

It was the money for food that wasn't used for food.

It was getting the drugs, which is illegal, the way, you know, get drugs from a drug dealer.

And then all the consequences.

And he looked at it all and he was pale.

He goes, dad, I'm guilty.

Just tell me what my consequences are.

I took a big black Sharpie and I wrote over that sheet of paper the word tetelestai.

And he's like, I have no idea what that means.

I go, it's what Jesus said on the cross.

It is finished, paid in full.

He goes, dad, I'm not worried about Jesus.

I know I'm saved.

I'm worried about you guys.

I said, jeremy, you don't understand.

Jesus forgives you.

We forgive you.

You don't have to pay the money back.

You came to us and confessed.

I'm not going to turn you in.

We're not going to ground you.

There's no consequences.

They're all nailed to the cross.

And then I leaned in and I said, but unlike Jesus, this is a one time deal.

You do it again.

We're going Old Testament.

And he broke, he broke Grace, broke him and ended up marrying a godly girl, going to a great church and serving the Lord.

Yeah.

And I think that was the beginning of the transformation.

So I just want to, it's a side note, you know, Grace, a lot of times it's easy when we're in ministry to want our kids to have that authentic relationship with the Lord, but also worry about what other people think about our kids.

We need to love our kids with the love of Christ and know that they may stray, but we will never stray in our love for them, no matter what.

Yeah, that's a good word.

Good, good word.

And great, great challenge.

Great challenge for us all because you're right.

Sometimes we, I heard a pastor say one time, he said, a lot of times we root for the name on the back of our jersey, not for the first name.

And so we're worried about, you know, we're worried about what that last name and how, how it's going to be represented in him rather than Christ within us.

The other thing you mentioned in that, but you were talking was the ability or the desire to ask for forgiveness.

When you had, you said about every other day you messed up and you go to.

How did, where did the courage come from that for.

To go to your kids and model that asking for forgiveness or saying, hey, I messed up.

Well, you know, I never had a dad.

Okay.

I never knew my biological father.

I was a one night stand.

I was really afraid to become a dad.

I come from a lot of dysfunction, a lot of violence.

My family was extremely, I joke about it, but my family was actually dangerous.

I came from a very dangerous family and I, I was afraid of being a bad dad.

From my own biology and then from my family, my violent etymology in our family, all that.

And I just was afraid.

I know I was afraid of not being loving enough.

And so whenever I messed up, I would just go and I would say I messed up.

Like not violence or something like, but just anger or saying stuff I shouldn't have said or whatever.

And just listen, I was wrong.

Will you, will you forgive me?

Yeah.

And then not just saying, hey, sorry about that, I sinned before God and before you.

Will you forgive me?

And modeling that, I think to, to the kids, you know, to help me real, they, they realized I was sincere.

Like, I'm not.

I'm really like.

My daughter in high school came downstairs, I'm a five in the morning guy.

Okay.

I get up and I'm in the word.

And it's just my pattern.

Sure.

She came down and she said, dad, every time I've gotten up since I can remember, you're here.

When you're not on the road and you're reading your Bible, you're so godly.

And I said, kaylee, I'm so ungodly.

That's why I'm here, reading my Bible, resetting my heart, confessing my sin, seen at the foot of the cross.

I mean, for me, like it's.

I just imagine a, a bloody cross in the middle of our living room that I have to constantly return to.

And they've seen that modeled and with, by my wife and I and, and it's become part of their life.

Yeah.

We're not the, you know, perfect family, but we are a perfecting family.

Yeah.

Pursuing family.

Yeah.

We fail forward and sound like a.

Very, very, very intentional family.

Back earlier I asked you the responsibility we shared about the family and then you shared about the local church and the church at large.

What are some things that local church pastors listening into this, Youth pastors listening into this.

There's many who listen in some words of encouragement for them on how they and the local church can encourage students to be sharing their faith.

Well, first of all, I'd really encourage everyone to download the free report.

We just did a massive research report.

Okay.

Through Clarity research and they compared 586 youth groups, was a control group, a typical youth group and what we call a Gospel Advancing one.

One that mobilizes students for the gospel.

And the results were stark.

The Gospel Advancing Youth group, there is three times overall growth, numeric growth.

Three times.

There was 10 times more gospel conversations per student.

Hmm.

There were three times more teens discipling other teens there was 30 times more missional impact.

Our researcher said, I've been doing this for over 20 years.

I've never seen such stark results.

Wow.

Because this stuff works.

And I go because it's rooted in the New Testament.

Yay.

The Bible's true right.

And so I'd encourage pastors, parents, and youth leaders to go to Don't Miss it.

Okay.

And download the free report.

It's all free.

And not only in is it a report.

I wrote it for youth leaders.

I didn't write it for the eggheads.

Okay.

Because I want a youth leader to understand the statistics, the parents to understand, the pastors to understand, and then there's strategies on implementation.

Okay.

So it's a.

It's really, really well done.

And it's completely free.

Yeah.

So don't miss it.org and the reason we call it Don't Miss it is if you miss evangelism as central to the discipling process, you miss the discipline process.

Yeah.

Wow.

Jesus said, come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

So central to the discipling process of Jesus is equipping them to evangelize.

Central.

Central.

It's not ancillary.

It's the hub, not a spoke.

Yeah, that's a good word.

Good word.

What's one of this?

Could you.

Would you share one of the strategies?

Or am I catching off guard by asking about one of the strategies?

Well, yeah.

One of the strategies would be to.

To plan your year around equipping.

So do an annual catalytic event where all your students are trained, equipped and mobilized to share the gospel.

You can do this as a family.

Yeah.

So for instance, we do a free event called the Day of Global Youth Evangelism.

And it's second Saturday of November.

It's free for missionaries.

Last year it was in 110 countries.

Wow.

In English, Spanish and Portuguese.

It is done on a Global Leadership Summit level of quality.

It's really high quality.

Yeah.

It's completely free.

There's only one requirement.

You gotta.

You gotta go out and share the gospel after.

If you're not willing to do that, we won't let you download it.

Because we're like, we.

This ain't no watch party.

Yeah.

Wow.

So.

But it's really well done.

So if you just go to daretoshare.org the number two daretoshare.org look up events.

It's called the Day of Global Youth Evangelism.

You just register, the videos are made available the week before, and you just show the videos and Go.

Very, very cool.

Yeah.

So a few more questions for him, then we ask you to pray for us.

Maybe somebody's listening into this and they're concerned that they' level of biblical literacy.

We know that biblical literacy seems to be decreasing in the west, and then there's some reports that it's actually swinging back up in the other direction, which is good.

But somebody says, you know, I know the gospel, but I still don't know if my biblical literacy is strong enough to share and to share my faith.

Any words of encouragement for them?

If you can memorize John 3:16, you got enough biblical literacy to share your faith.

It's a simple message.

It's.

I think part of the problem is preachers tend to over complicate it.

We use a gospel acrostic at Dare to share train.

G O, S, P E L. God created us to be with him.

Okay, one and two.

Right.

Oh, is our sins separate us from God.

Genesis 3, Adam and Eve fall.

Sure sins cannot be removed by good deeds.

Genesis 4 through Malachi 4.

The blood to sweat and the tears.

The blood of the Old Testament sacrifices.

The sweat of trying to obey 613 commands, the tears of contrition when they failed.

P paying a price for sin.

Jesus died and rose again.

Matthew, Mark and Luke.

E. Everyone who trusts in him alone is eternal life.

The Book of John.

Yeah.

And L. Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.

Acts, Revelation.

We literally have students memorize that.

Yeah.

We have an app called life in six words that lays all that out.

It's in 23 languages and it's free.

Wow.

So if you can swipe and read, you can share the Gospel and.

Or just memorize John 2:16.

Yeah.

Can you?

Can you?

Because listeners are going to ask why I didn't ask you to repeat it.

Because they were taking notes.

Can you tell?

Can you say that again?

The gospel and the acrostic once again.

Yeah.

It's G O, S, P E, L. G is God created us to be with him.

Right.

O is our sins separate us from God.

S is sins cannot be removed by good deeds.

P is paying the price for sin.

Jesus died and rose again.

He is everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life.

And L is life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.

That's good, Good stuff.

Memorize.

Have your kids memorized.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's worth a listen.

So got two more questions for you.

Last question.

One of the second to last question over the last 30 years and with increasing gospel access through Evangelism, Are there things that you're more passionate about now or things that maybe you concentrated on 30 years ago that you don't concentrate now?

I guess I'm just asking you how have you changed over 30 years?

When it coming coming to create gospel access and people sharing their faith?

Well, we used to do massive arena events all over the States.

We did, you know, filled, kind of like acquire the fire, if you remember those.

Yeah.

With.

With training.

Okay.

So.

And we take them all out to share Christ.

So not quite as big, but, you know, three, four or 5,000 students.

Sure.

And we do that.

But God broke my heart for the world when I was in Israel 10 years ago and standing on Mount Arbel, where the Great Commission supposedly took place.

Yeah.

I said it's time to go global.

And we couldn't go global doing massive arena events.

Yeah.

So we killed the events.

And since then, now we do the day of global youth Evangelism, and we're getting our stuff translated.

So I feel like the way God has changed us has given us a broader view in a different way.

You know, we Americans like the big event.

I do.

But now instead of training tens of thousands, we train thousands of tens.

And we're, you know, that.

That day of global youth events, 110 countries last year.

Nigeria number one, Venezuela, number two.

US number three.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Wow.

One of the highest persecuted nations in the world was number one.

And they mobilized all.

You should have seen the thousands of teens they hit the streets in the face of, you know, Islamic persecution.

Yeah.

Teens are out.

Like, let's go.

Wow.

Wow.

And so global impact.

Are you seeing the desire for then for youth to share their faith too globally?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

This is.

It's off the grid because I think the Western form of youth ministry is exported.

A come and see model.

Okay.

But the come and see is never going to reach the world.

You got to go and get.

Yeah.

And still to keep doing.

Come and see.

I'm not anti come and see.

I'm pro come and see.

I'm going go and rescue.

Yeah.

No, good word.

Last question I have for you.

And then we ask you to pray.

Is there a question you say, you might be thinking, you might be thinking, Aaron, if you were a good podcast host, you would have asked me this question and you didn't ask.

I've been waiting for you to ask and didn't ask.

So that's my opportunity.

Is there something you wanted to say that I didn't ask you and this is your opportunity?

You know, I would I would say, you know, to de.

You know, I would encourage.

You know, I. I'm.

I wrote a book that I think would really help.

Yeah.

Later.

And it's.

I don't take.

I've written 23 books.

I've never taken a dime for any of them.

It all goes to mobilized teens.

So I'm not trying to sell my book, but I wrote a book called Radical like Jesus has 21 chapters, 21 snapshots of the life of Christ, 21 challenges.

Okay.

And my wife and I went through the challenges together because this is.

This book is not for teens.

It's for.

It's for everyone.

Okay.

I'd encourage you as a missionary family.

If you're a missionary family or a pastor, a youth leader, go through this together as a family.

You can go to radicallikejesus.com.

there's a bunch of videos, and there's actually a sermon series.

You know, all that's free.

Or you can order the book off Amazon or Audible.

If you get it on audible, I'll read it to you myself.

And I think it'll really help get that gospel urgency and fluency and strategy, as well as spiritual disciplines and basic Christian things that I think if our kids see us practicing this, they'll.

They'll be impacted.

Yeah.

And maybe.

Maybe take the challenges as a family.

Love it.

And that goes back to the.

What you said.

The number one, the big responsibility is in the family, and that gives a.

That's a tool.

More the older I get.

My wife says you keep saying this is like working towards a tool or equipping with a tool.

Right.

And you've given us several tools through today, and it's been a blessing.

Greg, will you pray for us?

Will you pray that God will use this conversation, those that are listening in the encouragement for.

For families, be encouragement for local churches.

This.

This desire to increase gospel access, to share his word and to share our faith.

Will you pray for us?

I'll do it, Father.

Thank you for this time with Aaron.

Thank you for the instant unity we have through the shed blood of Christ, the empty tomb, the fellowship of the Spirit.

And pray God, that you would help every person listening to this, whether they're a missionary, a pastor, a youth leader, or just popping in.

I pray, God, that you would inspire them to have a passion, a burden for the lost Lord, I just pray that they would not get so busy that they get moved from being gospelized to being institutionalized.

Lord, I just pray that you would set.

Just help them find that gospel ember.

And through your Holy Spirit, would you fan it and fuel it till it's a raging inferno, Lord, pray for encouragement for them as they shepherd their kids, Lord, that you would give them authenticity and grace and.

Or that they would be as gracious with their students as you are with us.

And Father, we pray for revival, Lord, in our homes first and our hearts first.

In our homes and then where we're ministering, Lord, just may it be a spillover from lives are full of your spirit and can't wait to tell other people about Jesus.

So encourage every listener now and just put this into action in their lives.

May they be doers of the Word, not yours.

Only pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.