After about 30 minutes of sharing lunch with my Seattle-area youth leading friends the greeter from outside popped up and introduced himself as Greg Stier, the President of Dare2Share (the organization hosting the lunch and training).

Flash forward about seven or eight years and I’ll tell you that the greeter/speaker Greg Stier I remember from that day is the same Greg today; furthermore the organization he leads, operates with the same humility he demonstrates by being the door-greeter at their training events.

I was in Florida all of this last week, I had several meetings with other organizations and was scouting for a few mission trips Youthmark has coming this spring and summer. Knowing that I was going to be in town I decided to double up and check out the Gameday tour for Dare2Share. Arrangements were made for me to not only attend but to serve behind the scenes for D2S. From set-up to tear-down, I’ll have you know that the team of employees, talent, speakers and volunteers were there for one-reason: to serve teens, leaders and one another so that the gospel is heard, taught, trained and sent!

Something we introduced last year through Youthmark, called “Speed Witnessing” was adopted by D2S as “Speed Training” for this years tour. And though I was excited to see this, I can tell you any “proud” moment I had for that was morphed by the pride I felt for the body of Christ serving together to put on a training conference that was so rich in content, so practical in application and 100% focused on Jesus and the good news he gives by grace alone through faith.

It truly was an honor to partner with Greg, Zane, Prop, Brenton Brown (and band) and scores of “others” that were never seen. From security to finance, from tech to talent, there was absolutely no pretentiousness or rank. Humility, grace and a sense of purpose permeated all that was done. All the parts were needed and though many in the crowd see the “personalities,” the personalities see “team.”

If you are a Youth Leader within a days drive of one of the remaining D2S conferences this year, you really ought to consider bringing your group to the event. And if you’re a Dare2Share alumni from the last couple of years, check out their new Lead The Cause University this summer. I am super pumped about this because my good friends, Everfound are leading worship at LTCU and then next year for the 2013 “Follow” tour by D2S. So fun to see my friends partner together in ministry (and selfishly, I am excited, because Dare2Share is coming back to Seattle for Follow).

Greg, thanks for being courageous in the faith, serving teens, youth leaders and the kingdom through humble and relentless leadership and thank you for taking the time with every student or adult who wanted to talk… those small times of “greeting” really do make a difference!

Grace,

Brian

Conference: I attended the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) by Youth Specialties in San Diego. I would guesstimate that I have been to 10 different NYWC’s in my life and this one was certainly one of the best. A few of the things that stood out to me and what made it so sweet from my perspective:

• Lower cost: More “teams” participated because YS made it more affordable.
• Diverse, but less “controversial” speakers: All who spoke appeared humble and weren’t looking to just push the envelope but actually deliver a message that would equip, encourage and spur on those who are working with youth.
• Friendship: I was personally blessed by growing deeper in conversation with many across the nation that I can call “friend.” I appreciated spending time with the likes of Eric, Lars, Mark, Jeremy, Sean, Tim, Mindi, Jeff (two of them), Jim, Len, EJ, Ryan and several others that I am certainly forgetting right now.
• Partnerships: It is really fun to dream together as to “what can be” when people with a kingdom mindset gather. I look forward to seeing how Youthmark may partner with others who are passionate about seeing lost people trust in Christ!

Connections: Alon Banks (Youthmark and National Network) and I drove north on Sunday evening to meet with Hope Partners International on Sunday Night and Monday  (all day). We are so excited about what HPI is doing and enjoyed talking through the next steps of our partnership with them. It will be amazing to see what God does as prayers are lifted, financial constraints are shattered and the harvest workers are unleashed on some impoverished areas!

I was blessed to have Elisabeth fly down to SoCal on Monday and spend Tuesday and Wednesday with her talking to Spire Resources (our publisher) about several projects! I am so proud of my wife and love partnering with her on some new endeavors!

Church: On Tuesday I was able to meet with a large church in Southern California and do a brief consult about some student ministry visioning! It was a great meeting! I firmly believe this church “gets it” and doesn’t want to entertain students, but wants to see their students equipped to reach out with the gospel!

Chapels: On Wednesday afternoon I took a quick flight over to Phoenix to speak on Thursday at Scottsdale Christian Academy. SCA is our first Christian School partnership for Youthmark. This is the second time I have spoken for this school (I spoke at a retreat with them in August). I enjoyed seeing some familiar faces and look forward to seeing Scottsdale transformed through these students and staff!

My 5th C I’d like to add is the word CRAZY. Now that I have returned, I immediately turn around and speak three times at MissionsFest Seattle this weekend and end the weekend by welcoming in the initial Adelphia Bible School Class! I’ll be speaking twice at orientation on Sunday! Great stuff, but a crazy schedule!

It is so good to be back with my family, though it was just a week (my longest trip in a long-long time) it felt like way longer! So good to love on my family! Speaking of family, I have to conclude this post, Will and I have an appointment to wrestle!

Grace,

Brian

If you went to the Seattle event, be sure to pass the word on to anyone from Centralia (North) to Eugene (South). We’d love to see Christ LIFTed in Portland with groups from all around! Mission51 is the key, we want people sharing the gospel not just on the one-week mission, but the 51 weeks beyond the week long experience.

Check out the Facebook event page and get others invited to the Sunday, October 16, 6pm LIFT event!

Grace,
Brian

Launching Youthmark a few years ago was truly an answer to a prayer I had prayed for several months, I was asking God to “free me up to do the things I am most passionate about and the things He had most gifted me to do.”

As a Youth Pastor I was very passionate about students being equipped/empowered to share the Gospel on their campus, in their club, within their communities and with the non-believers who show up at their church. I wanted the end-result of our (parents, leaders and my) shepherding to be a young-beleiever actively pursuing the lost with the rescuing message of the gospel.

This is what I get to do more on the macro-level now through Youthmark. Working with Youth Pastors, Christian schools and para-church organizations I get to write and speak about these things… but the macro must translate to micro, even in (or especially in) my life!

I am not an evangelist when it comes to giftedness, however, I am because of calling. And if you are a follower of Christ, you are to be an evangelist as well (“do the work of an evangelist”… “make disciples”… “be my witness”… “pass on to others what you have heard from me”…etc.).

From time to time I’ll post an adaptation of a conversation I (or others) have had to give you an idea of how a regular conversation can become a gospel conversation. If nothing else may it serve as a prayer-request to pray for the person who heard the good news. The following conversation had some interjected “small talk” throughout the conversation, but I removed these for the sake of space, but please understand the “small talk” only helped establish the relationship/understanding more!

Setting: Starbucks Coffee in Colorado (I was speaking at a camp and had gone off-campus to get to some emails and do some last minute tweaking of notes). I was on my macbook pro and a 20-something young-man was three of four seat away pounding away on his.

Young Man: Do you know much about Firefox, Explorer or Safari?

Me: I pretty much use Safari, simply because it was built by Apple so I think it has Apple security in mind and I’ve heard that the others are a little less safe, but no, I don’t now much about the differences.

Young Man: Cool, thanks man, I am pretty new to mac, but I have found some limitations with Safari, and used Firefox on my PC before, so I’ll probably stick with that.

Me: Yeah, thus far I have found only one glitch with Safari and my website, it won’t let our teams post pictures for their mission blogs with Safari without crashing, so we suggest they use a different browser for those posts. But that’s the only problem I’ve had to date.

Young Man: Missions? Do you travel a lot for missions?

Me: Well, sort of, I train students not just for missions, but for what we call Mission51, the 51 weeks beyond the mission trip. But yes, I get to travel some, but my biggest goal is to see students able to share about Jesus in their home-setting too.

Young Man: Do you train teams who just want to do the mission work but not the spiritual stuff?… I mean, can people use your organization to go on help-oriented trips to help people in need just because? I ask because I have done that sort of stuff in the Gulf after the Hurricanes?

Me: Well, Youthmark, my organization, has done relief work there too, we go in wanting to help in ANY practical way we can, but we also want our students to be prepared to share about the Lord as well. What motivated you to go to the Gulf?

Young Man: Oh, I got paid. But I’m interested in helping people… it was a good experience, but I want to volunteer somewhere here in Colorado, just to help people… ya know? Soup kitchens or helping teens with stuff, that sort of stuff makes me feel good.

Me: There are some great opportunities to volunteer I am sure. My organization mainly works with churches though because I want to see it be more than just the physical help, I want people to know about God’s love too! Have you done any of your volunteer work through a church?

Young Man: Well, I was raised in a strict home, so I had to do stuff when I was younger, but now that I’m out of the house, I can choose to do stuff, but I don’t want it to be with the church.

Me: You feel like spreading your wings and discovering things on your own?

Young Man: Well, don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, but I just don’t like the… I forget the word… here’s how God wants you to be so you can go to Heaven. I just don’t think that’s how it should be, I mean, maybe later in life I’ll want that sort of thing for my kids, but now that I can choose, I want to live how I want to live.

Me: Legalism? That’s the word I think of… like, it’s following rules that get you to heaven. I don’t believe that at all. I think it is only grace that gets me to heaven. Legalism sucks the life out of people, I think.

Young Man: You seriously believe you get to Heaven by grace, not by works? (I couldn’t believe he asked me that).

Me: Absolutely I do! But more than that, it’s what the Bible itself says… my name is Brian by-the-way (I approach him and shake his hand).

Andrew: Hi, I’m Andrew… dude, I just don’t see how it can be all about grace and not the stuff you do? I mean, I think I’d probably go to hell right now because of the stuff I am doing, but I also believe that I can change that and do better later and still get to heaven.

Me: But we don’t know if we have “later…” But I do understand your thinking, I think a lot of people think that same way. I know I did until I heard about God’s love and desire.

Andrew: When?

Me: When I was 17 I heard the whole story of Jesus. The gospel is what it’s called, I’m sure you’ve heard that term (he nodded and said, “yeah, Sunday school stuff”)… It comes down to this Andrew. I believe that God created us to be in relationship with Him. But He also gave us choice, free will, to choose to live in relationship with Him or to reject that. I chose to go my own way, make my own choices, just as you describe yourself right now. My sin, my choosing to go my own way, has separated me from that relationship. The Bible describes the only way to heaven is to be in relationship with God, but because of my sin that was impossible. There is nothing I could do to remove my own sins. I can’t do things to get to Heaven on my own… my good works cannot be good enough, because my sin has marred anything I did. But God knew that and provided a way back through Jesus. The Bible describes the Messiah coming to live a perfect life, die on a tree (tree) and prove that He is God by rising from the dead.  Jesus did that. Scripture goes on to say that if you trust in Jesus, and Him alone, you can have that relationship with God again and live eternally with Him and for Him. So, when I heard this at age 17, it made sense. Everything about my life was about acceptance of others and though I had a loving family and great friends, I didn’t know the security of God’s acceptance until I trusted in Jesus. Now I want others to know this! I want you to know this Andrew!

Because I was already late for dinner and about to speak I had to leave the coffee shop, but was able to invite Andrew to the camp to hear me speak that evening. He didn’t show up, but I am trusting that he heard the good news. He was VERY attentive, respectful and literally gave me a hug at the end of the conversation.  Please pray for this 21 year-old young man, Andrew. I was able to name a couple great churches in the area I trust he’d find relationship with strong believers and the answers to the questions he has!

I look forward to sharing more Gospel Conversations soon. I am hoping to hear Gospel Conversations others are having even more. Even now as I finish this post, I am about to go back up to a Starbucks register and feed my addiction… I’m getting a refill of coffee, but hoping that even the refill will continue the conversation started with a barista-friend months ago!

Grace,

Brian

5:15 am day one start in PJ's with much anticipation!

Montana beauty!

In Western CO visiting the Drumm family!

What a great trip!

Grace,
Brian

Over the last couple weeks we were able to take “Speak-ation Meet-union!” (one part speaking, one part vacation, one part Youthmark meetings and one part family reunion).  Good times.

I’ll be posting more about this in the next few posts, but wanted to give the ever-decreasing audience a little heads up as to what’s been going on (it’s funny to see the reader-ship dwindle when you don’t post).

Here are few little highlights (with some pic-posts to come as well):

WA (on our way east): Met with the Spiritual Life Director of a Christian school; Elisabeth and I are speaking together this next year during s Spiritual Emphasis week at an eastern WA Christian High School.

ID: We blinked during the panhandle portion of I-9o, so we completely missed Idaho.

MT : Spent 5-6 days with Elisabeth’s sister and husband. Did some sites and sounds, but mostly enjoyed the pool and family time.

WY: Yellowstone and some long open roads.

CO: Spoke at Summit Camp again, awesome time.  50 people trusted in Jesus for their salvation. So fun to have my family at one of my speaking gigs. In addition got to see family and friends and celebrate our 15th anniversary (July 20) at the place we got married (Colorado Springs). Mission51 has begun.

NM/UT/CO/AZ: We did the 4-Corners thing. Really ugly area, but fun place to take our kids and say that “we’ve been to 4 corners.”

AZ: Great price on a 4-star hotel (thanks Priceline). Saw friends and had a very good meeting for Youthmark (more later)

CA: Elisabeth’s folks live in SoCal! Always great to see them!

I’ll be posting some pics and more stuff about the actual events that took place soon!

Grace,
Brian

Some say “social justice” is the new “evangelism.” I say some are wrong. Don’t get me wrong, social justice (which I think should be re-named acts of compassion) is needed, but I believe most of the time it can/should be accompanied with evangelism (sharing the Gospel with actual words).  I believe EVANGELISM is alive and is life giving! In fact, I tracked the role of evangelism over a one-week period in my personal life and in the life of the ministries I am associated with. Quite a one-week period! Praise God.

Friday/Saturday, June 24/25: Simultaneous launches of several Youthmark Mission Venture (YMV) teams took place in Northern California and the panhandle of Idaho. All told, 11 churches were starting their missions.

• I personally was able to share Christ with a family who was gracious enough to host a mission team prior to the launch beginning. 

Medford, OR "Friends helping Friends"

Sunday, June 26: After the launch in Redding I drove to Medford, OR for my flight to Colorado. While in Medford, on Sunday morning, I took a long walk; here I witnessed a homeless ministry at a park in Medford. I was greatly encouraged in conversation by a team member who reported to me about the ministry. This “Friends Helping Friends, Medford” (they have a Facebook page) meets in this park EVERY Sunday (rain, sun or snow)! Every week the Gospel is presented (in Word and deed). This was a divine appointment.

• I personally got to minister/witness to a hurting girl who sat next to me on the plane from Medford to Colorado. Amazing how a tearful “I miss my friend” comment can turn into a conversation about Jesus.

Monday, June 27: Reports begin pouring in on the blogs of successful starts to the ministries of Youthmark Mission Ventures. Meanwhile I started my speaking in Colorado at Summit Camp (Ponderosa). 200+ teens in attendance, many whom do not know Jesus.

• While at Starbucks in Monument, CO (near the camp), I was asked about the uniqueness of my Sbux card (it’s an old Seattle card). Through sharing that I was from Seattle and being asked about why I was in CO, I was able to turn the conversation with three Baristas into an evangelism opportunity where I was point blank asked “what are you going to speak to these teens about?”  AHHHH, love those set-ups!

Tuesday, June 28: I was drawn to tears as I read a few of our blogs, reading about evangelism opportunities our Youthmark students were taking advantage of in CA, ID, MT, OR, WA and Alberta. I received an email from one Youth Pastor who asked specifically for prayer for the town in which his group was serving. The students who were attending their outreach had backgrounds that included parental abandonment, parental abuse (one student was burned by his parent’s crystal meth pouring out on him) and one teen showing up at the park who was dealing with his dad’s recent murder of his girlfriend (and this teen saw the act).

• My Tuesday was a spiritually intense day; while playing putt-putt with a few students at camp, I mentioned to a couple middle-school students, “you guys are a lot of fun.” One boy stopped, looked up at me and said, “you’re the first adult to ever say that I was fun.”  From about 2:00 to 4:00 that day, the Holy Spirit worked on my heart and changed the message I was to speak that evening; the coolest part, the passage I had already outlined fit the theme so well… God had me speak on the Bleeding Woman and the theme of “burdens”
• Immediately after my message I drove to a restaurant to meet my Colorado friend, Steve for some wings. While at the restaurant, we were able to talk to Harold and Dan.  These two guys have served in Iraq three times each, have killed too many people to count (including women and children who were deemed “a threat”). The guys were desperate for escape. They both were on four different Post Traumatic Stress Disorder drugs and said, “but they don’t help.”  Steve and I shared the Gospel with these guys for about two hours! They believed they deserved hell and couldn’t do anything to make up for the stuff they have done. THEY NEED TO UNDERSTAND GRACE! They were receptive and I am praying for their souls!
• I believe that God gave me a great spiritual birthday present this day, it was 21 years ago, June 28, where I placed my trust in Christ.

Wednesday, June 29: More amazing “God” things were happening out and about through YMV teams. My favorite report came from Bangor, CA; Jeff Clabaugh the Youth Pastor serving there that week reported about two young men (one the Pastor’s son and the other a non-Christian friend) NOT showing up for the morning Teen-time like they had been showing up each morning. They were late because the Pastor’s son was personally sharing Jesus with his friend. Upon arrival the friend announced, “I am a Christian now!” Later that evening, the new believer showed up at the park for evening outreach, only he didn’t show up alone, he showed up with his brother, whom he had shared the gospel with during the day, the brother trusted in Christ as well! INSTANT evangelism!

• 

  Glad I didn't wear my Soul Surfer shirt today!

  Though it was “evangelistic,” in terms of sharing, I took the time to travel up north to the home offices of Dare2Share and was able to attend their mid-week chapel. Afterwards, Jason Lamb and I had lunch together. Jason is headed back into a Student Ministry pastor position; it was great to hear his heart for getting back to direct student ministry.

• Again, the Holy Spirit threw me a few curveballs and tweaks to my planned message. While I preached on Wednesday the Lord made it known that I was to clearly share the complete GOSPEL. However, He also made it clear that I was to NOT do an “altar call.”  Instead, I challenged any/all students who wanted to place their trust in Christ for his/her salvation to talk specifically with a youth leader during the closing worship set that EVERFOUND was leading. We know of at least 9 of these conversations that took place that evening! Praise God.

Thursday, June 30: By mid-afternoon I was blessed to read a report of a baptism taking place up in Alberta! I was rejoicing with Wescott, the Youth Pastor from Westwood Baptist of Olympia as his team was seeing the fruit of the ministry in Picture Butte and Raymond!

• As I spoke on Thursday I was able to clearly communicate not just the gospel, but the call on the Christians to share the good news with their lost friends. That evening we saw at least another 16 students trust in Jesus and another 150+ make a commitment to share Christ with an unsaved family member or friend! What a night!

Friday, July 1: The week at camp came to a close, but the good news was about to be preached to over 1000 people on Friday evening. I received an email about my Young Life students at camp from our team leader. He reported that over 100 students placed their trust in Christ at the end of the week at camp! WOW! In addition to the salvations from YL camp, I was reading about scores of students in each of our 11 locations we had teams. I think when it was all said and done, over 100 students trusted in Christ in our YMV communities!

• Friday evening brought some great “evangelism encouragement” as Greg Stier and I were able to grab dinner together. I love being with a like-minded person. The ministries of D2S and Youthmark have so much common DNA; I believe we’ll be able to cross-polinate a lot as both organization move forward.

One week. In just one week I was able to see THIS MUCH in the area of evangelism. I thank all of you who prayed. I thank all of you who participated by actively pursuing the lost and I can’t wait to see more and more respond to the call! One week is just one week, Mission51 has begun, the 51 weeks after camps, mission trips and retreats matter all the more! Back in my Jerusalem the harvest is JUST as plentiful!

Grace,
Brian

My hope is that I will be updating our staff blog at Youthmark a couple times a week. In addition to me, you may hear from Alon, Kirk or Buzz!

I just posted today, check it out here!

Grace,
Brian

I knew and had interacted with well over half the people before and was blessed to spend some quality time in conversation with many of these familiar faces. I also enjoyed the new relationships and hearing different perspectives and strategies from others in Youth Ministry.

YMEC was done differently this year; a change I couldn’t have been more pleased with. Through the use of “Open Space Technology” many conversations were birthed. Instead of inviting a speaker to “speak at” the participants, we the participants were invited to speak into a variety of subjects and then see what rose to the top in our conversations.

I was very excited to see personal evangelism surface as an area that we, national leaders, better be emphasizing. It was very interesting to me that in most conversations, including these at YMEC, most people are very quick to give a head-nod of agreement that we (church/parachurch) should be emphasizing evangelism, but when it comes down to it it isn’t much more than a verbal recognition. Well, I felt the tide began to turn at YMEC. The voices that were speaking seemed to give it a little momentum and I actually felt like the proverbial Titanic could get turned around before it strikes a rock and sinks.

My friend Greg Stier described the moment I believe this started to take place in a recent blog post of his (read that here). Friends of mine like Greg, Mark Moder, Bo Boshers, Chuck Klein and Mark Matlock seemed to keep the ball rolling for the last half hour of the conversation, so much so that I literally was getting a little teary eyed thinking that if (and please pray) we really want to get serious about seeing the church, parachurch and individual call to evangelism taken seriously then we had better seriously take His call to prayer seriously!

I am praying for these three things right now.

1. Praying that my personal prayer life would grow tenfold and that a major component of those prayers would be for other orgs and churches as well as the lost!

2. I’m praying for unity to continue among these denomination and organizational leaders (and am willing to play my part in keeping the conversation going).

3. Praying that we (adults, leaders, parents, pastors, elders, etc.) all would understand that if we want to see evangelize/make disciples then we had better model it ourselves.

I’m willing to risk and be obedient to the call. I hope you are too. Let’s change the course the Titanic is on!

Grace,
Brian

More sunny and low 90′s in San Diego!

Sun, Clouds, Snow and Winds (temperatures ranged from 23 to 73) in Colorado Springs!

This weekend I feel completely at home, because I am at home!

Lake Retreat in the Southeast Seattle area plays host to not just this weekend but next weekend as well for our Youthmark Mission Ventures “Together” retreat. The first three retreats/training times have been an ABSOLUTE blessing. I have heard more compliments and convictions this year than ever before. I cannot wait for our largest crowds over the next three weeks (May 20-21 in Portland).

The Northwest is my “home court” and my Jerusalem. It is the place that Mission51 takes place for us northwesterners. It is one of the most unchurched regions of the United States. Therefore I am the most excited for these three retreats! I want to see students equipped not just to go on a short-term mission trip this summer, but I want to see them equipped for the 51 weeks of life outside of the mission trip experience (Mission51)!

If you’re passionate about the NW then please pray for these three weekends. If you’re at a church with students not coming to these weekends, there is still room at LR next weekend and Portland May 20-21. We have approx 50 spots open at each before we get too full. Here is a link for these retreats.

Can’t wait to see these teens and leaders grow in confidence in loving on their Jerusalem. The Harvest is truly plentiful, looking forward to the increase in workers for our field!

By the way, classic NW weather for this one… clouds, showers and mid 50′s!

Grace,
Brian