Gospelize your youth ministry

Liberty Theological Seminary

Greg Stier’s Gospelize Your Youth Ministry Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Book titles are always italicized.

Book Critique

Dr. Sirles

YOUT 510

Submitted By

Arnita Norman

May 26, 2020

Author Information
Greg Stier, alongside being a former pastor and a church planter, is the CEO and founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries (D2S). D2S is Stier’s ministry aimed to equip the youth to relationally share their faith and help them grow with the hope of Jesus. In the last twenty years, Stier has trained more than a million teenagers. He has authored numerous curriculum and around sixteen books. Stier has been married for 24 years and has two children. Stier believes that stopping school shootings is not a matter of political intervention, but spiritual transformation. He has a strong belief in how the message of God can transform someone because he witnessed that firsthand when violent family members were transformed one after the other by the power of the gospel. This inspired him to reach teens and impact their lives by motivating and equipping them to reach out to those who are not saved with the Gospel of hope more than ever. In an interview with Stetzer on Christianity Today, Stier explained that the urgency to help teens know about God was informed by the idea that teenagers are more likely to keep their faith for a long time if they share their faith over the short term[footnoteRef:1]. Stier's goal is to push for D2S to realize a strong student awakening. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): twenty-four – Spell out numbers less than three digits unless used as a statistic, age or in a quote. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): No capitalized Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Why is part of this name highlighted in green? Pay attention to details like this. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): This reference number must be after the punctuation. (term.1) Also, anytime you reference a website, you must give the date you accessed the site and every footnote must end with period. [1: Stetzer, Ed. One-on-One with Greg Stier on Dare 2 Share LIVE, Christianity Today, 2019. https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/september/one-on-one-with-greg-Stier-on-dare-2-share-live.html]

Content Summary
Stier’s book, Gospelize Your Youth Ministry, is a combination of a life lived while entirely helping the youth leaders in mobilizing teens to care for those who have no knowledge about Christ. Stier’s ideas throughout the book are framed on the timeless values as revealed in Acts. Stier’s book manifests that he breathes, lives, and radiates the gospel of Christ. The book targets youth leaders and young pastors while laying out a solid approach at the core of youth ministry. The book also perfectly fits to be used in an entire church setting. The book offers various examples especially from the book of Acts and today’s youth ministries to show how incredible advancing the gospel ministry can be. The book’s main ideas are divided into seven values which are based on the scriptural message. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Do not make evaluative statements in this section. Just summarize Stier’s facts. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Evaluative

One of the main ideas of Stier’s book is related to intercessory prayer. The author argues that intercessory prayer fuels the gospel because the prayers are offered on behalf of the spiritual, relational, and/or physical needs of others[footnoteRef:2]. With intercessory prayers, Stier claims that we ask God to save the souls of the lost and inspiring the hearts of believers to grow in spiritual maturity and evangelistic fervor. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Do not use the slash – just pick the appropriate word (and). Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): others.2 Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): This is the wrong format for this footnote. See the School of Divinity Writing Guide. And every footnote [2: Stier, Greg. Gospelize Your Youth Ministry: A Spicy" New" Philosophy of Ministry (That's 2,000 Years Old). BookBaby, 2015.]

Another key idea is discussed in the book is relational evangelism; the verbal communication of the gospel message in the context of a relationship. Stier also described the idea of having a bold vision as it helps in focusing on evangelizing. According to Stier, people always have visions before a thing is made real and God gives them the vision[footnoteRef:3]. God gives his people vision and takes them down to the valley to pound them into the shape of the vision. In the valley many tend to faint and give way. Stier argues that having a vision can be real if people are patient and avoid losing heart in the process. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Should be a colon Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Where is this idea in the book? Your footnote does not give your reader this information. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Do not use colloquialisms in academic writing. [3: Stier, 2015.]

Biblical outcomes to measure is another critical idea discussed in the book. This is in relation to training teens on youth ministry and assessing the outcomes in the form of the knowledge transferred and the behavior changed. Outcomes are the central idea about God and they reflect the results of an individual’s labor; the fruit that youth leaders are seeking to produce as a result of their ministry efforts. This value connects with another idea that focused on ongoing programs that reflect the importance of evangelism and the gospel of Christ. According to Stier, the Apostles programmed their priorities of intercessory prayer, discipleship, and evangelism[footnoteRef:4]. He suggests that for one who wants to make a prayer, evangelism, and discipleship the highest priority in ministry, he or she should focus on ongoing programs and create time for them. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Should be a comma Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Not capitalized [4: Ibid, 205. ]

Stier believes that a disciple multiplication strategy and leaders who fully embrace and model the gospel and evangelism are among the values that drove the advancement of the gospel in the gospel of Acts[footnoteRef:5]. As a leader, teenagers tend to aspire to the level of relational evangelism and intercessory prayer that they see modeled in their leader. Just as God’s spirit enabled leaders in the early church as depicted in the book of Acts, youth leaders should live life and preach the truth a Christ has modeled them and act in accordance with the commands of God. Comment by Sirles, Wesley A (School of Divinity Instruction): Acts is not a gospel. That is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. [5: Ibid, 62.]