123. Could Sharing Your Faith Be the Answer to Anxiety? Featuring Greg Stier, CEO of Dare 2 Share Ministries

In this powerful and heartfelt episode of Curious for Christ, Alexandra sits down with Greg Stier, Founder & CEO of Dare 2 Share Ministries, to explore a surprising and deeply encouraging truth:

Sharing your faith may actually be one of the most healing practices for anxiety—especially during this season.

Greg opens up about his own dramatic childhood story, growing up in a violent, broken family that was transformed by the Gospel through one man’s courage to share Jesus. That transformation shaped Greg’s mission: to equip teenagers, parents, and leaders to confidently share their faith and ignite Gospel movements across the nation.

Together, Alexandra and Greg discuss:

✨ What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• Greg’s incredible testimony and how God rescued his family from chaos and fear
• Why teenagers are uniquely positioned to spark revival
• How evangelism isn’t just another church program—it’s actually where our faith grows the deepest
• The powerful connection between sharing the Gospel and overcoming anxiety
• How Greg helped his own daughter battle crippling anxiety through dependence on the Holy Spirit
• New research from A Generation in Reach showing:
  • 3x overall youth ministry growth
  • 10x more Gospel conversations
  • 3x more students discipling other students
• Why parents are the #1 spiritual influencers—and how modeling faith-sharing transforms families
• The difference between “come and see” Christianity and the “go and rescue” mission of Jesus
• Practical steps to help teens and adults start sharing their faith with courage and love

💬 Key Takeaway

Evangelism isn’t about pressure—it’s about participation.
 When we step out in faith and depend on the Holy Spirit, our anxiety diminishes, our joy increases, and our relationship with Jesus grows deeper. Sharing the Gospel isn’t just for others; it’s also for our own healing.

📚 Resources Mentioned

Explore the tools Greg shared in today’s conversation:

• Dare 2 Share Ministries: free curriculum, training, and events
  👉 https://dare2share.org
  
  
• A Generation in Reach Research Report:
  👉 https://dontmissit.org
  
  
• Books by Greg Stier (highly recommended for families and adults):
  • Unlikely Fighter – Greg’s memoir of transformation
  • Radical Like Jesus – 21 challenges to deepen your walk with Christ

All links will be available in the show notes for easy access.

🎄 Christmas Blessing

As we approach Christmas, may the wonder of Jesus—born as a tiny, vulnerable baby—fill your heart with peace and renewed hope. He came close… so we could be free, healed, and deeply known.

📅 Next Episode

Alexandra returns on December 26, right after Christmas, with more faith-building conversations.

See you then. Bye for now!

Thanks for listening! Your support means the world. Join our Curious for Christ Facebook Group and become an Insider for weekly inspiration and encouragement on your faith journey.

Want to go deeper? Let's connect—set up a FREE Discovery Call today. See you next time!

Transcript

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Welcome back to Curious for Christ. Welcome if you're new. It's a space where I love to explore faith with honesty, wander and a heart that longs to grow closer to Jesus. In the middle of everyday life. Today, I'm honored to welcome someone whose life and work have impacted millions of teenagers and youth leaders around the world. Greg Steer. Greg is the founder of Dare to Share a ministry he launched over 30 years ago with a bold vision to equip young people to share their faith with confidence and clarity. His passion comes from his own powerful story growing up in a tough inner city family marked by violence. Fear and brokenness until a simple, courageous preacher shared the gospel that transformed Greg's entire family. Greg has spent decades training youth leaders and parents to do exactly what changed to his life, mobilize ordinary teenagers with extraordinary tools to reach their friends for Jesus. He recently released groundbreaking research called A Generation in Reach, which reveals something remarkable. Youth ministries that actively equip students to share their faith experience three times overall growth, 10 times more gospel conversations, and three times more students discipling other students. His message is timely, practical, and full of hope for this next generation. So today we are going to talk about Greg's personal faith journey. How dare to share quips, teens, and families. The connection between evangelism, anxiety, and spiritual growth, and what the latest research teaches us about building disciple, making movements. I pray this conversation encourages you, whether you are a parent, a leader, or simply someone wanting to grow deeper in your walk with Christ. Let's dive into my interview with Greg Steer. Welcome to Curious for Christ. Do you ever find yourself lying, awake at night wondering about God's plan for your life? Maybe you wake up with big dreams, but feel unsure where to start or what your next step should be. If you're curious about exploring your faith and finding purpose, then you've come to the right place. Hi, I'm Alexandra. I too felt lost and sure of the direction my life was taking. I yearned to understand my purpose and have someone guide me, but I kept telling myself I was too busy. The timing wasn't right, and my lack of clarity prevented me from being consistent until I found Christ. He brought peace into my life and revealed the way to find purpose by anchoring myself. In him. In this podcast, we'll journey together exploring the Bible to gain a deeper understanding of him and cultivate your own personal relationship with Christ. So open up your Bible, put in those earbuds and listen up because God is speaking to you. He's making everything new and you don't wanna miss it. Let's get started. Good morning Greg, and thank you so much for joining me. Such an honor, and I'm very excited about the conversation we're about to have. So glad to be on your podcast. It's gonna be exciting. Yes. Thank you. So as we usually do incurs for Christ, I love to always start with a personal question. So could you share a bit about your personal faith journey and what led you to dedicate your life to equipping teenagers with the gospel? That's a loaded question because I was not raised in a very churchy setting. My family were. Criminals in and outta jail. My uncles are cousins, are bodybuilders and street fighters. My ma was the only girl in the group and she was as tough as any of her five brothers and I was basically a one night stand. Never knew my biological father. Mom almost aborted me. Changed their mind last minute. Always felt guilty. So my family was, I was terrified. I was like young Sheldon in the hood, terrified, nerdy kid, like what is happening. And a hillbilly preacher from the backwards of Georgia, nicknamed Yankee, for whatever reason, planted a church in the suburbs, reached out to the city and reached my toughest uncle with the Gospel of Christ. And one by one, my family members radically transformed. By the simple grace of God that we're saved, not by our good deeds, not by going to church, but by faith in what Jesus did on the cross and that he was buried and rose again. My Uncle Jack, when he heard the gospel, Yankee said, does that make sense? He goes, hell yeah. That was his sinner's prayer. He trusted in Christ and. Everything changed. And then I ended up coming to Christ. I got involved with Yankees church. He had 800 teenagers in the youth ministry, only 300 adults in his church. And so he, because he trained us and he equipped us to make disciples. And so I was able to leave my motto to Christ when I was 15 years old and disciple her.'cause I was equipped. I was not an extraordinary teenager. I was ordinary. Teenagers from the city, but I was given extraordinary training. And so that dared to share his vision to, to mobilize teenagers, to reach teenagers came because I was one of those teenagers that were transformed. My family was transformed by a youth ministry on fire for God. So I believe in the power of the gospel and the potential of teenagers. That's amazing. That's ordinary. Ordinary teenager with extraordinary tools. And so let's talk about dare to Share because you founded that organization and it's, it focuses on empowering the next generation because your story you yourself have been impacted as a teenager. Could you share more about that mission specifically? How do you train leaders to advance the gospel and grow as lifelong disciples of Jesus? What are the tools. Here's the thing is the number one tool is the adult leader. So I went out we'll tied in with parents, moms and dads are the biggest influence on their kids. And so I tell parents, you are the, you're the primary youth leader, right? And and we have tools and resources, but what we tell youth leaders and parents is if you're not actively sharing your faith, how can you expect your kids to. So you are the curriculum, you are the tool. You are the methodology. You are the resource. So really encouraging moms and dads to step out of their comfort zone and ask that server at the restaurant, Hey, how can we be praying for you as a family? And let that lead to a gospel conversation. Or talk to your barista, talk to your neighbor and let your kids see it. Talking to people. Make it part of the way that you live and breathe. And we have tools and apps and resources. All of our digital curriculum is free. We do a day of global youth evangelism on dg e.org. And although at the time of this podcast, that day will pass, the training is still there, the training lasts and it's completely free. So encouraged. As parents get your kids together with some of their friends, watch these videos, and then go out to share Christ, and you lead the way. Because you are the curriculum, you are the methodology. You are the tool. What your kids see in you will be duplicated in them. So that's sometimes hard to hear because a lot of parents are like uhoh. I try to go to church, I try to, we give our money and that's all good, but we don't necessarily actively share the gospel as a family. And I'm like, why? Why would you not do that? It. If people say I don't know how, and I'm like, we have tools and training, but if John three 16 you got what you need to get started, right? And the courage to bring that up and say, Hey, have you thought about, where are you gonna go when you die? Or have you ever thought about the purposeful life? Or where do you go to church? Do you go to church anywhere? And just. Get in a conversation and go as far as the Holy Spirit allows you to go. Or that person may cut you d may say, stop, but that person may say, I need to talk about this right now. I was talking to my dentist this morning, my dental hygienist, wherever you go, it's in my mouth. She's doing all this work. And in between, I am in between her getting a different tool. I would be sharing the Gospel of Christ with her in a very conversational way. And we wanna get our teens to share their faith, and we need to share faith, right? And those were also Jesus' last words. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and teaching them everything I have taught you. And surely I will be with you wherever you go. So final words are always words you wanna Yeah. Yeah. I use that passage I talk about when my kids were little. They're grown now. But if I said, Hey, Jeremy and Kaylee, I'm going to the store. While I'm gone Make your bed. And I came back and he is Did you make your bed? No, but we wrote a song about making our beds or we developed a small group study about making our beds. We drew a picture about making our beds and but you didn't make your bed? No. We did the same thing in the church. Jesus said, I'm gonna go. Come back when I come back, make disciples. We wrote some songs, we did some small group curriculums. We painted some beautiful pictures for the church lobby. But did you make disciples? It's not about just going to church. No. Definitely. We are all humans, right? And actually for our audience. Many of whom deal with anxiety and trust issues. We know a lot of teenagers also are struggling with the same things. And so what tools or practices is there to share, offer to help students overcome these struggles, if any, if there's any advice you have to Yeah, we do. And it's, here's the tool that we offer evangelism, and let me make the connection. Because that doesn't sound like why would how? If I struggle with anxiety, why would put me in a highly anxious situation help me solve my anxiety? My daughter, when she was 12, Kaylee, she's 21 now. Loves Jesus, serve Jesus. At 12 years old, she struggled with debilitating anxiety, debilitating. And so we went through all the processes, we, got her biblical counseling, had her memorized verses, we posted'em everywhere. She's a songwriter. So I said, start writing songs like David. He struggled with some sort of anxiety too. If you can read it in the Psalms, you know how long, oh Lord. He's always like, why did the heath and prosper? And he ends with, yeah, I will dance and sing. Okay, you know a broad range of emotions. I said Put, put that into music and then I'm gonna take you in a group of your friends out every month to share the gospel in the hood, in the inner city streets of Denver. And we're gonna put you in a position where you're forced to depend on the Holy Spirit. And she was mortified and terrified. But we went and we went to last Saturday of every month. And I remember when she was a junior in high school, she had a group of her friends and she went up to a homeless guy. She didn't see me, but I saw her and she said, sir, can we pray for you? And he started screaming at her. Get away. Get away. God doesn't want anything to do with me. And I'm getting in Dad tackle position. I'm like, I'm putting my Bible down here.'cause if he lunges at my daughter, I'll confess it after I take him out. It's the old you coming back? Yeah. Yeah. And he goes leave. And my sweet, quiet, anxious daughter said, no. We're not leaving until you turn around and hear how much Jesus loves you. And she began to weep for this man, and so did her friends. And he turned around and she shared the gospel. We didn't trust Christ, but I was like, what has happened to my daughter? And you know what happened to her? She obeyed the command of Jesus and she learned how to depend on the Holy Spirit. And that dependence on the Holy Spirit doesn't just help her with evangelism. It helps her with her anxiety every day. Yeah. So I think sharing the gospel is a great way. It also does something, it takes your eyes off yourself.'cause sometimes we start spiraling'cause we're thinking about our lives and our kids and our family and our bills and our blah, blah, blah, blah. All of a sudden you look up and you say, oh, there's people that don't know Christ. People have a lot worse than I because they have nowhere to turn and you're, I don't know them. The therapeutic reasons for this. Yeah. But I'm sure there is some therapeutic reason that getting your eyes on Christ and his cause heals you. It's what I used to call when I was a pastor and we mobilized our adults for sharing the gospel and we had a lot of dysfunctional adults healing as you take others to the hospital. So I think if you really want to grow, you gotta go. I think it doesn't just help teenagers. I think it helps adults. So it's faith in action. Yeah. Not just faith alone. And I believe but not do, because even Satan believes, even the demons believe. Yeah. That it's really doing. We believe it. We believe and receive it as a free gift of salvation, right? But then once we receive that free gift, we're so grateful. That we go out and make disciples. And make disciples not out of guilt, or we're not trying to prove our salvation or keep our salvation, or earn our salvation. We're just so grateful because of our salvation that we do. Exactly. Gladly. Yeah and it's like the difference between Saul and David. Saul also suffered with depression, but he did not inquire of the Lord. He would do things with his own way while David would bring everything to God. And that's a really good point. I really like that point. Yeah, that's true. I think you're exactly right. David. David Russell, it's so funny just to talk about anxiety. My daughter. When she was little, I'd come home and for my trip, I'm a traveling evangelist. She's dad, let's wrestle. And so we'd wrestle, she's four or five years old and through the years. And then she got 12 and I came home and she's dad, let's wrestle. I'm like, okay. It's weird. She's 12. I told my wife, she goes, Greg, that's her way of being close to you. Oh, so when she was struggling with anxiety, I told her that illustration. I said, remember when you used to always wrestle and mom, I said, mom said that was your way of being close to me. She goes, yeah. She goes, that's true. And I go, maybe anxiety is God's way of being close to you because you wrestle with God like Jacob, and close to'em. It's painful, but it's, you're close. You may walk with a limp after that, but you're close. Yeah, that's true. Maybe anxiety can be our friend if it points us to Christ. That's true. Because it's way better to be anxious and dependent on the Lord than to be and to be dependent on yourself and miss out. True. Yeah. There's no right or wrong when we bring it all together, there's always a purpose why God allows it. For sure. Yep. Good. Good point. Let's dive in now into some of the new research. What is the most surprising or game changing discovery from, let me repeat that and I don't know if you heard the, but so what's the most surprising or game changing discovery from the age generation in reach re research that you think every leader needs to know? Yeah, so we we just did a research project and people can find it on, don't miss it.org by the way. It's free digital download. Don't miss it.org. And basically, I think I would say the most surprising is the difference between a youth group that is actively sharing their faith and one that is typical. One is actively sharing their faith. There's three times overall growth. There's 10 times more gospel conversations per student. There's three times more teenagers discipling other teenagers. There's a 50% more likelihood of those teenagers getting plugged into the youth group, and there's a 40% more likelihood of their unreached friends coming to Christ than if an adult tried to reach them. But again, I think the biggest insight we got is the number one impact on whether or not a teen shared their faith is whether or not they had adult leaders in their lives that were actively sharing the gospel. To model. That's our first. You get a model like Jesus. No student above their teacher. When they're fully trained, they'll be like their teacher. So I tell youth leaders and parents, if your kids aren't sharing their faith, don't use a bullhorn. Look in the mirror. We gotta do it. We gotta lead the way. Youth leaders of youth, parents or youth leaders that should be leading youth and youth leaders are youth leaders. Yeah. Yeah. So the lack of reaching out, is that what you think? So many ministries plateau. How does you, how does your approach to disciple making help ignite real sustainable growth and what is the youth ministry's missing piece that you talk about? Yeah, so the missing piece, I believe is summed up in Jesus' words in Matthew four 19. Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. We stop it, come follow me. But if we don't get to become fishers of men, if we don't become actively evangel evangelizing, we're, are we really following him? If,'cause he is this is the inevitable result of following me, you're gonna actively share the gospel with others, become fishes of men. Yeah. Greater mission instead of, yeah. Yeah. And if you're not, if you're not fishing, then you're not following. And that's convicting. It's and I think it, it really, there's a lot of people in churches, what they'll do is they'll say the closest they get to it is they'll invite some people out to church. Or hopefully the pastor gives a gospel. And that's a good step. I don't wanna denigrate that, that's good. But come and see is not gonna get the job done. We have to add to come and see, go and rescue. Yeah. So all of us are missionaries. So this helped me because for eight years I was a roofer, not a preacher. And I began to realize, look, I'm not just a roofer. I'm called to reach the guys roofing with, and I would have gospel conversations all the time and those that trust the Christ that would disciple'em. And we do it 10, 12 hours a day on the roof. I was like, okay, I'm a missionary to fellow roofers. And other construction workers that were working on the project. I was a Domino's delivery driver. I became a missionary at Domino's. I worked at UPSI loading trucks. I became the UPS evangelist. And I didn't just go out and start yelling and preach. I'm just talking about normal conversations and turning it toward Jesus. And people say that's awkward. Guess what? Picking up your cross dying yourself is awkward. We have a saying at dare to share. Awkward is awesome. It's, and teenagers know awkward, right? Yeah, awkward. They're teenagers are living in an awkward world anyway. We might as well go all in, goes be awesome at it. But we try to, the training we do we have an app called Life in Six Words. It's free, it's a simple way to share the gospel. I do a thi a training. I have a five minute crash course in evangelism. If you just look on YouTube, Greg Steer five minute crash course in evangelism. It's, I try to take the awkward as much as possible away by giving you tools and resources to naturally bring the gospel up. But let's face it, at the end of the day, as soon as you drop the J bomb, you mentioned Jesus, it's going to some people, it gets weird. That's fine. Nigeria, there's thousands of people dying for their faith. As a matter of fact, we're doing this day of global youth evangelism. We have 88 countries. Number one country is Nigeria. Wow. And guess what part of the requirement is you gotta go out and share the gospel. So we'll have thousands of teenagers, Nigerian teenagers, taking their lives into their hands by sharing the gospel. But in America, oftentimes we don't risk our lives. It's sometimes welcome. Yeah. We won't even risk our social equity. Yeah, but we should, we need to, and my encouragement is I want to be like Planet Fitness. No judgment zone. Like you watching this podcast and you feel guilty, stop. Confess it and let's start today. Right now, by God's grace, we're moving on. We're gonna, we're gonna start dropping gospel breadcrumbs everywhere we go. So don't feel guilty. Satan will use that to spiral you even more. Say, no, I'm forgiven. One John one, nine. We confess our sin. He's faithful and just will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's not even salvific. That's. That's just a restoration of a relationship with your father. We're ultimately, if we've placed our faith in Christ, he's no longer our judge. He's our dad. So it's not a judge forgiveness to a it's a dad restoration with his son or daughter. He calls us friends. Yeah. Friends. Confess it and we're back. That's true. That's great. I love that. And definitely modeling. The, our faith to our children is the way to go being hospitable.'cause we go to church once a week, but what do we do the rest of the week? An hour a week is not gonna be what makes us disciples for sure. Yeah. Thank you so much. We are nearing the end already of our conversation. So what final words of encouragement would you like to give our listeners today and leave us with? Yeah, now there is a resource I would like to share with you that could help. It's actually a book I wrote for adults. I've written 23 books. Most of them for teenagers and youth leaders. The last two books I wrote for Adult General Population One is my memoir. It's called Unlikely Fighter, and it's 22 chapters. The first 21 happened before I turned 16. It's just an encouraging book about the power of the gospel. Anxiety I struggled with as a kid and how the gospel helped me overcome all that. Then the next book is the one I was gonna talk about, radical like Jesus and Radical like Jesus is 21 chapters, 21 snapshots of the life of Jesus from the time he's 12 to the time he rises from the dead. And every chapter comes with the challenge that you take before you read the next chapter. So it's designed to get us stronger on every level, including areas we struggle with, anxiety, different things like that. But it will also equip you to share your faith. So if I were a parent, I would say, you know what? We're gonna do this as a family. We're gonna read this book as a family. It's also an audible. So you could play a chapter and then, I'll read it to you myself on Audible and and then take the challenge as a family and strengthen these areas. It'll help you. Yeah, let's keep growing. And I love that it's very practical as well. And I was going, so I was going to share to ask where can people hear more about you, find you, you mentioned so many different resources. Yeah. Do you have a website? Tell us and I'll put them. Yeah, sure. I'm on Instagram at Greg Steer, STIE. And Facebook and all the Twitter and all this stuff X whatever they call it. Yeah, it's just Greg Steer, STIR. And then I have a blog with some podcasts and blogs. I come up with a new blog every week. Greg steer.org. Which you can, there's a connection to our ministry dare to share.org, which is there as well. And lots of free tools. If youth leaders, free curriculum, free tools, free training. We give as much as we can away for free. Even the books, I don't take a dime. It all goes to mobilize teens for the gospel. Fantastic. So we thank you so much. We gotta reach this generation of teenagers. Let's do it. I love it. And I, myself have an 11-year-old, 15-year-old curious for Christ. We have devotionals weekly. We, they have lots of events with teens and adults and yeah. So let's keep growing and working. Thank you so much. This is very dear to my heart, and I wish you the best with your with your work and that God blesses you. Thank you, Alexandra. God bless you. Thank you. If there is one message to hold onto from today's conversation, it's this. Teenagers don't need to be extraordinary to change the world. They simply need ordinary adults. Who model A lived out faith and invite them to follow Jesus into his mission. Faith grows when it is shared. Anxiety calms when it leans on the Holy Spirit and disciples multiply when families and leaders courageously model what it looks like to pray, care and share. Start small but start and never stop because God loves to use the willing. Thank you so much for joining me today on Curious for Christ. What a gift to hear, how God is working through this generation, and how he invites every one of us to step into a faith that is lived, that is shared and it's alive. One of my favorite reminders from this conversation actually is that evangelism is isn't just one more church program. It's actually where our faith grows the deepest. When we depend on the Holy Spirit, when we care for others, when we open our mouths and share the hope of Jesus something in us changes too. We grow, we heal, we mature. God forms us as we participate in his mission. For those of you listening, if you want to explore the tools Greg mentioned you can visit Dare to share.org. For free curriculum, free training and youth evangelism resources, I will put those in the show notes. There's also don't miss it.org to download the A Generation in Reach research report and see the data for yourself. Greg's books, including unlikely fighter and radical like Jesus, for encouragement in your own faith walk and for discipling your family. Again, I put all these links in the show notes so they're easy for you to access. And as we enter this beautiful Christmas season, I want to wish you and your family a very merry Christmas. May the wonder of Jesus, the savior of the world who came as a tiny vulnerable baby. That is exactly how God works he is the greatest gift the world has ever received. I pray that this wonder fills your heart with peace and hope and the assurance that God is truly Emmanuel, he is God with us. Thank you for being here, for listening and for growing with me this year. I will see you next time on December 26th, right after Christmas. Bye for now. Hi, I hope you enjoy today's episode. If so, would you like to take 30 seconds and share it with a friend who may also struggle with knowing God and his purpose for their life? Also, leave a review on Apple. Podcast and let me know what topics you'd like to hear about in the future. Your voice matters. I'll meet you back next Friday for another episode.