EPILOGUE
IT’S BEEN ALMOST EIGHTEEN YEARS since Ma passed away in that hospice. I miss her so much.
Many things happened before and since her passing that did not make it onto the pages of this book. Since all but one of the chapters were written about events that took place before I turned sixteen, most of the other forty years of my life go relatively untold. Other than my brief synopsis of a few key stories in the final chapter, this book covers less than a third of my life span.
I could write a sequel to this memoir, and it would contain some crazy stories too. They would not be nearly as violent but would be every bit as interesting.
In that book I could unpack the story of an unlikely romance between a trailer court guy and an uptown girl and how God used her, and continues to use her, to chisel off my many rough edges. Without Debbie, I don’t believe I’d be writing these words to you today. As my partner in life and marriage, she has given me equal doses of confidence (“You can do this through Christ”) and humility (“Don’t get too impressed with yourself”) that are necessary to do effective ministry over the long haul.
One full chapter of the probably-never-gonna-be-written sequel could be about my wife and me not being able to have children for ten years due to infertility issues. And then one day, a TV preacher (yes, one of those guys) prayed over me in a public meeting in a very uncomfortable and far-too-specific way. His prayer contained words like sperm and eggs and others that should never be spoken in a prayer meeting. He prayed them so loudly that everyone in the room could hear them clearly. My face flushed and my ears turned red from the embarrassment. But three weeks later, my wife got pregnant.
It was enough to make my noncharismatic, fundamentalist, King-James-version-only forefathers cringe.
Now my wife and I have two kids —Jeremy (age twenty) and Kailey (age seventeen —I call her “the second blessing”). Both of them love Jesus and are unashamed of the gospel. Both of them enjoy it when I recount the wild stories of my crazy upbringing and how Jesus changed everything.
One chapter could be completely devoted to the dangers of legalism. I could recount how many of the nationally known fundamentalist leaders mentioned in this book have tragically fallen in the decades that have passed since my teen years. The legalism and authoritarianism that often flow out of fundamentalism are a lethal mix that, according to Colossians 2:23, “lack[s] any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
I thank the Lord that Yankee has stayed faithful to his wonderful wife, Betty, over his six decades of marriage. I thank God that, to this day, we enjoy a strong friendship that has stood the test of time.
One chapter could be called “Friends.” In it, I’d dive deeper into my lifelong friendship with Rick, with whom I coplanted and copastored Grace Church. It was the positive tension between us that created a church like no other (that I know of anyway).
I’d also tell you about my friend Art, with whom I used to regularly go sharing the gospel at local malls and parks throughout our middle school and high school years. To this day we encourage each other to faithfully and boldly share the gospel.
Then there’s Zane Black. He started speaking at Dare 2 Share events over fifteen years ago. He’s been my preaching partner-in-crime to reach and mobilize the next generation for Jesus and is far more relational in his approach to teens and evangelism. God has used our friendship and our unique perspectives to help make the way we train teenagers to share the gospel equal parts relational and relentless.
God has sustained me over the years through great friends like Rick, Scott, Art, Zane, Dave, Corey, Doug, Brian, Jim, Donnie, Derwin, and others. I’m firmly convinced that good, godly friends who love you deeply and speak to you honestly are a necessity for long-lasting ministry impact.
I would write about Jonathan Smith, my theology professor at Colorado Christian University and the man who helped me start Dare 2 Share thirty years ago. He showed me how to not only be a good student of the Word but also live it out with integrity, humility, and consistency.
An entire segment of the book could unpack the unique working relationship I have with my sister-in-Christ and coworker in the cause Debbie Bresina (whose name, for some reason, I pronounce as one word —“debbresina”). Over the last two and a half decades, God has used her to take Dare 2 Share from a small local ministry to a global force that is equipping millions of teenagers and youth leaders to advance the gospel worldwide.
While we were on a ministry trip in Israel with over 180 other ministry leaders, God called us to take Dare 2 Share global. Our vision statement expanded to “every teen everywhere hearing the gospel from a friend.” We won’t stop until all one billion teenagers on the planet have had every last chance to hear, understand, and respond to the good news of Jesus.
Just as Yankee mobilized us, a group of teenagers in Arvada, Colorado, forty-plus years ago, Dare 2 Share is collaborating with youth leaders to mobilize the current generation of teens. We do that by providing gospel-advancing resources (like the Life in 6 Words faith-sharing app and other evangelism-training curriculum) as well as catalytic events (like Lead THE Cause, a weeklong evangelism and leadership camp for teenagers, and Dare 2 Share LIVE, a teen outreach day where teenagers of an entire nation are mobilized for the gospel).
I encourage you to go to dare2share.org to find out more about these amazing resources and events and how you can mobilize Christian teenagers you know for the cause of Christ!
A sequel to my unique memoir would be great. But the theme of both books would be the same: the gospel changes everything, and Jesus loves to use “unlikely fighters” to spread his Good News.
Have you been transformed by it yet? If not, just as I told my ma, I remind you of what Scripture says: “Today is the day of salvation.”
Trust in Jesus right now. He loves you and died in your place for all your sins. Now, the risen Christ is offering you the free gift of eternal life through faith in him.
You don’t have to say “Hell, yeah!” (Please don’t!) But do say yes to this free gift of eternal life!
And if you already know Jesus, then I invite you to join in the fight to reach unreached souls with this life-transforming message. Your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and classmates need the hope that only Jesus can give them.
You may not feel qualified to reach them with the gospel and to fight for their souls, and that’s perfect. Because God loves to use the unlikely to accomplish the impossible.
He’s been doing that for thousands of years:
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things —and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.