…Greg Stier at Dare2Share Ministries!

Check out Greg’s year-end tremendous appeal, Please DON’T Give to Our “Emergency Need.”

The whole post is great, so make sure to click through. I especially like this part:

Now, if anyone had an emergency need it was the Apostle Paul. Waiting to appeal to the Emperor of Insanity (aka “Nero”) Paul is under house arrest. He is chained to another soldier as he pens his fundraising appeal letter to the Philippian believers. Can you imagine his letter reading this way:

“Dear Brothers and sisters in Christ, I have an urgent need. As I write this letter to you I am imprisoned. The conditions are not good and I need your immediate help. If I am not able to raise enough money for bail in the next thirty days I could die in prison or, worse yet, be executed by Nero. You hold the key to my freedom. Your generous gift will rescue me from prison and allow me to preach the gospel. Without it the gospel is imprisoned as well. Without it I could die and the spread of the gospel could come to a standstill. Please give as much as you can right away…before it’s too late.”

Instead he writes,

“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” Philippians 1:12-14

Even though Paul is in a true emergency situation he never calls it that. Why? Because he knows that God is large and in charge and is using it in powerful ways to spread the gospel in ways that he could have never anticipated.

Great work, Greg! You have truly illustrated the difference between traditional transactional fundraising and biblical discipleship through Transformational Giving.

As you close the year, dear reader, may you be able to say with Greg:

I can say with confidence that the economic downturn that America has suffered over the last few years“…has actually served to advance the gospel” through Dare 2 Share as well. Although we are smaller in budget and staff than we were a few years ago God has clarified our focus, deepened our dependencey on him and opened up new opportunities to spread the gospel in ways we never could have dreamed of. To be honest, I thank God for the challenging times he has put us through. It has softened our hearts and toughend our skin.

May God grant us all soft hearts and tough skins in 2011!