Are you concerned about your kids, your grandkids?
Has the culture of today swallowed up the faith
of so many? Is there hope? Well, there is. Stay
with me. That's today on Living on the Edge.
Welcome to this edition of Living on the Edge
with Chip Ingram. We are an international discipleship
ministry devoted to helping Christians worldwide
live out their faith for the glory of God and
the benefit of all people. I'm Dave Drewy. And
as you heard Chip tease, today we're focusing
on an issue at the front of many believers' minds
right now, the next generation. Over the next
two programs, Chip sits down with his friend
Aaron Pierce to talk about this pressing subject.
Aaron leads a ministry called Steiger, an international
missions organization that intentionally shares
the gospel with young people all over the globe.
The two will discuss the impact of Aaron's book,
Not Beyond Reach. and highlight the powerful
stories of lives being transformed. But today,
Aaron shares his heart for the global youth and
how Steiger began. So with that, here's Jim.
Well, thanks so much, Dave. My heart beats for
and cares so deeply for the next generation.
It is so challenging to be a young person, to
know and walk with Jesus Christ, and to really
make a difference, to be a genuine follower.
As many of you know, I have 12 grandkids, one
that's 20 all the way down to four years old.
And what we all know is that we have a generation,
almost 70%, that in recent years has walked away
from the faith. The researchers, whether it's
Pew or Barna or others, have told us that inside
Bible -believing homes, evangelical churches,
about 68 % of those kids, after high school,
five years down the road, are disengaging or
leaving the faith. Something fundamentally is
wrong. On top of that, we have a global youth
culture with the onset of social media and a
set of values and all the things that are happening
that we all see and feel and are bombarded by.
Where's the hope? Where's the Lord? And I want
you to know that I have a good friend. His name
is Aaron Pierce. He leads along with a great
team, Steiger Ministry. We've known each other
directly or indirectly for almost 20 years. And
the difference between he and I is that he's
a young man. I think he's about 40 now. And I'm
an older man. And God has something that he put
on both of our hearts around hope for the next
generation. And I've watched this ministry. connect
with the global youth and see people that many
of us would think there's no hope. They're so
far from God. There is absolutely no way. And
I've watched this ministry grow and multiply
into about 100 cities around the world. And what
I've watched is God's hand on a young man and
a ministry that really understands the paradigm,
the philosophy, the way, if you will, to reach
irreligious people, the global youth that are
far, far from God. And so, Aaron, welcome to
the program. Thank you, Chip. It's so exciting,
such an honor to do this with you, and I'm just
excited to see what God is going to do with all
of this. Well, I just want to jump right out
of the gate and ask you, why are you so passionate
about today's global youth? And what is it that
is this drive in your heart, this hope that you
have for what's happening all around the world?
Millions, literally millions and millions of
young people all over the world and also those
right here in our own country that are being...
destroyed by the lies of the world. You know,
we have this global youth culture, young people
all over the planet that are influenced by similar
voices. They're listening to the same music,
following the same social media influencers,
playing the same video games. And all of this
is not just entertaining, it's shaping a worldview.
And 2 Corinthians 4 says the God of this age
has blinded the minds of unbelievers. And the
God of this age is something called secular humanism.
And this idea that God has been replaced, man
is at the center, and there's no outside authority
to which I have to submit myself. Nobody can
tell me what to do. It's the era of my truth
and all identity and purpose and morality. These
things are so fundamental to life. These are
now self -constructed. They're not things that
I discover in God. They're things that I define.
And so it's this era where we think we're finding
liberation and freedom, but the truth the consequences
are actually devastating. So we have this global
youth culture that is confused and sexually broken
and anxious and depressed and lonely. Loneliness
being an epidemic globally today. And so we have
these things and it makes sense when you consider
the worldview because if you're the source of
truth, you're going to end up confused. And if
there are no rules, then you're going to end
up broken. If there's no anchor in the storm,
then you're going to end up anxious and depressed.
And if it's all about you, you're going to end
up lonely. And so this is the cry of a generation,
this culture and generation that is overwhelmed
with loneliness, anxiety, and depression. And
here's what breaks my heart. Here's what fuels
my motivation is they are not looking to the
church. for answers, even though we have the
ultimate answers to these things, right? Jesus
brings truth to the confused. He brings healing
to the sexually broken. He brings the ultimate
relationship with the creator, and he brings
peace that transcends understanding. We have
the answers to the cry of a generation. And Aaron,
I think to be fair, many of the youth would say,
I don't see that. I didn't see that growing up
in church. You know, I went to a Christian school
or my parents dropped me off at church or I went
to a youth group and it didn't seem real. It
wasn't authentic. I feel like, you know, I went
away to school or, you know, I got out on my
own and a lot of things that people said were
terrible and wrong. And, you know, I met people
that were supposed to be the bad people and they
were actually. really nice and very concerned.
And so something's deeply broken, not just in
this generation, but I think we at the church
have to recognize, and we as parents and grandparents
have kind of taken this us and them. What's wrong
with them? They went away to school and now they
think this or believe this or vote this way or
that way. And we've got this polarization. And
I think one of the reasons I want people to hear
the message that you have that's proven. I mean,
it's you all have done this with the people that
are the farthest from God. And yet when they
saw and heard and connected to the love of Christ
in the way that you all have presented it, it's
made all the difference in the world. So tell
me a little bit about. Your story and your journey,
I find when people listen to messages, Aaron,
it's in a context. And I trust you. I know you.
I've watched your life. I've been connected.
I want you to share a little bit about what were
the influences. Where did you grow up? How did
you grow up? created this sense of real hope
and has caused you and your team to go all around
the world and see God work in places that I think
most people right now think it's a lost cause.
Yeah. So I was actually born and raised in Amsterdam.
in the Netherlands. And we lived, my family lived
in a small little apartment in the center of
the city near the infamous Red Light District.
And my parents were there, they're American missionaries
serving in Amsterdam, and they had a heart to
reach young people of Amsterdam that would not
walk into a church. And when you think about
a city like Amsterdam, I mean, that pretty much
describes all young people, right? They see these
big, beautiful cathedrals, and they're essentially
museums. dead and empty on Sunday. And so that
becomes the view of God, right? It's an irrelevant
relic of the past. And so that was a lot of the
perspective that they were dealing with in Amsterdam.
And so what my dad did is he would take a small
group of people and they would go to the nightclubs
and the bars and they would, late at night, and
they would befriend people and they would share
Jesus with them. And then they would write the
names of everyone that they met and they would
go out into the forest. late at night. And they
would pray over these people and say, God, would
you give us a breakthrough in this city? And
that was the foundation where God really broke
their heart for the people. And then in prayer,
God gave them a strategy, a way to reach these
people. And so my dad, who's the founder of our
organization, Steiger, he felt led by the Lord
to start a musical band. This was in the 80s
in Amsterdam. And this was the height of the
punk rock movement. That was the social movement
of the time. It was with shaping culture. And
so my dad felt led to start a band as a way to
use the stage to communicate the message of the
cross in secular places. And it was based on
the biblical idea that Paul said he preached
Christ and him crucified so that people would
not be convinced by human wisdom, but by God's
power. power and that the message of the cross
is where God's power is. And when you lift it
up in relevant ways in secular places, God moves.
And so they did this. And right from the beginning,
God's favor was on this band. And they started
to get opportunities to play in these bars and
clubs where they were already known because they'd
been there relationally. And they understood
the cry of the heart of the people there. And
so they could communicate the gospel clearly
in that context. And suddenly they saw many people.
coming to Jesus in that environment. It was almost
overwhelming. And so what they did is they had
a Bible study on a big red boat behind the central
train station in Amsterdam. And the address of
this boat was... Pier 14, and the Dutch word
for pier is steiger. And it became this ministry
that was reaching and discipling young people
of Amsterdam that would not walk into a church.
And that was the beginning. And that was the
environment that I got to grow up in, which was
an incredible environment because I saw that
God was real and that he had the power to transform
lives. A quick story, my dad, the band started
to get opportunities to go outside of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam. So they went to communist Poland and
the Soviet Union and eventually all over the
world. And they began to share the message in
these secular places and people were reached
and Christians were inspired and it sparked a
movement called Steiger. And I got to experience
that. My dad would take me and my brother, my
brother Ben, who's also a part of the mission,
and he would take us as young kids on tour with
him. And we'd be in some nightclub in Eastern
Europe somewhere. And at some point he would
bring us on stage and he would say to the crowd,
he would say, these are my sons. I love them.
There's nothing I wouldn't do for them. Everything
that I have is theirs. And if someone tried to
hurt them, I would protect them with my life.
And then he would say, and that is how God feels
about you. And he would equate a father's love
for his children with God's love for them and
then share the gospel. And in that context, I
saw tough people with tears in their eyes praying
to receive Jesus. And when you experience something
like that as a kid, I mean, it ruins you in the
best possible way because you see that. that
this is not just religious activity, but that
God is real and he can transform lives. So that
was like foundational to my call. And it was
also the birth of this global missions organization
called Steiger that's all about mobilizing followers
of Jesus to reach young people who would not
walk into a church. Well, let me kind of talk
back a few things that you shared because the
roots started with not here's a new method. Here's
what we're going to do. Here's a pamphlet to
share with someone. It started out of brokenness.
It reminds me of Nehemiah, where when it seems
so impossible, he wept and he fasted and he prayed
and he recognized that in and of himself. There
is absolutely no way. The second, what I heard
was long before there was a band or people coming
to Jesus, it was friendship. It was real relationships
and it took effort and it didn't sound like it
was an easy time of the day. Like bars don't
get going till 10, 11, midnight, one in the morning.
And it wasn't just a relationship where, oh,
I met you and now I'm going to, hey. Would you
like to come to Jesus? This is what he did. There's
this sense of genuine, deep, authentic care.
And then fast forward with me. You have teams
in about 100 cities all across the globe. Help
me understand a little bit about what it looks
like for Steiger today. Yeah. And actually, we're
already active in about 150 cities around the
world. And it's just a move of God. And I define
move of God as something we can't take credit
for. He's doing it. And so fundamentally, our
heart is to train the church. because we love
the church and we want to see the church reach
this culture that's all around them. And then
we want to mobilize the next generation of Christian
leaders to fuel an evangelism and discipleship
movement that is youth and young adult led. And
then out of that to establish long -term missionary
teams that are specialists at reaching the global
youth culture of their city. And so what these
city teams and these Catholic ministries that
we develop do is I mean, you described it fundamentally.
First, it starts by desperately seeking God,
where he breaks our heart for the lost and he
fuels it with his power. We can't do it in our
own strength, but then we need to go where people
are. The big paradigm shift in reaching a secular
culture and reaching this generation is we've
got to adopt a missionary mindset. And that means...
going where they are and developing relationships
with people who are far from God, who don't see
the world like we do, and really understanding
them so that we can communicate boldly, but also
relevantly, the gospel message in a language
that they can understand. And then recognizing
that those that we encounter, those that meet
Jesus, pathway from that place to when they walk
into a church is longer than it used to be. And
so we create models of discipleship relationships
that walk people into the church. So fundamentally
what we're doing, and we love to use creative
gifts to go to secular places, share the gospel
through music and art, but other creative ways
as well. And it's all about how can I communicate
the message of the cross in secular places where
young people are that would not walk into a church
and then create these discipleship places that
foster a journey that walks them into a relationship
with God and walks them into the church. So we're
doing this in cities all over the world in various
ways. But fundamentally, it's just a move of
God that he's doing. And Aaron, I think to be
fair, I think there's a lot of our listeners
right now are thinking, you know, this sounds
really radical and out there. I just want to
have a conversation with my granddaughter because
I don't get, I really don't get that. She just
doesn't believe in God anymore or doesn't have
any interest in church. Give me some pictures
of sort of what has happened, but then why do
you think it's happened? Well, I think, you know,
part of it is you look at the U .S. context that
we're in, for example, and we have this rich
history of— in many ways, a Christian nation
where most people identified as a Christian,
had a positive view of the church. They saw the
Bible as a good moral guide. And so it was in
that context that a lot of our amazing evangelists
and missions from the past would engage culture.
And it was Billy Graham could fill stadiums and
speak about what the Bible says. And it drew
people and it connected and many people were
reached. Well, problem is that culture shifted.
And largely due to the influence of the global
youth culture and the religiously unaffiliated
being the fastest growing religious group in
our country. And with that is not only a change
in affiliation, meaning like Gen Z is about 50
% religiously unaffiliated today. But it's not
just affiliation, it's attitude as well. Their
attitude has changed from predominantly positive
and in an environment to where you could invite
them to come to a Christian event to increasingly
apathetic at best, if not outright hostile at
worst. And a lot of it has to do with just, you
know, cultural, political, us versus them stuff
that gets in the way. But the problem with that
is that they're less likely to come to our events.
They're less likely to engage in the kind of
models of evangelism. that we've used in the
past. And so the paradigm shift is we got to
go to them. And so it's really not that different.
It's just going where people are, whether it's
a band that uses music or people that like, we
have so many stories of people that are engaging
people in places like, you know, bars or just
community groups or hobbies and the spheres of
influence that you have in your world where you'll
interact with people who won't walk into a church.
but yet they're hungry for connection. They're
hungry for belonging. And so there's an opportunity
to go to people, build authentic relationships
in their environment, and then use that as a
way to start spiritual conversations that leads
them to Jesus. So we've seen this in all kinds
of environments from, yeah, the extreme, you
know, parades and... in clubs and bars, but also
at work or at a neighborhood group or at a soccer
field where my kids are playing. kinds of environments
where you can interact with people that won't
walk into a church today, who are far from God
and being there in order to develop a relationship
with them, to really understand them, know them
and what's going on in their heart. And what
you find is as you do that, people begin to open
up. People are very hungry to have conversations
that are meaningful and deep. And so it starts
by being present. I think when I read your book,
One of the biggest differences I see is a very
different mindset about what our role is. The
idea that just being a nice person, hoping somehow
my coworkers will see some difference in me,
inviting them to, oh, it's Easter or it's Christmas.
I think what I see is there's a very intentional,
I'm going to build a relationship with no agenda
about. Um, when's the big moment when I'm going
to share the gospel? It is, I'm going to care
about this person. I'm going to get engaged.
And then I'm going to move instead of to a, what
you and I might talk about a conversation about
the cross and sin and salvation. I'm going to
move second to a spiritual conversation. And
there's a whole chapter on this that I think
is so powerful where you begin to listen and
begin to ask questions about what's there. What's
their view? What's their picture of spirituality?
Because what we know, the research is, people
who will not go to church now would very much
consider themselves spiritual. But when you begin
to probe and ask, their spirituality leads to
places or is kind of a floating one that when
the big issues of life, when death, the breakup.
cancer, identity issues, it leaves them wanting.
And it's when we're there in those relationships
with a process that allows us then to share the
gospel. And you've just seen God, I mean, move
in powerful ways. Tell us a little bit about
why you refocused some of your energy on America
when most of the ministry really was launched
around the world. We started in Europe, a classic
post -Christian Europe. That was literally the
environment I grew up in. And this mission was
started and we were doing all this work around
the world. And then we started to see. where
we came from, the U .S., going from this nominal
Christian nation to a post -Christian nation.
And many of my friends and pastors, they feel
the weight of it. They feel the problem, the
decline, but aren't sure what to do about it.
And there can almost be a sense of hopeless resignation
that this is just where it's going. And I guess
my passion is saying, I have seen God move in
these context. And I want to not only give tools
and models and approaches, but I want to give
hope that this generation absolutely can be reached,
that it's not too late. And that in fact, people...
Even though they seem so hostile and closed,
they're actually quite hungry and open. If we
don't have hope that this generation can be reached,
then we're not going to act. And so I want to
instill hope and say, yes, I've seen God do this.
The God that is moving around the world is the
same God here, and he can move in this place
too. And to provide practical understanding of
the culture that we're in and the influences
and the philosophies of the global youth culture
and post -Christian. culture. And then, like
you mentioned, starting with Nehemiah 1 .4, having
a greater heart and a brokenness for this generation
that drives us to our knees in desperate prayer,
because that's the foundation for any action.
And then let's talk about tools and strategies
for engaging in spiritual conversations. And
so that believers will be inspired to reach this
culture. And that fundamentally, the ultimate
goal is that there are people today, young people
today, that will not walk into a church, but
they're going to encounter a follower of Jesus
whose heart is broken, who's been praying desperately,
who will share Jesus through a spiritual conversation
that will lead them to encounter the living God
and to transform their lives. That's the ultimate
goal. And I believe that that's going to happen.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram, and we hope you've enjoyed the first
half of Chip's interview with our friend Aaron
Pierce. To learn more about the incredible work
Aaron and his team are doing, visit Steiger .org.
That's the word Steiger, S -T -E -I -G -E -R
dot O -R -G. And as we wrap up, let me remind
you that we are nearing the end of our mid -year
match. Every gift we receive between now and
June 30th will be doubled dollar for dollar.
So if you want to help us reach this next generation
with the hope of the gospel, pray about partnering
with us. Visit livingontheedge .org or call us
at 888 -333 -6003 to give a gift. That's 888
-333 -6003 or go to livingontheedge .org. We'll
listen to next time as Chip continues his conversation
with Aaron Pierce from Steiger. Until then, I'm
Dave Drewy thanking you for joining us for this
edition of Living on the Edge.