The Virginia Tech Massacre - Rants by Greg Stier

Posted on Monday 16 April 2007 by Greg @ 12:29 pm

I’m in mourning right now along with you. The shocking tragedy at Virginia Tech has got me reeling and revisiting some old feelings.

Eight years ago this week I was in a church with six youth leaders promoting one of our Dare 2 Share conferences. This particular conference was on spiritual warfare and evangelism. It was appropriately titled, "When all hell breaks loose…." Then all hell did break loose. The Columbine tragedy was unfolding twenty minutes down the road.

Such a horrific act of violence had never happened so close to me and it sent me into a tailspin. As I’m sure it did you. All the forces of hell did break loose that day through the trigger fingers of two angry young men.

Now its broken loose again, this time at Virginia Tech.

As the final death toll is being tallied and the devastation is being measured all of us are in mourning. We should be. We have moved into an increasingly secularized society. Movies and video games have gone from graphic violence to unspeakable violence. Prayer and God and all things Jesus have been moved out of the public eye and marginalized as irrelevant. And we continue to reap what we have sown as a country.

You can only be told that you are the result of random chance (as opposed to divine design) for so long until you finally act on it. Add anti Jesus secularism to easy access to automatic weapons and what do you get? Tragedies like Columbine and Virginia Tech.

Pray with me for the victim’s families and friends. Let’s pray together for this nation in crisis both abroad and at home. Then let’s do something about it.

Let’s serve the hurting. Let’s shine like Jesus. Let’s share the good news.

Before its too late.

Likely people in unlikely places

This past Friday night, ABC News Nightline did a special on the folks over at XXXChurch.com and their controversial methods of reaching out to the lost...especially those in the porn industry. Did we mention that Craig Gross, the founder of XXXchurch.com is one of our breakout speakers? (AHEM--REGISTER NOW!) Anyway, there is no doubt that their methods of reaching the lost are intentionally controversial. In fact, that's what most of the Nightline piece is about. The question we have for you is this, if a ministry like XXXChurch.com can be so forthright and controversial in reaching the lost, should you be using more methods that are unconventional and controversial to the same effect? If no, why not?