“Rock your city!”
It’s a catchy phrase, right? This is the theme and battle cry of Dare 2 Share LIVE (LIVE) 2018, and you can find it all over Dare 2 Share’s social media, t-shirts, stickers, bracelets, and more. But what’s the real meaning behind it?
“The idea behind Rock Your City is Acts 4:31, which says, ‘After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly,’” explains Greg Stier, Dare 2 Share’s founder and a keynote speaker for LIVE.
“The building was rocked with the power of prayer, then the believers were rocked with the power of the Spirit, and finally the city was rocked with the power of the gospel.”
Acts 4:31 comes at the end of an account describing how Peter and John were arrested by the Jewish leaders—the ones who had schemed the crucifixion of Jesus just weeks earlier. God had used Peter and John to heal a lame beggar in Jesus’ name, and at least 5,000 people responded to the message of the gospel (Acts 4:4). The chief priests and elders thought they had shut down this “Jesus business,” but now that it was gaining ground again, they wanted to silence anyone preaching the gospel.
The Apostles were arrested, questioned, threatened, and then finally released when the Jewish authorities realized they couldn’t do anything to them without starting a riot (Acts 4:21). After an ordeal like that, many people would have been angry or wanted to get some kind of vengeance on the Jewish leaders. But not Peter and John.
These men knew that God was in control and that their only responsibility was to keep spreading the news about their resurrected Lord. So they gathered their believing friends and got on their knees in prayer. They didn’t pray for vengeance on their persecutors. Instead, they simply prayed for the boldness to keep preaching the gospel no matter what opposition came their way.
Scripture tells us that once these early believers said “amen,” the building was shaken by the power of God—a physical representation of what was happening all around the city of Jerusalem. The city was being rocked by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Rocking Cities 2,000 Year Later
Rocking cities with the power of the gospel isn’t exclusive to the book of Acts. Greg Stier knows from experience that just one person sharing the gospel in a city can spark a fire of spiritual revival, even in the roughest of neighborhoods.
“‘Rock Your City’ is the theme of LIVE this year because I was a city kid that was rocked by the gospel,” Greg shares.
“Our whole community was impacted as a result of somebody reaching into our city. Some of these [LIVE] cities are big and some of them small, but all of them need the gospel of Jesus Christ to impact them.”
While Peter and John faced physical persecution for preaching the gospel, teenagers sharing their faith in 2018 also face challenges from a culture that doubts the existence of objective truth and questions the relevance of Jesus’ message today. But at Dare 2 Share LIVE, they will learn to access the same “secret weapon” that the believers in Acts 4:31 had—the power of prayer.
How Students Will Rock Their Cities at D2S LIVE
Dare 2 Share LIVE is happening in 95 different satellite sites across America, which means that 95 cities will be rocked by the gospel on October 13. During the afternoon portion of LIVE, students will get to tangibly serve and share the gospel in the surrounding neighborhoods of each satellite site. This aspect of LIVE will allow every attendee at every site to participate in a nationwide, teen-led movement of loving and serving others in Jesus’s name.
The impact of LIVE doesn’t stop there, though. Through powerful gospel training, worship sessions, and inspiring artist performances at LIVE, teens will be equipped and challenged to share the gospel on their own social media platforms, and then mobilized to take the gospel back to their own lost friends and family. So even if the LIVE event they attend isn’t actually hosted in their own city, they will still be equipped and challenged to take everything they learn and apply it in their own circles of influence, across their own social network, and in their own communities after LIVE. And like the first-century Christians, they will also learn to pray for boldness to share the gospel no matter what comes their way.
Dare 2 Share LIVE is just one day, but it’s a day to jumpstart a passion in teens nationwide to serve others, spread the gospel, and rock their cities for Christ. October 13 is fast-approaching, so here are a few ways you can help spread the word and build excitement in your church for rocking your city.
Buy some ready-to-wear #RockYourCity swag:
If you want to make your own customized #RockYourCity products for your satellite site, you can use this high resolution #RockYourCity vector art file. You can also read more about what it will look like to “Rock Your City” on October 13 on Dare 2 Share LIVE’s About page.
Thank you for joining us in this incredible endeavor to bring the gospel to 95 different cities through our teenagers, all on the same day. We’re asking God today to give students boldness on October 13 as they share the gospel and rock their cities for Christ. We’ll see you then!
