During more than a decade of working at Dare 2 Share, Director of Events Megan Mashek has heard and seen a lot of crazy moments. In this article, D2S Resourcing Coordinator Bryan Jump sat down with Megan to reflect on her time at Dare 2 Share and discuss some exciting new things coming in 2026.
Megan Mashek
Director of Events
Dare 2 Share Ministries
Bryan: Hey, Megan. To start, tell us how long you’ve worked for Dare 2 Share?
Megan: In April it will be 14 years.
Bryan: OK, that’s awesome!
Megan: Yeah, it’s wild. It seems like a blink of an eye. Sometimes I’ll think of something that happened and wonder, “How is it possible that was only last month?” Then other times, I’ll realize a memory happened 10 years ago, and it will feel crazy that it’s been that long.
Greg Stier’s hidden talents
Bryan: I’m sure it feels like you’ve been here almost as long as Greg Stier. Speaking of Greg, what’s the craziest thing you’ve seen him do in 14 years?
Megan: In the early 2010s, he got chased by our band with shrink wrap at the end of the conference. He’s a prankster, and so he’d prank the tour team, and they were trying to get back at him. But he’s a lot faster than you’d think.
I also just love how Greg could turn almost any song into a Christian song. That was part of the conference sometimes. We would take something like Firework by Katy Perry, and have Greg turn that song into a Christian version.
Bryan: Moving on to students. What’s the craziest thing you’ve heard a student say at an event?
Megan: It might have been last year at Lead THE Cause when a kid said in front of everyone, “I was low-key in the spirit, yapping.” And I thought, “I don’t even know what you’re saying. We’ve gone past what I can understand.”
Let’s talk events.
Bryan: Let’s get into the day-to-day a bit. Can you tell me about your current role at Dare 2 Share?
Megan: I’m the director of events. That means that I manage our three major outward-facing events each year. And I lead a team that creates a Gospel Advancing environment for our events.
- Our biggest event, which is always the second Saturday of November, is the Day of Global Youth Evangelism.
- Our second event is our primary student evangelism training event, Lead the Cause. It’s a week long and we host it every summer at Colorado Christian University. We train students on praying, caring, and sharing the Gospel.
- Then, there’s our newest event, which I’m very excited about: Energize Youth Ministry Conference. It’s the first time we’ve done this type of event. It’s a general-market, Gospel Advancing youth ministry conference that’s geared toward energizing youth ministry with Gospel Advancing.
But Energize isn’t just for people who are in youth ministry. It’s for anyone! It could be for senior pastors, or children’s pastors, or volunteer youth leaders. Or if youth pastors have some student leaders who would like to be in ministry after they graduate from high school, theycan bring them as well.
This could be a great opportunity for a youth leader to get their volunteer team on board with Gospel Advancing. Or to tell their network about, and help them catch the vision for, Gospel Advancing.
Bryan: Can you tell me a bit more about what makes Energize unique?
Megan: We all can get stuck in that mindset where we just keep doing the same things over and over again. We know how tiring that can be, and we’re hoping to energize youth ministry across the United States.
There will be highly inspirational messages that refuel and energize youth leaders, but it will also be very practical. There’ll be many practitioners of Gospel Advancing and youth ministry, who’ve been putting these pieces into practice in their programs for years. You’ll get tons of things to take away for your ministry and youth leaders. It’s about helping you leave with a plan for what to start implementing right away.
We’ll have a group of senior pastors, as well, who’ll specifically be pouring into the other senior pastors at the conference. We know that’s a very specific group of people, but we want to help support them too. Regardless of what your specific role is in ministry, the conference is about the missing piece of youth ministry—Gospel Advancing—and how simple it is to apply with a few tweaks to your youth ministry.
Is Energize for newcomers or old-timers?
Bryan: Does someone need to have a deep understanding of Gospel Advancing to get the most out of Energize?
Megan: I’d say anyone should come, no matter where you are on your Gospel Advancing journey. It’ll focus on a general explanation of what Gospel Advancing is. We’ll talk about the A Generation in Reach research report that we put out earlier this year and how that fits into Gospel Advancing.
Whether you’ve been doing Gospel Advancing for 20 years or you’ve never heard of it, there’s something for every single person there.
Bryan: How do you want people who have been around Gospel Advancing for a while to engage?
Megan: To the people who are going who’ve been doing Gospel Advancing, we’ll rely on you to help discuss Gospel Advancing with the people around you. If they have questions, we’ll ask you to come alongside them and help other people on their Gospel Advancing journey.
Pray that we represent the Kingdom well.
Bryan: Last question, how can our Gospel Advancing leaders pray for you and the events team?
Megan: First, thank you for wanting to pray for us. We’d love prayers for wisdom as we’re making these big program decisions and pulling these events together. Pray that during these events, leaders and students would be emboldened to share the Gospel.
For our team personally, please pray that we prioritize the things that need to get done and that we’ll be prayerful about all the different elements we must bring together. Pray for great relationships with the partners that are helping us. There are so many details that go into all these events.
Pray that our team would love all these people well, represent the Kingdom well, and give all the glory to God.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Galatians 1:3-5
