Stance is Youth for Christ’s touring street dance crew. Performing throughout the UK, they offer a wide range of workshops and performances in schools and churches, and at community days, festivals or events. Stance is passionate about inspiring and encouraging young people to use their skills and talents.
This month I met Stance founder, Grace. Grace is 21 and has been performing since she was 6 years old. She is passionate about using her dance to reach lost young people with the good news of Jesus. This five-strong group has worked with over 20,000 young people since September 2012, proving to be a relevant gateway to communicate the power of the gospel.
Speaking to Grace, she passionately shares the heart behind what she does and once she starts, she doesn’t stop: ‘I am just desperate to see young people transformed by the power of Jesus - realising that he is relevant to their lives, here and now. God isn’t an old man with a long beard who sits on a cloud in the sky, distant and irrelevant like the world often portrays. He has created us for a purpose; he wants a relationship with each of us and is utterly relevant to our lives.’
I ask for her to share a story. Grace tells about approaching a lad immediately after she had been performing, knowing that something was happening in his life. She felt compelled to say to him: ‘You know what we are saying is true, don’t you?’ He looked stunned but she didn’t hold back: ‘Go home tonight and ask God if he is real, and ask him to reveal himself to you. I dare you! What have you got to lose?’
This 15-year-old guy was making a mess of his life with drugs and yet at that moment, was nailed to the spot. Miraculously, a week later, Grace had an email from the YfC director in that location to say that the lad had indeed asked God to reveal himself and he believed God had! He made a huge step into a relationship with Jesus and has been going to church since.
‘I remember approaching a group of five lads in a circle,’ she continues. ‘I just had to tell them more about Jesus, so I said: “Don’t you ever think there is more to life than this? Do you honestly think that this is it? That we just go to dust again? You are searching for something to satisfy you, but only Jesus can do that, and it can last for ever.”’ There was a pause but later one of them came and found her to ask for prayer – they wanted to know more.
These interactions tell me she has two things. One, the passion of an evangelist. Two, a vital key in evangelism: not being afraid. Grace knows Jesus’ love deeply and is not afraid. She’s not scared of what others will say or think or do when she tells them about Christ – she just does it anyway. Her words and approach are deeply challenging. They make me think of that verse, ‘Perfect love drives out fear’ (1 John 4:18) and that old quote, ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.’ She refers to a line she finds herself frequently saying: ‘Jesus doesn’t invite us into a relationship with the assurance that we will live happily ever after. That’s Disney, not reality.’
If God has really changed our lives, then we will want others to know, and maybe the presence of his love compels us. We need to keep choosing not to let fear of people and situations stop us from sharing Jesus Christ. It is clear that Stance ‘works’ because street dance is relevant, but it is also successful because of the passion, commitment and boldness behind it.
For more information about Stance go the website www.yfc.co.uk, call 01215029620, or follow them on Twitter: @yfcstance
Think about…
• What holds you back?
• Is there someone God is asking you to speak to?
• Ask him what he wants you to say and don’t let fear control what you do.
