Unlikely fighter, p.1
Unlikely Fighter, page 1
Beyond the brawls, bruises, and blood splattered across the pages of this hard-to-put-down book is the story of a scared, scarred little kid on a journey to find his identity. You will find yourself cheering, like I did, for the victory he, and eventually his entire family, found in Jesus.
SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ, pastor of New Season Church and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
This book is wild! Full of larger-than-life characters, divine encounters, authentic brokenness, and miraculous intervention and reconciliation! And it’s all true. If Greg offers us one thing, it’s hope—hope that the most unlikely and undeserving of us can find the way of life through the radical love of Jesus. This book will unleash a longing in you to be part of the wild adventure of God’s Kingdom come!
DANIELLE STRICKLAND, author, advocate, and speaker
Listen, I want to be a part of anything Greg Stier does. He is always a blessing, and you’ll be blessed by his new book, Unlikely Fighter! It’s his personal story of God working in his life. You’ll love the way he tells his story, and you’ll feel like you’re right there with him. It’s real and unfiltered. But most importantly, it isn’t just any story—it’s a testimony of redemption, how God is mighty to save. Be sure to read this for yourself, and gift a copy to a young person!
SHANE PRUITT, national Next Gen evangelism director for North American Mission Board and author of 9 Common Lies Christians Believe
Greg Stier is the genuine article, and his life is evidence of God’s transforming power. If you’ve given up on yourself, take a page out of Greg’s book. The gospel can change anything, change anyone.
MARK BATTERSON, New York Times bestselling author of The Circle Maker and lead pastor of National Community Church
I resonated deeply with Greg Stier’s amazing testimony. As someone whose own upbringing was highly dysfunctional, I never cease to be amazed by the Lord’s incredible grace in reaching down and placing his tender hand upon children surrounded by violence and brokenness. The story of how God’s mercy brought salvation to Greg and each of his family members is something that will stay with you for a long time.
JIM DALY, president of Focus on the Family
In the ’70s, I grew up in the same North Denver neighborhood as Greg, and in the early ’80s, we became best friends while attending the same small fundamentalist Christian school. His intelligence, sharp wit, and spiritual passion were evident even back then. From his fatherless upbringing, to the shocking violence he witnessed as a child, to the dramatic conversation of his entire family, this book gave me a greater appreciation and understanding of Greg’s early life experience and how that helped shape him into such a dynamically driven and influential adult.
SCOTT DERRICKSON, film director, screenwriter, and producer
Who doesn’t like a good story? Greg tells a soul‐wrenching true story of how low the Lord had to reach to draw him to himself. It’s a miracle! The best part is what has happened since.
JOHNNY HUNT, senior vice president of evangelism and leadership for the North American Mission Board
Captivating craziness of a life woven and chosen by Christ to be a voice of victory for generations and nations! Hope lines these pages of Greg’s story that everyone needs to hear!
KATHY BRANZELL, president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force
Greg’s memoir deeply reminded me there is no sin too great nor sinner too far gone that Jesus cannot forgive or save. Thank you, Greg, for sharing your story of God’s amazing grace. I pray many would read and be blessed and that many would read and come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
ED STETZER, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center
Unlikely Fighter is a page-turner. If I didn’t know Greg personally, I’d be tempted to think these stories were made up. But they’re real. And they collectively make one powerful point: the power of God can change anyone. If you don’t think God can change you, I dare you to read this book with an open heart.
SEAN MCDOWELL, PhD, associate professor of apologetics at Biola University and the coauthor of Evidence That Demands a Verdict
When you meet my friend Greg, instantly you will experience two things: he loves Jesus, and he loves for others to love Jesus. The love of Jesus pulsates in his body like electricity. And when you read Unlikely Fighter, that same electric volt will captivate your heart. This book is going to make you laugh out loud, it is going to make you cry. But above all, your passion for Jesus and his love for the world will be ignited!
DR. DERWIN L. GRAY, lead pastor of Transformation Church and the author of God, Do You Hear Me?: Discover the Prayer God Always Answers
For anyone who doesn’t feel qualified to share the story of Jesus, this book is for you. You are more qualified than you know. With vulnerability, humor, and a genuine, unashamed love for the lost, Greg powerfully demonstrates how God uses the unlikely to reveal his love. Thank you, Greg, for equipping and empowering a generation to know Jesus and share the gospel.
HOSANNA WONG, international speaker, spoken word artist, and author of How (Not) to Save the World
Greg is a powerful communicator of the gospel to the next generation. I’ve heard some of the shocking stories from his violent upbringing woven into his sermons, but this book paints a much clearer picture of the often terrifying yet ultimately triumphant upbringing that Greg endured. This book is a powerful display that the gospel is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” . . . even for a family like Greg’s.
DOUG FIELDS, author, speaker, and youth pastor
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Unlikely Fighter: The Story of How a Fatherless Street Kid Overcame Violence, Chaos, and Confusion to Become a Radical Christ Follower
Copyright © 2021 by Greg Stier. All rights reserved.
Cover photograph of fence copyright © Greg Schmigel/Stocksy. All rights reserved. Interior photographs are from the personal collection of the author, and used with permission.
Designed by Dean H. Renninger
Edited by Jonathan Schindler
Published in association with Don Gates of the literary agency The Gates Group; www.the-gates-group.com.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version,® NIV.® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4964-5155-2
ISBN 978-1-4964-5157-6 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4964-5156-9 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4964-5158-3 (Apple)
Build: 2021-10-25 18:35:51 EPUB 3.0
To my ma, who loved me
in spite of her shame
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: “A Bum Like Me”
Chapter 2: The Crazy Brothers
Chapter 3: The Knockout Blow
Chapter 4: Granny’s Got a Gun
Chapter 5: Christmas Surprise
Chapter 6: “Well, I Ain’t Jesus!”
Chapter 7: An Angel without Wings
Chapter 8: “Count Backwards from Ten”
Chapter 9: Ears Back, Teeth Bared
Chapter 10: Flipping Off the Devil
Chapter 11: The Kill Switch
Chapter 12: What About Bob?
Chapter 13: “Always Win Soles”
Chapter 14: The Road Trip
Chapter 15: I Saw the Sign
Chapter 16: “Sit Down, I Want to Tell You Something”
Chapter 17: Filling in the Blanks
Chapter 18: Timber!
Chapter 19: “Cigarettes and All”
Chapter 20: Preacher Boy
Chapter 21: “You Ain’t Gettin’ Me, Boy!”
Chapter 22: Flashbacks from Hospice
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
FOREWORD
I’VE GOTTEN TO KNOW a lot of extraordinary people through the years, but Greg Stier is among my very favorites. When we first met, we instantly felt a special affinity. We shared a mutual passion for telling as many people as possible about Jesus. In short, our hearts beat in unison for seeing lives and eternities transformed by Christ.
As I’ve gotten to know Greg better, though, I’ve come to realize there’s another commonality that binds us together: both of us are unlikely fighters.
Three thousand years ago, a shepherd boy named David—armed with nothing more than a sling and a stone—successfully took on a nine-foot-six warrior, thanks to God’s guiding hand. Similarly, Greg and I have faced and fought our own giants that were simply too big and imposing for us to defeat on our own.
For me, the battle was against the skepticism that propelled me down the path of atheism. My cynical self-interest convinced me there was no God and therefore anything was permissible. T
It wasn’t until my agnostic wife’s conversion to Christianity that I used my journalism and legal training in a quest to disprove her faith—only to become persuaded by the evidence that Jesus is the unique Son of God who proved his divinity by returning from the dead.
As for Greg, he wrestled with his personal identity. As an almost-aborted, fatherless teen from the inner city, surrounded by a violence-prone family (with the biceps to back it up), Greg fought throughout his childhood and teen years to find out who he was, whose he was, and why he was.
Greg’s life was on a downward spiral until a series of unlikely events changed the trajectory of his life—and, ultimately, that of his entire family.
What I love about Greg is that he has continued fighting to this very day. Now he’s battling the ultimate adversary, Satan himself, in order to help every last person have a chance to hear the same Good News that set Greg and his family free.
In this captivating and encouraging book, you’ll read the fascinating details of Greg’s rocky journey to Christ and his new mission to ignite a spiritual revival. In fact, Greg and I are now fighting for you—that is, every reader of this book—to have the same deep encounter with God that has changed everything for us and our families.
Because in a way, we’re all unlikely fighters who are engaged in various struggles of our own. Whether it’s spiritual skepticism (as it was for me), personal identity (as it was for Greg), or some other battle that you’re waging, I want you to know that we’re cheering you on.
And I’m betting that this book will give you a strong infusion of Holy Spirit–inspired courage to swing the sling, fling the stone, and topple the giant that’s blocking your path to a life of hope, freedom, and unparalleled adventure through Christ.
Lee Strobel
Bestselling author of The Case for Christ
INTRODUCTION
THE APOSTLE PAUL called himself “the chief of sinners,” but he had never met the members of my family. If he had, he may have had to forfeit his title.
I often start my sermons with the same two sentences: “I don’t come from a typical churchgoing, pew-sitting, hymn-singing family. I come from a family filled with body-building, tobacco-chewing, beer-drinking thugs . . . and that’s just the women.”
After everyone laughs at the unexpected twist, I go on to tell some of the wild, teetering-on-unbelievable stories of my family upbringing. Sometimes I tell stories about my baseball-bat-wielding, shame-filled mom (who I always called Ma), or my fist-throwing, cop-choking Uncle Jack, or my beat-you-till-you-cry-or-die Uncle Bob.
But the stories I tell in this book always finish the same way, demonstrating that the power of God can change any person in any family from any background.
“Are those stories true?” is a question I usually get asked after I preach a sermon that includes some family stories.
“Yes, they are true” is the answer I always give.
Much of what I share in this book I’ve seen with my own eyes. The other stories have been corroborated by the eyewitness testimony of family and family friends, many of whom I’ve spent hours interviewing for this book.
And, just to prepare you, much of it is violent. As troubling as some of the stories were to write, it was exponentially more troubling to experience them as a scared kid. Although most of the violence was not against me, it impacted me deeply and left a mark on my soul that is still there to this day.
When writing a memoir, you depend on memories, your own and others’, to get the facts straight. I’ve done my best to do just that in this book. But only God’s Word is infallible and inerrant.
Before I was old enough to get my driver’s license, I had seen more rage, more dysfunction, and more blood than most people will see their entire lives. It was every bit as dramatic and traumatic as you can imagine.
And I wouldn’t change any of it because this is my story of rescue. Actually, it’s my entire family’s rescue story. God rescued us from our sins and ourselves, and the entire trajectory of our family has been forever altered.
I am so grateful for his grace and mercy toward us, the chiefs of sinners.
CHAPTER 1
“A BUM LIKE ME”
A TYPICAL WARM SPRING DAY IN DENVER—the sky clear, the air dry, and the sun bright. Saturdays were for cleaning. Although we were dirt poor, we weren’t, in Ma’s words, “dirty poor.”
While she cleaned inside, I played outside, my yellow Tonka dump truck, a couple G.I. Joes, and an assortment of toy guns strewn across the porch. But on this particular Saturday, my yellow plastic Wiffle bat had my undivided attention. I loved hitting the harmless white Wiffle balls around—especially out on the street. I could slug them good and hard, then watch them soar through the air and roll and roll. When the bat connected with the ball, just for a moment, everything felt right in the universe. I imagined this might be what it felt like to be a typical kid in a typical family in a typical neighborhood.
I was trying to muster up the courage to ask Ma if I could take it out to the street to hit a few, even though I suspected she would say no. She didn’t want me to stray too far from our run-down rental—one of those old, red-brick cracker-box duplexes built in the early 1900s for the working class. Over the decades, the working class had moved up and out of the neighborhood and passed off these dilapidated, two-bedroom sardine-cans to the poor.
As with “home base” when playing tag, I felt safe at home. Sure, we had our share of scares, but when my mom was there, I knew nobody could touch me. She was the ultimate mama bear, a mixture of a soccer mom and the Terminator—the Mominator.
Ma was a fighter. She’d been raised in a violent family. Her dad, who loaded hundred-pound bags of flour by hand day in and day out, was known to knock bad guys out with a single punch. Her brothers, all five of them, were as tough as they come—a uniquely violent crew made up of street fighters, soldiers, boxers, brawlers, martial artists, and take-you-apart-ists.
And Ma could brawl with the best of them. Although she was always told that she looked like a young Elizabeth Taylor, she had the punch of Chuck Norris.
But I don’t want to paint the picture of my mom as a violent beast. She was the most generous person I have ever known. She had almost nothing, but would give her meager resources—money, clothes, food—to those around her in genuine need.
But if you were a jerk, she would jerk you back to reality—sometimes with a sudden yank, sometimes with a punch.
Ma was a one-of-a-kind combo—a strange mixture of generosity, honesty, and kindness combined with a hair-trigger temper and ready fists to back it up. I have never seen the likes of her anywhere. Like a cocktail mixed on a whim one night with a variety of ingredients you can’t quite remember, Ma was special. And, like a cocktail, she came with a kick.
We lived in North Denver, which, in the 1970s, was “the bad part of town.” Sirens were no stranger to our neighborhood—or to our house. The neighborhood was a tinderbox of racial tension between the Italians and the Latinos. Shouting matches, fights, gunshots, and knifings were common.
Ma was terrified that trouble would find me someday without her around to protect me. She knew I really wasn’t a fighter—not that kind of fighter, anyway. I was a quiet kid who loved books. And book-loving kids didn’t fare well in our neighborhood.
Maybe that’s why Ma relentlessly reminded me of the dangers lurking out there on the streets for little boys who wandered away from home alone. Ma would warn me about the predators in the park. “They’ll snag you off the jungle gym, and you’ll never be seen again,” she threatened. There were molesters at the mall, too. “Stay by my side the whole time, or they’ll grab you and run,” she cautioned. And there were stalkers in the street. “They’re just waiting for the right time to throw you in their van and speed away.”
Ma was truly afraid that some really bad stuff could happen to me in our crime-infested neighborhood. Giving me all these worst-case scenarios was her way of trying to make me street smart.
On that spring day in Denver, I knew the chances of her letting me hit Wiffle balls in the street without my older brother, Doug, or one of my scrappy, street-smart older cousins was slim.
