Not a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and love

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 

Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.  - 2 Timothy 1:6-9

For the past several weeks, as part of my Missional Imagination class, I've been reading the book "The Faith of Leap" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch.  There is lots and lots to chew on in this book; it is meaty and challenging but well worth the effort it takes to engage the material.

Essentially, the book is a call to give up a mundane form of faith and to begin to walk in the wild ways of Jesus.  Personally, one of the main challenges of the book which I've been grappling with the most is the place of fear and how much fear drives our expression of western Christianity.

The authors contend that the predominate form of Christianity we find in practice today is one co-opted by the middle class values of security and safety (read the book if you want to learn more.) Even worse churches and denominational structures are gripped with fear as our numbers dwindle, and we seize control in order to shore up our losses.

A number of weeks ago, I attended a forum with Brian McLaren and Phyllis Tickle about the future of the church.  This one tidbit from Tickle stuck with me; she said, "As I travel around the country I have noticed an increase in the level of despair. It's killing the church. Pastors especially have given themselves over to such despair as they look at the church and wonder about their salaries and worry about their pensions."

I'm not sure how to solve that enormous level of fear that grips our churches or denominational structures, and truth be told that's not really my concern, at least for now.

What I do need to attend to, however, is my own fear - maybe even, admittedly, despair - that keeps me stuck within a safe and secure form of faith, that keeps me from venturing out, pioneering, and trying something different and new for the sake of God's Kingdom.

There is an old proverb that says "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It's a notion I've pretty much discarded mostly because the phrase, "the fear of the Lord," always seems to carry such a negative connotation (i.e. fear of God's wrath or fear of God's judgement)

The authors, however, argue that we might think differently about this:

Because "wisdom" is the ordering of life in accord with God's will, appropriate fear of God is the only thing that gives us the right perspective of, and puts us into right relationship with, the objects of our perception.  Holy reverence is therefore the right basis for coping with life's meaning and problems.

In other words, the fear of God - the God who extends mercy and grace to us in Jesus Christ and invites us into life giving relationship with God - puts all those other fears we might have into their rightful place.  It is the one corrective that has the power to move us beyond all those other fears that grip us.

I love how the authors frame things in a more helpful way:

What we can do is allow the fears themselves to be overwhelmed by bigger and better things - by a sense of adventure and the fullness of life that comes from relocating our fears and vulnerabilities within the larger story that is ultimately hopeful and not tragic. 

Easier said than done, at least in my experience. But with God's help and with a trust that God has indeed given a spirit of power and love and not of fear, I hope I am on the path to a more adventurous and life-giving form of faith in Christ.