Fear Not

I've just come from a meeting with some of the members of our church's Preaching Team. This group consists of individuals, both lay and clergy, who feel God's urging to speak publicly about their faith. The lay among them usually preach at our small chapel service each week, but occasionally are assigned to fill in at our larger services as well. We meet monthly to discuss the challenges of preaching and how we can be faithful to God through his church. Most of the time we address our mandate to help connect others to God through Jesus the Christ.

Today we talked about a lot of things. Because we don't follow an agenda we move from one topic to the next freely. Today we briefly discussed author Anne Rice's decision to "leave" Christianity but not Christ. We came to the consensus that she'd be very comfortable in our church. Then we circled back to how our church can be more effective in reaching people for God. We talked about how our society is so polarized; we talked about how the media loves to pit us against one another, and uses fear of the other to sell their wares to us.

Then it hit us. Perhaps the only "slogan" that we as a church need to share is this: Fear not. Do not fear. Don't be afraid. This is a theme that runs continually through the scriptures. God continually exhorts his people not to be afraid:

The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward. (Gen 15:1)

So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:31)

There are a lot more than these; this just gives you a beginning.

So we decided that whenever we preach, at least for a time, we are going to share this simple message with our people. "Don't be afraid." In the words of one of my favorite Veggie Tales songs: "God is bigger than the boogie man.