Today I had a great experience at Lunch with the Minister. This is a once-a-month event we have at St. A’s, where we invite everyone to bring their lunch, and come out for a time of fellowship and learning with the minister. We eat together in the great hall, and then the minister (which ever of us is leading Lunch with the Minister this month), spends some time teaching or sharing. After that, we open the floor up for discussion. Today, I decided to share the first video in Francis Chan’s BASIC series.

The film is called “Fear God” and speaks about the idea that we’ll never fully enter into relationship with God until we’ve come to a moment where we experience the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 9:10 tells us “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…”

I’ve had the chance to watch this film a number of times now, and discuss it with two different groups. And each time, it has been interesting to see how people wrestled with this idea. I think Chan is talking about a moment – a moment of recognizing how big, powerful, awesome, and amazing God is – instead of an extended period of living in fear of God. But this seems to be a hard concept for us to grasp. I think we have a lot of baggage around the word ‘fear’ when it comes to God, and it was hard for each group to set that baggage aside and really hear what Chan was saying.

Even with that said, what was amazing as we discussed the film, was how willing everyone was to share their thoughts and feelings and experiences. It’s a beautiful thing to watch a group of believers wrestle with their understanding of God. And that is one of the many reasons my ‘job’ rocks!