Revolution 2010
Wow. This past weekend was incredible. It was my first retreat with the students from Lexington. Fortunately, they didn’t run me off and I’m excited about future retreats with this awesome crew.
With Revolution taking place in Columbia we wanted to make sure that it still felt like a retreat. For lodging we stayed at the church on Friday and Saturday night. Berea Friendship UMC (Greenville), St. Mark UMC (Seneca), and Trinity UMC (Anderson) also descended on Lexington UMC for the weekend.
Friday night we headed off to the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, about 20 minutes away. Arriving early enough to catch 2nd row seats, we kicked off the evening with Lauren Taylor and David Cliffton chucking Breeze frisbees into the crowd. Opening the flood gates of energy was Empire State who opened with a set of gospel hip-hop. Bringing the worship to a peak was the Robbie Seay band, followed by our speaker Lowell McNaney who challenged us to face our fears.
Needless to say Friday was incredible. Lowell hit on a topic that many of us face: Fear. With Chris Lynch and Matty G both crashing at Lexington with their students it was to be a great weekend, but we’ve all faced fears. I faced the fears of moving to Lexington, Chris and the Lynch family faced their fears, and Matt (a youth pastor and special ed. teacher) helped a student face some fears.
Of course Chris, Matt and I have faced the insurmountable fear of a high ropes zipline at Asbury Hills together. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the embarrassment of wearing the harness though.
Lowell made a great statement about fear, “The only difference between a hero and a coward is that a hero faces his fears and a coward runs from them.” Lowell focused on the same word Todd Agnew made about David and Goliath a few months ago.
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.
Facing fears is something that we have to do daily. The fear of failure. The fear of driving on an interstate. The fear of being rejected. Even hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (the fear of long words). The difference between people who have pursued the abundant life that Christ offers is that we have been given the Holy Spirit which is not a spirit of fear, but one that takes confidence in an all-powerful Father who loves us. Paul writes beautifully:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Today, I’ll face my fears. Tomorrow, I’ll face them again. But I’ll never face them alone. I’ll face them with the confidence that Christ has asked me to face them, and that He will lead me through them with His strength and for His glory.
Grace and Power



