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Most of us fear something – something physical, something more abstract. If we’re honest I suspect most of us would run from a fight rather than stand and face it. We do it at home, at work and elsewhere – it’s human nature, isn’t it?
The Courageous Men’s Conference in Cwmbran, South Wales last weekend looked at what courage in the face of fear might just look and feel like. Focused around wonderfully powerful talks by Dai Hankey, Mez McConnell and Gavin Peacock, the conference looked at Courageous Faith through the eyes of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. Courageous Vision came through Caleb the spy in Joshua 14 and Courageous Mission through Isaiah 6.
Dai Hankey unpacked brilliantly the story of Jehoshaphat. He shows us that fear is not a problem, it’s where fear takes us that is the issue. Does fear take us to seek the Lord? – that’s the key question. Christian courage is not courage as this world sees it; it is courage that trusts in God and courage that gives God pleasure.
Jehoshaphat showed just such biblical courage as his army, far from fighting put down their swords and worshipped God in the face of adversity. As Dai Said, “you don’t only sing when you’re winning”. We can find strength in our weakness if we aren’t full of pride. We can’t save ourselves - we are too weak and helpless to do that - that is God’s job. Jehoshaphat saw that and obeyed the Lord. Great men don’t change the world but weak men in the hands of a great God can.
Is your heart courageous in the ways of the Lord? Listen to Dai's session here
Following that rallying call, Mez McConnell spoke of Courageous Vision through the story of the spy, Caleb in Joshua 14. Caleb had a vision and a belief in a promise from God. He put his trust wholly in the Lord and his vision was rewarded.
Today the church is in retreat - there is mounting hostility towards the gospel – we need to recapture a Christian vision that is rooted in complete trust in almighty God. We have to believe that God can do anything. We can sing the song, we can know our Bible but we have to REALLY believe it too. Our God is greater than anything that gets thrown at us. The battle is over, Satan cannot stop us (yes he can interfere and try to muck us around) but the day is won through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He encouraged us to think big in spreading the gospel, the bigger and more outrageous the better because in thinking big, only God can make it happen and receive the glory for doing it…
To round off a truly awesome day, Gavin Peacock took a view on Courageous Mission from Isaiah 6, pointing out that we can’t be casual in our praise and worship of God and that we can’t go on mission without being immersed in and “on fire” for the gospel message.
Our knowledge and vision of God is often too small and that’s why we sometimes treat him lightly, but we should fear and tremble at his words. Christ shed his blood for us so we should be prepared to go out and seek the lost for him. He encouraged each person to be a man (or woman) of prayer, a Church man (or woman) everyday of the week, not just Sundays and take the vital mission of making disciples of all nations to the streets and people of our country and reverse the trend that will see this country a spiritual wilderness if we don’t have Courageous Faith & Courageous Vision.
Listen to Gavin's session here
The ultimate challenge of the day came from Mez McConnell: Who’s up for taking the gospel to the lost? Because there sure isn’t a queue forming anywhere else to do it. That challenged me, I pray it does you too.
The day of fellowship and making of new friends also featured some tremendous singing– something that made me feel very humble being an Englishman of little vocal ability among nearly 200 Welsh male voices. It’s not often said to be a privilege to be in Cwmbran I’m told but last Saturday it certainly was!!
Read and hear more from The Courageous Men Conference in Cwmbran here
Dean is the Sales Manager at The Good Book Company. He engages with churches, organisations and individuals to provide them with useful resources for their varying ministries. Dean attends St John's Church in Woking, where he lives with his family.
