Dan White Jr. - Love over Fear: Facing Monsters, Befriending Enemies, and Healing Our Polarized World

Dan White Jr. is an articulate practitioner who, in this much-needed book, exposes the toxic pathology of our current political climate. Jesus followers must resist the siren calls coming from every quarter of the culture and stand secure in the unshakable kingdom that Dan both embodies and ushers in. Love over Fear is a wake-up call!

ALAN HIRSCH

Author and founder of 100 Movements, 5Q Collective, and Forge International

Dan White Jr. has aptly diagnosedwe cannot heal our divides until weve confessed our fears, cannot overcome fear until weve committed to love. With fascinating cultural artifacts and compelling biblical stories, Love over Fear enriches our imagination for love, not as sentiment, but as the embodied, patient practice of embracing the other. I have great hope that with this book in hand, we the church can begin to move beyond Us and Them into our healing role as the people of God.

JEN POLLOCK MICHEL

Author of Surprised by Paradox, Keeping Place, and Christianity Todays 2015 Book of the Year, Teach Us to Want

In each epic of history, social issues frame the way of being the church in the world. In Love over Fear, Dan White Jr. is a careful guide through the challenges and opportunities facing ordinary people. With brilliant nuance, he gives a pathway of faithful witness both personally and as a movement.

HUGH HALTER

Author of Tangible Kingdom, Flesh, and Brimstone

By unmasking the ferocious fear that divides us, Dan helps us to see our enemies as people, not monsters. He puts real flesh on the kind of love that can heal us. He passionately reminds us that truth and love is found in a personJesus, the One who embodies a limitless love that has the power to create family from enemies. This is a book for our polarized times!

JR WOODWARD

Author Creating a Missional Culture; coauthor, The Church as Movement; National Director, V3 movement

Is your soul fatigued by our polarized world? Love over Fear will breathe oxygen into your lungs and speak hope into your ears. Simple yet profound, vulnerable but strong, grounded in the words and ways of Jesus, and full of wonderful stories, Dan White Jr.s book is the help we need for these troubled times.

DAVID FITCH

Northern Seminary; author of The Church of Us vs. Them

What a highly practical and hope-filled book Dan White Jr. has given us! Love over Fear disrupts our deep tendency to be polarized while offering us a unique path forward toward healing. This desperately needed and timely message dives into the life of Jesus for real ways we can continue the work of reconciliation today. Love over Fear is a gift to all Gods people.

BRUXY CAVEY

Teaching Pastor at The Meeting House; author of (Re)Union

2019 by
DAN WHITE JR.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Many stories include names and details that have been modified to protect the reputation of those included.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Edited by Connor Sterchi
Interior design: Ragont Design
Cover design: Erik M. Peterson
Author photo: Tonya Variya

All websites and phone numbers listed herein are accurate at the time of publication, but may change in the future or cease to exist. The listing of website references and resources does not imply publisher endorsement of the sites entire contents. Groups and organizations are listed for informational purposes, and listing does not imply publisher endorsement of their activities.

Names: White, Dan, Jr., author.

Title: Love over fear : facing monsters, befriending enemies, and healing our polarized world / Dan White Jr.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019012286 (print) | LCCN 2019004719 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802418883 | ISBN 9780802497604 ()

Subjects: LCSH: Fear--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Love--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Classification: LCC BV4908.5 .W545 2019 (ebook) | LCC BV4908.5 (print) | DDC 248.4--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019012286

ISBN: 978-0-8024-1888-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8024-9760-4

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Tonya, my love, you have invited me to swim in the current of kenosis. This book is inspired by you.

Friend,

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F ew can dismiss that we are now living in a time of profound upheaval. Experts call the era we are experiencing VUCA; one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. These four conditions combine to create a situation of mass anxiety, the kind of which we (at least for those of us living in the West) have not experienced for a long, long time. The last time we experienced significant levels of VUCA was probably between the two world wars, and it accelerated the ideologically driven search for a stable moral and social order. This resulted in the rise of totalitarian rule in the USSR as well as the national socialism in Germany. The net result was World War II. There are real similarities to our current times; we are living in instability because everything is now wired and connected, and now fear can go viral.