PRO CONNECT
Tim Abraham serves as a Chair with The C12 Group, America’s leading Christian CEO forum, building GREAT businesses for a GREATER purpose.
Before joining the C12 team, Tim served at the highest levels within the executive branch of state government, as a member of the executive leadership team for one of the largest churches in West Virginia, and as a strategy and leadership consultant for one of the nation’s premier church consulting teams. Additionally, he co-founded and co-owned a business and leadership consulting company with clients spanning multiple regions of the United States.
Tim earned an MBA and multiple bachelor’s degrees from West Virginia University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma. He’s attended executive education programs through Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. The Council of State Governments named Tim a Toll Fellow, after he participated in the nation’s premier leadership development program for state government officials. Among other honors received, the Commonwealth of Kentucky named him a Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to the nation.
He’s enjoyed watching God’s transformative work in the personal financial lives of over 100 families and singles under his facilitation, with many saving and paying off non-mortgage debt in excess of $10,000 in only nine weeks. Additionally, Tim published his first book entitled Spiritual Fear Factor and is currently authoring multiple books for future publishing.
West Virginia Mountaineers at heart, Tim and his wife, Kelly, currently enjoy God’s beautiful creation residing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with their three cats (although he’s allergic!).
“A fast-paced, engaging faith manual for the millennial set. A highly readable reminder to Christians about where their true priorities should lie.”
– Kirkus Reviews
A handbook for devout Christians invokes diverse pop-culture references.
The key organizing conceit of Abraham’s nonfiction debut is an extended comparison between true living in the Christian faith and the TV series Fear Factor, in which contestants were essentially pitted against their own worst fears and urged to overcome them to win prizes. In an analogy no less effective for being so cheesy, the author asks his target audience to apply the format and consequences of a show like Fear Factor to their spiritual lives: in this world, do believers fear human things they can see when they should be afraid of the divine things that matter most? “What if,” Abraham asks, “we live in a world centered on the fear of man, but have the opportunity to transform it by living marked by the fear of God?” The author contends that the noisy, attention-grabbing modern world around believers can distract them from the “straight, safe and godly path” that will lead to salvation. In the somewhat convoluted phrasing so common in modern self-actualization ministries, he contends that “God commands us to ask Him to show us the right path,” and the bulk of this book focuses on helping to show the way. These chapters forego doctrinal disagreements in favor of concentrating on spiritual basics and on trying to teach readers to be “shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves” about their faith practices. Abraham makes liberal use of pop culture, citing TV shows and movies and even indulging in some textual criticism of the Pharrell Williams hit song “Happy” (readers are told it “implicitly speaks to the fear of man and the fear of God”). There are digressions on subjects like chaos theory or the various names of God in the Bible, and footnotes accompany the whole narrative, usually providing Abraham with opportunities to tell jokes and lighten the mood a bit. The result is a fast-paced, engaging faith manual for the millennial set.
A highly readable reminder to Christians about where their true priorities should lie.
Pub Date: May 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4984-7141-1
Page count: 224pp
Publisher: Xulon
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2016
Introducing Spiritual Fear Factor
Hometown
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
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