Popular church feature in fire (7)
I believe the answer is:
inspire
'fire' is the definition.
(I know that inspire is a kind of excite)
'popular church feature' is the wordplay.
'popular' becomes 'in' ('in' can mean trendy).
'church feature' becomes 'spire' (spire is part of a church building).
'in'+'spire'='INSPIRE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for inspire that I've seen before include "Fill with creativity" , "Influence" , "Arouse, prompt (to new heights)" , "Stimulate to creativity or other worthwhile objective" , "Excite" .)