Fire confined to part of the church (7)
I believe the answer is:
inspire
'fire' is the definition.
(I know that inspire is a more specific form of encourage)
'part of the church' is the wordplay.
'part of' becomes 'in' (being in something means being part of it).
'the church' becomes 'spire' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in'+'spire'='INSPIRE'
'confined to' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inspire that I've seen before include "Fill with confidence - be the origin of" , "Give rise to; breath in" , "Galvanize" , "Stimulate to creation" , "Encourage - animate - draw into the lungs" .)