Missions Resources - Bibliography
Transforming Power
Authors: Robert Linthicum
ISBN: 0830832289
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Number of pages: 216
Type of cover: Soft Cover
Summary: As Christians, we can no more avoid power than we can avoid sex: power is central to what it means to be human. All of us have power; some of us have more than others. Stewardship of what we have is our assignment, appointed by none other than Jesus himself. In recent years we've become ashamed of power, thinking it the same as violence, or oppression, or inequality. But power - even in its unevenly distributed form - is part of God's vision for society.
To simply throw away our power is far easier and far less creative than to systematically wield our power for God's purposes. While cession may occasionally be the godly approach – also modeled by Jesus in his incarnation and passion – it is quite often in the Christian community an abdication of responsibility.
Robert Linthicum is an influential community organizer. Formerly the director of World Vision International’s urban ministry division, and a frequent teacher on urban ministry at seminaries, he is experienced in both the inner realities of church life, and the practical realities of society. His stories alone make this book worth reading. Transforming Power is Linthicum’s challenge to the Evangelical World to be smart about power – not the smoke and mirrors power of politics, which he hardly mentions, but the real, daily life power of bringing positive change to neighborhoods and cities.
Starting with a solid biblical theology of society, with its spiritual, cultural, economical and political strands, Linthicum then moves to a description of God’s intentions for the world. His discussion of the shalom community will not be new to frequent urbana.org readers, but he manages to bring freshness to the topic.
Linthicum’s core message is what he calls the “Iron Rule of Power”: never do for others what they can do for themselves. This notion, honed over decades of community organizing, means simply: don’t create dependencies. Linthicum’s case study is Nehemiah, who managed to enlist the residents of a decimated Jerusalem in the rebuilding of its walls.
Moving to the New Testament, Linthicum discusses the difference between relational power, legislative power, and violent power. The former is the greatest, because it is the longest lasting, and the most effective. It is also the power wielded by Jesus to the tremendous frustration of the wielders of legislative power in his day. In the same way, Christians need to be great stewards of their relationships, in order to most effectively distribute God’s empowerment among his church.
Transforming Power is both a theoretical book and a practical book and is well worth the read. While it could have used a bit more discussion of spiritual realities and strongholds, the book should provide a powerful biblical framework for our use of, rather than our flight from, power.
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