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by
Jamin Goggin
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March 27 - March 31, 2020
But God revealed clearly that beneath
the surface we were desperate for power. God led us into the truth of our hearts, revealing how deeply and pervasively pride drove our lives and how much we relied upon our own strength.
Over time we have come to see that the way of power commended in Scripture is not the way of power we have seen in evangelicalism.
What happens when Christians embody a worldly approach to power and try to use that to advance Christ’s kingdom?
As he talked about the dynamics that contributed to his infidelity, at the forefront were pride, status, and grandiosity.
This is the first temptation of power: We view the problem as “out there.” We recognize it in other churches, pastors, fellow Christians, or political and cultural leaders, but we ignore the problem in our own hearts.
Paradoxically, as I began to acknowledge my longing for power, another temptation appeared in my heart. I became tempted to reject power altogether. It simplifies things quite a bit if we can reject power wholesale, viewing any position of influence as intrinsically evil. For our generation—which is drowning in a sea of political, social, and religious examples of power gone awry—this is an alluring temptation.
As painful as our experiences in the church may have been, we must avoid the temptation of viewing power itself as bad.
Power is a grace of God.
Power is the capacity to affect reality. We human beings have the capacity to physically, emotionally, and spiritually influence the world around us. God has given us this capacity for good—to glorify him and bless the world. But as Christians, our primary interest is not simply in affecting reality. Our primary interest is to bear fruit of the kingdom—the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23).
Wisdom is not essentially about making right decisions, but about living by the power of God in Christ Jesus.
The way from above and the way from below are distinguished not only by the source of power, but also by the fruit or results of power.
I (Jamin) have seen this in my own journey. In my early years of ministry I was convinced that my quest for power was merely a fervent commitment to the important work of the kingdom. My grandiose fantasy of success was excused as an embrace of God’s big plan for my life. I had big dreams because I had “bold faith.” My emphasis on building a strong résumé and winning the approval of others was about making the most of my talents and abilities for God’s glory. I found it surprisingly easy to adorn the way from below in the platitudes of Christian leadership, magically transforming evil into
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One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love . . . What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love, implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.5
Outward fruit is not a guarantee that a heart is truly abiding in God. And such fruit does us no good at all (1 Cor. 13:1–3).
The same act that brought judgment upon Moses quenched the thirst of the people. God’s power to act is not contingent upon our obedience.
True kingdom fruit is both internal and external.
“The power of God, then, is not something God has; it is something God is.”
The way from above is power from God and power for God;
Because we are prone to waywardness, prone to walk the path of pride, self-sufficiency, and power, we need the church to ground us in Christ and his way. We cannot live in Christ’s way on our own.
In a culture drunk on power and in need of an intervention, the church has too often become an enabler. In many places, churches openly affirm the way from below. Instead of being told how desperately I am in need of God, I am repeatedly told how much God needs me.
We hear gospels of moralism, centering on my power to become a better person, and we hear sermons offering up God as merely another resource along my journey for successful and happy living.
Instead of hearing God’s vision of redeeming all things in Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit, we hear of the pastor’s vision to grow an even bigger church that does bigger things so that he can be powerful and we can be powerful with him.
We can build buildings, programs, and services of power that are, in the end, weightless.
Through pain, disease, rejection, and the toil of ministering in an age when “old” is often synonymous with “out-of-touch,” these mentors radiated incredible joy and a deep warmth of spirit.
I discovered that while my calling was true, my heart was anything but.
These were hidden desires, tucked deep away, but they were there—desires for significance, fame, and influence.
I had no fantasies about sitting in a hospital room, grieving with a church member who had just lost a loved one. I had no fantasies of long hours of study in my office, prayerfully preparing a sermon. Rather, my fantasy usually involved a big stage and a big audience.
I had succumbed to one of the most primal idolatries, using God as a tool to have life on my terms.
The Christian life is one that requires dependence, humility, and weakness to know strength.
For Christians, the journey into true power begins with the realization of our desire for false
power.
“In the Christian life and in ministry,” he began, “weakness is the way. The way of weakness, as I understand it, has two basic aspects. One is that the watching world sees you as weak in the sense of being limited and inadequate. The second aspect is that you yourself are very conscious of being limited and inadequate. In that respect, we are all to walk in Paul’s footsteps, knowing God’s strength in the midst of our human weakness.”
In many ways, I functionally considered the way of weakness to be foolish, not only in ministry, but in my life as a whole.
We easily embrace the worldly way of power and call it God’s way.
Making a name for yourself, hiding your weaknesses, and emphasizing strengths are considered normal.
Being special is the Achilles’ heel of many churches today. They want to stand out and be noticed.
We create metrics and tools for measuring our growth, our programs, and our ministry output because we need to feel as if we are doing something important. We locate our value and significance along the landscape of other churches, asking how we stack up in terms of size, influence, or pastoral notoriety.
I think that in contemporary evangelical worship there is often an element of showing off, which is external. Pride is the disposition controlling the heart, but externally it looks like, it believes itself to be, the praise of God.”
“You should have a fifty-year plan—a vision for growth over a long period of time as you embrace your weakness.”
Rather than meeting the Corinthians’ expectations, however, Paul shone a light on the very weaknesses that caused him criticism, putting his weakness front and center
This is not merely a question of what leadership “style” you like, but a question of whether you embrace the way of Jesus.
Paul viewed an embrace of weakness as an embrace of strength, because in weakness he could depend upon the might of God.
Paul is not trying to create clones of himself but followers of Christ, exhorting them to “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”
It is in the areas of our lives where we are most able, the places we think we are strong, where we are most often called into weakness. It is in our strengths where we think we can avoid abiding in Christ, where we sow to the flesh rather than abide by the Spirit. It is in our strengths where we trust our own personal savvy rather than the calling of God.
It is God’s energy at work within that we must come to embrace; but his energy is not the power to achieve, but the power of dependence and love.
In one way or another, we are called into weakness; and we are all called into our weakness in the church as well.
The Tower of Babel is in our hearts. Life is about how high you can get.
God invites us into the valley. The question is whether we will accept the invitation. The valley will always be in the shadow of the mountains. The mountains, with their dramatic peaks and pillars to the clouds, will always appear more special to the world around you. Becoming a valley is truly humbling. And yet this is the place where the rain soaks deep and fruit is truly produced. The valley is the place of life. It is the place of kingdom power.
Impatience is a cultural epidemic. There is a widespread desperation for power, but an equally broad neglect of the patience it takes to bear kingdom fruit.
