Powers, the church, and powerlessness

Powers and the church: Marva Dawn touched off a string of thoughts about power and powerlessness. In her book Power, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God, Dawn warns the church tha we may be cuaght up in the powers of the world more than we know. She reminds us that we are in a spiritual war. The powers want us to conform to the world. (Whaever one believes about spiritual powers and the structures of the world, one can agree there is that temptation; c.f., Jesus' prayer in John 17).

Is the American church working by power? Conforming to the world’s ways? Do we praise men for service, eloquent speech?  

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing” (1 Cor. 2:4-6).

Dawn reminds us of the long heritage of heroes of the faith. It was when they were weak that God’s power “tabernacled” on them—it rested on them, filled them, dwelt in them, and worked through them. In Paul’s oft-quoted verse, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest [episkenoo] on me”, the Greek word episkenoo literally means “to spread a tabernacle over.” It reminds the reader of God’s filling men in the Old Testament, his dwelling among them in the tabernacle and the signs and wonders he did there, and Christ becoming flesh and dwelling  [skenoo] among men. When David had no power against Goliath, he fought Goliath in the power of the living God. When Deborah and Barak were greatly outnumbered and out-powered by Sisera, God came and he wreaked havoc. The Bible is clear that it was God who routed Sisera. God’s power rested and worked through the weakness of men. He alone deserves the glory.

Dawn challenges us to look at our churches—are we working in our own power or in our weakness? What does it mean to minister out of our weakness—for me personally and for the corporate church? Can we step back and discern once again if we are conforming to the world? Where are we clearly depending on Christ—where are we making him great because we cannot but yet in him we do?

Power and the powerless: This takes on a new meaning when I look at the context of Honduras, when I recieve numerous calls each week--"Can your church help pay rent?", and the context of the abuse that goes on in the world. These people experience a degree of powerlessness that I have not walked through. Those in poverty may be caught up in a generational cycle that truly has malicious power behind it, whether it be spiritual, mental, or material, or structural. The abused have seen the dark side of human's power and may rebel against it or tremble before it.

What does church look like to them? Do they perceive the local church as powerful in a negative way with our material resources, traditions, structures of doing church, etc? What does it mean to minister to them in weakness? What does Paul’s verse “to the weak I become the weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22) mean in the context of ministering to a congregation in the middle of an impoverished community? To a congregation where statistically speaking 1 out of 4 women or more have been sexually abused and 1 out of 4 women experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner? What does that mean when a congregation has members from such different walks of life (as I believe it should be)?