Reckoning with Power

Why the Church Fails When It's on the Wrong Side of Power

By: David E. Fitch

Narrated by: James R. Cheatham

History is clear: Whenever the church has aligned itself with worldly, coercive power, it ends up on the wrong side of important justice issues.

But when the church cooperates with God's power through his presence among the least powerful, its witness for Jesus transforms the world into a better place.

In Reckoning with Power, David Fitch unpacks the difference between worldly power, or power over others, and God's power, which engages not in coercion but in love, reconciliation, grace, forgiveness, and healing.

In a world where we can see the abuses of power everywhere—in our homes, schools, governments, and churches—Fitch teaches listeners how to discern power and avoid its abuses and traumas. By learning from the church's historical pitfalls, Fitch empowers Christians to relinquish worldly power and make space for God to disrupt and transform our culture for his kingdom.

©2024 David E. Fitch (P)2024 eChristian

Insightful.

I met the author few weeks ago the unite, Jesus Collective conference. In person he is according remarkable individual, and was phenomenal as well. Highly recommended.

Introductory analysis of power

This was an interesting introductory analysis of power from a christian perspective. Or rather that christian should be very weary of worldly power.

Embracing God’s power…..requires resisting temptation of other powers!

Excellent challenging exposure of the true nature of power other than God’s power that has caused us to miss God’s power in its fullness. Yet it gives so much hope of the beautiful opportunity to change and lean into God’s power in order to see real transformation with love being paramount enduring tool in this shifting to God’s power.

Disappointing

I was prepared to enjoy this book. I agree with author on the major premise, Christians should eschew worldly power and embrace the Spirit’s power for accomplishing good works in the world. And I agree that Christians should align ourselves with the poor and oppressed.

However, the author seems to believe that churches holding to a traditional sexual ethic and taking a non-affirming stance is oppressive towards LGBTQ individuals and siding with worldly power. I would agree that we should not try to gain worldly power in order to coerce people into behaving sexually. However, he apparently has a problem with churches even articulating a position against sexual immorality. He seems to believe that we should be in a “discerning” stage as it pertains to gender and sexuality. This, of course, assumes that the truth on these matters has not already been revealed in Scripture and that the church has not already discerned this truth for 2,000 years.

There are certainly issues that arise on which the church should take a discerning approach and I don’t necessarily disagree with the process he proposes. However, this is not a new or unique issue. And the “queer theorists” that he often references do not trump the nearly unanimous position of Christian theologians for the last two millennia on the issue of sexual ethics.

I very rarely leave a negative review and I hate to do so now. My strong agreement with many of the things the author says is in tension with my equally strong disagreement with everything he says on the topic of sexuality.