Transforming Power: Biblical Strategies for Making a Difference in Your Community

by Robert C. Linthicum

Book Overview

"Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just"--Blaise Pascal. Problems plague the world around us. Many in our churches and communities face injustice, crime, poverty, racism and other daunting evils. But often Christians have not known how to respond effectively. The issues seem bigger than anything the church can handle, and so we are paralyzed into inaction...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830832289
• ISBN13: 9780830832286
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: IVP
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Transforming Power

This is an outstanding piece--it should be far more widely read than the attention it has received.

Putting in transforming action

The book is an inspiring, practical Biblically-based manual for moving from charity to transformation of community. It is enriched by practical examples from real life experiences in low income communities and working with people with sound theological underpinnings. It is inspiring;one feels hopeful and not dependent on experts, but that transformation, step by step, can happen with committed people inspired by hope and small first successes. A must book for people working in low income communities, especially with faith connections.

A useful theology of activism

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.