Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God
- Church Leadership & Ministry
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Published: 2001
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Publisher's Description
As we embark on the new millennium, uncharted challenges await the church. This volume by one of today's most valued voices on modern church life offers a wealth of insight into the role of local churches in the twenty-first century. Rooted in solid biblical research and extensive experience, Marva Dawn's newest book will help churches and their leaders avoid falling to the temptations of contemporary secular culture, including the popular "success" models of church management. Dawn offers groundbreaking scholarship--from the first significant critique of Walter Wink's work on "the powers" to a relevant new translation of 2 Corinthians 12:9--and challenges readers to rethink the goals and mission of the congregation, to develop practices that follow God's "hidden" way of weakness, and to expand their sense of what it means to be a faithful church. Complete with discussion questions, this book provides the trustworthy theological and biblical foundations necessary for building strong churches--and keeping them strong--in today's world.
Endorsements (4)
“This may well be the best and most important book Marva Dawn has written. That, of course, is saying a great deal, since she has written quite wonderful books. In this new work Dawn uses her profound reading of Paul's understanding of powers to illumine the challenges before the church. Drawing on the work of Jacques Ellul, she helps us see how the powers insidiously gain influence over our lives. Turly a wonderful book.”
“This is the kind of writing and teaching that can save the church from being duped by the 'deceitful tongue' of slick contemporaneity — if we will only listen. Careful and honest exegetical work combined with years of frontline experience in dealing with the lies and illusions of our culture come together here as Marva Dawn brings clarity and urgency to the elusive 'principalities and powers.”
“Marva Dawn has become a powerful interpretive force of late, and this book advances significantly the weightiness of her contribution. In the wake of Jacques Ellul she asks hard questions about the church's carelessly and eagerly embracing too much of the world's notions of success and power. Into the middle of that gigantic misstep in the church, Dawn points yet again to the cross. She agilely moves back and forth between sharp theological critique and the concrete practice of the church. In her hands the disciplines of the early church in Acts become accessible and credible. She has the real church and real pastors in purview; and to us she speaks the reality of the gospel that has been so much distorted. Dawn is gifted in clearing the deck of old carelessnesses and inviting us to fresh and urgent, yet not complex, decisions. An important read!”
“Marva Dawn insightfully challenges our present practices and priorities in the church. She locates the church's well-being in weakness, not in following the powers and techniques of a market-driven society, 'so that Christ's power may tabernacle in us and the purposes of God might be fulfilled through us.' This useful text is a needed reminder to seminarians and parishioners alike that the church's renewal is not of our own doing — it is a gift from God.”
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