Review: "Building a People of Power"

Robert C. Linthicum open his book, Building a People of Power: Equipping Churches to Transform Their Communities, by stating, “This book will take you on a journey of discovering biblical principles enabling your church to become a community of relational power that can bring about significant transformation of its neighborhood, its city, and even its own life. That journey is based upon a biblical understanding of power.” The two overarching principles he affirms are “Never do for others what they can do for themselves,” and “When people lack access to political or economic power, the power they have is each other ” He affirms that three questions need to be asked when working with the Scripture: What was going on at the time? What did the text mean to the people of the time? What does the text mean to us?

In the first chapter, Linthicum suggests that the Scripture teaches that the people of God are to transform the world into what God intended. Specifically, he understands that to be “the people of God as the shalom community. This has primarily to do with stewardship and “economic equality...for everyone.” This he grounds in the biblical principle of “Jubilee,” finding three primary indicator of shalom: “A system is an organized body of people gathered around three components: values that are held in common, structures that institutionalize those values, and individuals who manage and operate those institutions.”

Besides looking at the practice of “Jubilee” in the Old Testament, Linthicum overviews the prophets concluding that shalom is lived out through the right practice of religion, just systems, and “the elimination of poverty,” which were the chief goals given to each Israelite. He shows that these continued in the New Testament, as presented in Acts, especially as seen in the church holding all thing in common. This is a principle which he says was never revoked. .

In the second chapter, Linthicum looks at the four pictures of Jesus that are drawn in the four Gospels. He concludes that Jesus was about confronting the corrupt Jewish systems of His day, standing up for the poor and the oppressed, and creating a “new nation of Israel.” .

This new nation of Israel is to be centered around “the free gift of God’s redemptive love.” Through Jesus’ Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, God seeks to bring about His Kingdom on earth.

In the third chapter, Linthicum explains the God’s Salvation is not merely individual, but corporate. This is an understanding that is muted or lost in modern Christianity, but needs to be recovered. Salvation, he argues, is not just redemption of the individual, but the entire created order The problem, biblically, is not the Creation or systems, but human beings and their sin – dies died to restore them.

Basing chapter four in Jeremiah 29:7, Linthicum argues that we are to “work for the [shalom] of the city where I sent you.” This is lived out as the Church “become[s] God’s presence in your city,” “pray[s] for the city, “ “work[s] for social justice and shalom,” and “proclaim[s] the Good News” of Jesus and His Gospel.

He ends this chapter discussing the difference between “unilateral” power – which is a top-down, oppressive power of force – “constitutional” power – which is a top-down, oppressive power of law, and “relational” power – the type of power Jesus engaged in – in which both parties benefit, working for the common good.

In order to build relational power, Linthicum explains in chapter five, one must intentionally engage in building relationships. As an example of how to do this, he looks at Nehemiah and finds that one must being by asking questions and listening, then taking on the joy and pain of the community as one’s own, taking time to pray, considering one’s resources, and, finally, acting at the right time.

Practically, this means getting out into the community and getting to know everyone: Finding out who are the people with passion, who are the people who understand the issues, and who are the leaders. Linthicum gives detailed suggestions about how to engage people in conversation and then the necessity of recording what one learns.

In chapter six, Linthicum takes these meetings a step further, working from his principle “Never do for others what they can do for themselves,” and shows that once one has identified all the things discussed in chapter five, one asks the people, then, “what are you going to do about it?”

In chapter seven, Linthicum explains that a leader must have “vision, passion, and personal validation,” and he looks at several biblical figures to show what this means. From this first principle, he builds eleven total principles for developing leaders.

In the eighth chapter, Linthicum explains “the cycle of action and reflection.” By this he means that one must reflect on an action before it is taken – to make sure of how and what one is doing. After this, there is additional reflection on what is done, and then a more substantive action is reflected upon, and the cycle continues to build and deepen as issues are addressed.

There are, he argues, a number of elements in reflection: evaluating, planning, conscientization – “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against oppressive elements of reality,” imagining what God’s intentions look like, and devotion – that is, looking at it with a spiritual eye. Not merely an intellectual one.

In the ninth chapter, he explains the difference between “violence” and “confrontation.” “Violence” is bringing force against another to achieve one’s purpose – and this is usually done physically. “Confrontation” – the biblical model, as he shows through a number of examples – is the meeting of two disagreeing parties in which they exert power towards each other in an effort to win their purpose.

Linthicum explains in chapter ten that the book of Nehemiah was not so much about rebuilding the wall as it is about community organization. In this case, he rebuilt the spirituality and values of the people by reading the rediscovered Law to them. Then, he showed them their power, celebrated their past – looked at what they had done and overcome thus far, determined and acted upon their newly-articulated values – dealing largely with issues of Jubilee, symbolically set aside certain person to live in Jerusalem, and created a structure to mange the newly repopulated city. These are principles which are transferable into all situations.

In the eleventh chapter, Linthicum asks “ kind of transformation we are seeking?” He explains three possible types: “the church in the community” – in which the church is in a community but feels not attachment to it, “the church to the community” – in which the church sees itself as the community’s savior, and “the church with the community” – where the church “seeks to incarnate itself within that community” – partnering with the community. The third being the preferable way.

In the final chapter, Linthicum argues that there are a variety of spiritual and material mays that the church will benefit by engaging in community organization, and he encourages the reader to see if he is not correct in his vision.

This is a book I had to read for school, and though Linthicum is zealous for “the welfare of the city,” he ignores basic logic to make the Scripture prove his points. Two major cases are to be found in his understanding of Jeremiah 29:7 and Acts 2:44.

Jeremiah 29:7 (ESV) reads, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Linthicum says that this promise made to ancient Israel is valid to all people everywhere – this is foundational to his book. However, his logic fails: if I make a promise to my mother, the rest of the United States cannot claim that promise for themselves.

Acts 2:44 (ESV) reads, “And all who believed were together and held all things in common.” From this he envisions pure Christianity with absolute economic equality. However, in Acts 5:4, Peter explains that it is perfectly permissible for a Christian to hold land, and thus be in economic disparity with other Christians.

Linthicum could have argued for Christian care for the welfare of the city in other ways – ways that are biblical, But he has not, and his book fails in its purpose.