Simon Cox Blog: 20 Truths from "The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb"

Saturday, 28 January 2017

Searching for Jesus' Path of Power in a Church that has Abandoned It

I am glad to feature a new book by Kyle Strobel and Jamin Goggin on the blog today. Kyle is an assistant professor of Spiritual Theology at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; Jamin is a pastor at Mission Hills Church in San Marcos, CA. Kyle and Jamin have also co-written Beloved Dust: Drawing Close to God by Discovering the Truth About Yourself (2014). You can find them at www.metamorpha.com. Below I am sharing 20 Truths from Kyle and Jamin’s latest book, The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It (2017).

This is a power known through death and resurrection – moving through our weakness to a new kind of strength – strength in abiding, submitting, and resting in God alone. (11)
Power is the capacity to effect reality. (11)
God can move in his grace to produce kingdom fruit despite our pride, but the call for followers of Jesus is to have hearts congruent with his work. (16)
In a culture drunk on power and in need of an intervention, the church has too often become an enabler. (18)
As Christians, our journey into true power begins with the realization of our desire for false power. (24)
We are often called into places where all we know is weakness. (36)
Often when we fail to stand firm against the powers, it is because we believe the powers can actually save us. We buy into the lie that we can employ evil powers for the kingdom. (74)
We must stand against evil in the church first, if we hope for the church to unify and discern what she is to stand against in the world around us. (92)
When our weakness is exposed we can try to reject community, but we cannot escape it. (103)
We have always been called to be with others, not simply near them, but truly with them. (108)