A couple days with fitch

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a couple days listening to David Fitch talk about his latest book Reckoning With Power: Why the Church Fails When It's On the Wrong Side of Power. It was a three-session event put on by the Y and a local Methodist church. 

For several reasons I didn't take very many notes, but here are the few things I did write down:

• "How do we not take over for God and squeeze him out?" was how he began the discussion.
• The main point of the book is that there are two powers and not just one: worldly power (power over) and Godly power (power with, or under)
  
• "A lot of reformed people somehow think government was formed BEFORE the fall... and all we need to do is simply get government working right again. This is false." Amen!
• James 3 - wisdom from above
• ** "There's nothing unpowerful about the Spirit of God." This statement had the most impact on me of all three sessions. The idea that we think worldly power is somehow the only power is ludicrous - especially for professing Christians. Read Ephesians 1:17ff. Btw, Fitch prefers the term "Power of the Spirit" to "spirituality." 
• He mentioned something about the book Conflict Is Not Abuse by Sarah Schulman.
• His definitions of power:
• Power Over (Max Weber, Robert Dahl)
• Power Within (Foucalt, CRT)
• Power To (2nd & 3rd wave feminism)
• Power With (MLK Jr., Butler, Schulman, Cone, Guitierrez)
• "Without Jesus there can be not true Power With" (we end up defaulting into control). 
• "If you can take control of this power, it's not God's power."
• "Ideology can be demonic. The only thing that breaks the hold is when we make space for God. Making space for the power of God takes cooperation - it can't be coerced."

As for my personal observations:

I really liked the book. I think it's an important work and think it should be widely read in the church. I was also highly anticipating this chance to hear Fitch in person (again). I was honestly a little disappointed though. For one thing, he's simply not a very personable guy - which is fine; I'm not either. He apparently also struggles a bit with ADD, which seemed to be a little out of control at the Thursday morning (final) session. Perhaps the main issue was - and I don't know if it was his fault or the organizers - but the sessions did not line up at all with what was advertised. I think several of us in attendance had different expectations for what this was going to involve. Still, though, I highly enjoyed my time at all three sessions. It was nice to have something to do, it was good to be around other church leaders again, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mental stimulation. I was also glad Jane got to attend the Wednesday evening session with me. I'd kind of hoped to maybe invite Fitch out for lunch or a drink or something... but it didn't happen. I think it had to do with something I said Wednesday night. He gave me the mic and wanted to know what I was thinking. The main thing on my mind after reading the book and sitting through the first couple sessions was... How to avoid the Hubris Syndrome? He mentions it in the book, and also the story of Mark Driscoll's demise (basically letting power go to your head)... and I shared how, on a much smaller scale, that happened to me, and how I'm scared to death of it happening again. He'd suggested a number of things to "do"... but knowing what to do and not doing it are two different things... so how do I not go back there? His response was a sort-of "Yeah, I get that. It scares me too." However, he wouldn't even look at me Thursday morning. So I don't know if he mistakenly felt like I was calling him out; or it was probably more just my imagination. Jane thought it was my imagination, but you know me. Anyway, I didn't invite him out to lunch. He was probably already going out with someone else anyhow.

So, that's a really long paragraph to say... While the event wasn't what I expected, I still liked the book, and I'm still glad I got to participate. I wish I could do more things like that.

Here are a bunch of pics (completely out of order) taken by someone else that give a better idea of what he talked about: