We continue our series on race, gender, and power in the church with Dr. Diane Langberg. Dr. Langberg joined us on the podcast to talk about her new book, Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church. She framed the systemic sin of power abuse in biblical categories, reclaiming a helpful theological framework for how sin inhabits structures and cultures in our churches.
You can connect with Dr. Langberg on her website.
Connect with Gravity Leadership
Want to stay connected with us? Here are a few ways:
- Support out work on Patreon and get access to our Practitioner Podcast
- Check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 10-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
- Join our online community (FREE) to get a curated list of interesting and edifying articles each week, plus free resources for leading like Jesus, living on mission, and making disciples. Fill out the form below to join us.
______________________________________________________________________
A special Thank You to our Membership Community on Patreon who help make this podcast possible:
Skeeter Seifert, David Veenstra, Jackie Harden, Brian Smith, Ron McGowin, Michael Linsner, Parker Williams, Sue Nellis, Craig Conaway, Lana, Jay, Matthew Aldas, Dan Bredberg, Catherine Savard, Jerry Bowling, Cody Reeder, Mike Scott, Andrew Boness, Rich & Heather Cordero, Mike and Christy Trabun, Robert H Lackie, Laura Moon, Matt Tebbe, Dr. Phillip Martin Corbell, Jenny Hackman Arnerl, David Stravers, Bryan Mills, Steve Earnshaw, Jesse Harden, Eric Nordgren, Matthew Young, Gino Curcuruto, Carla Daehnke, Greg Arthur, and others!
It is interesting how we define SIN. Our definition shapes our ideas and response. If our definition is not complete, not fully developed, if it does not get to the essence of what sin is, we will not be able to find a cure, find a solution for the systemic issues that Diane talk about.
When I first become a Christian, sin was explained to me an undesirable behavior. This seemed logical, we can choose to do things that are good, and choose to NOT do things that hurt others. But we sometimes do things and we don’t know why we do them.
The next level is perhaps we have “mistaken beliefs”. This was an idea that I have seen in the Soma discipleship movement, that there are 5 great truths about God that shape us. Josh McDowell has mentioned this idea of mistaken beliefs before as well. This was a good start, but still I did not know why I was alarmed or angry, why I resisted coercion. We often say we need “our right theology”, we need “Jesus as the Center of our lives”, but I still was not growing.
I now define sin as “our immaturity”. We have simply not grown up yet. This is an emotional process, and we cannot learn to grow up, we must find a rest in a caring relationship of another person. After listening to the [Axiom 1]: God Is Always Present and At Work, this idea that sin is “our immaturity” perfectly fits. There is no need for God to be absent. The good theology is of cause helps support us, but for the purpose of emotional growth. Our brains literally need to grow like a muscle , and we need to be “free from the pursuit of proximity” to do this.
I think once we start to explore what is immaturity, and how do we emotionally mature, we will find solutions for the systemic problems that we face, in churches and in our societies.