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Imagine with me for a moment, sitting and conversing with a collection of the wisest people you can find. People you know who won’t spare your feelings, to address some of the dangerous agendas likely hidden in your heart.
This is what you should expect when you read The Way of the Lamb or The Way of The Dragon: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It, by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel (Thomas Nelson 2017).
This book challenges [the] reader about the use of power in the church. It explores what it means to pastor, serve and lead people in a growing consumerist culture.
Pastor Goggin and Theology Professor Strobel sit down with the likes of J. I. Packer, Dallas Willard, James Houston, Eugene Peterson and others, asking questions about how we might follow Jesus. Will we follow him authentically while living in the world? Even when the world constantly rejects Jesus’ approach to leadership, as it yearns for more power, influence and notoriety?
This isn’t a book that makes ministry neat and tidy, offering you a formula for leading well. It’s a book that dares to challenge the culture of our churches, leadership and mission, and risks losing it all for the sake of the Gospel. All while your heart is strangely encouraged, lifted, inspired, lightened and pointed again to Jesus.
The tone is set in the introduction when the authors say, “The Bible’s vision of power in weakness and suffering for the sake of the gospel didn’t harmonize very well with our quest for power, influence and ministerial acclaim, yet somehow we managed to avoid facing the tension.”
The book goes on to explore this tension in great depth. They challenge the common practices of the church and its leadership. They even state that our greatest intentions to serve in our current leadership climate are easily used and more readily aligned with Satan’s agenda.
With ideas like “We were not created to pursue power as an end in itself, but rather to pursue God, the powerful one and abide in his power to bless the world.” This book is well worth reading and deeply reflecting on.
They continue: “I wanted to proclaim the gospel and shepherd God’s people. But there were other desires at work in my heart as well. These were hidden desires, tucked deep away, but they were there—desires for significance, fame, and influence.” Here Goggin and Strobel name the truth that every Christian leader knows intimately. But they do so in a way that coaxes these hidden desires out of the darkness and into the light.
It needs to be said that The Way of the Lamb, The Way of The Dragon isn’t a church-bashing book. It’s a book written to help the church see what it has become, repent and find its restoration in Christ. As Goggin and Strobel beautifully put it, “The church is the place where the powers are to be exposed for what they are and are continually put to shame as they were upon the cross.”
I highly recommend this book to every leader, to be read slowly, thoughtfully and prayerfully.
 | Rev. Ralph Mayhew has been leading people for more than 20 years. He is a lead pastor, author and seminary lecturer in practical theology and ministry and has a Masters in Christian Leadership. At the beginning of 2017, after 14 years of ordained ministry, he planted Burleigh Village Church; a local church encouraging people to think Jesus. He has written several books among them The Anonymous Leader: An Unambitious Pursuit of Influence and How To Create The Organizational Culture You Want. |
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