Tug of War: The Downward Ascent of Power

Tug of War

THE DOWNWARD ASCENT OF POWER

Wilmer G. Villacorta

Foreword by Richard W. Clinton

Tug of War

The Downward Ascent of Power

Copyright © 2017 Wilmer G. Villacorta. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-9828-5

hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-4881-5

ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-9829-2

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Villacorta, Wilmer G.

Title: Tug of war : the downward ascent of power / Wilmer G. Villacorta.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-4982-9828-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-4982-4881-5 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-4982-9289-2 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Power (Christian theology). | Religion Christian Life. | I. Title.

Classification: BT738.25 V50 2017 (paperback) | call number (ebook)

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 07/25/17

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Powerless Way of God

Chapter 2: Quest for Power—The Human Way

Chapter 3: The Conundrum of Power

Chapter 4: Facing the Struggle of Power

Chapter 5: Powerless Hope

Chapter 6: The Power of the Powerless Life

Chapter 7: The Illusive and Necessary Meaning of Power

Chapter 8: The Collective and Freeing Meaning of Power

Chapter 9: The Grand and Humble Way of Power

Conclusion

Bibliography

Over the past several years, I have had the privilege of observing Wilmer’s mentoring of leaders in our Master of Arts in Global Leadership program as he facilitates their telling and reflection on their stories of how God has worked in their lives. This book helps us all learn some of those most important lessons so that we can, in turn, see the tug of war going on in our leadership as we deal with power.

—Robert Freeman, 
Associate Dean, Fuller Theological Seminary.

To Deb Flagg, who has lived out the downward ascent of power through her life, patience, determination, and vulnerable spirit.

Foreword

I can remember the first time I heard someone speaking German. It sounded like one long string of sounds all connected to each other. As I started to learn the language, the long string of sounds began to be transformed into words, later into sentences and meaning emerged from all those sounds. As I read this book, I had a similar experience. At first all the words like power, powerlessness, the downward ascent, strength and weakness were just words all jumbled up together. As I worked through the book and began to reflect on what was being written, these words began to take on meaning. What I was experiencing was the process of being led through a paradigm shift in regards to how a human being uses power in their relationships to others.

I have been getting to know Dr. Wilmer Villacorta for a little more than ten years now. In keeping with the theme of this book, I will just use his first name although he has certainly earned all the honorifics that go with his educational accomplishments. I first heard about Wilmer from my father who was his mentor and professor at Fuller Seminary. In 2009, I got to know Wilmer personally when we stayed at his house while we were investigating the possibility of moving to Colorado. Then we began to do some ministry together. We did move to Colorado and have lived only a few miles from Wilmer for nearly eight years now. Wilmer and I are part of a small group of peers who meet once a month to share our stories, help encourage each other and strengthen each other. As I have gotten to know Wilmer and then read this book, I can say this book comes out of his unique journey with God and is a part of who he is. It is a book about theoretical knowledge but a book about what he has learned in his journey with God.

Power is the force used to influence another person or situation. As Wilmer points out, it is neither positive nor negative in and of itself. How the power we have is used is what this book is all about. All of us have some level of power. Some have a lot of power and some have very little. When human beings interact, power is being used every time. The big questions that Wilmer is asking all of us are . . . how are we using power? What has been our experience with using power and how other people have used their power with us? And most importantly, how does our use of power line up with Jesus and his use of power?

If we look at the biblical narrative, this tug of war over how to use power began in the garden of Eden after God created everything. He told the human beings to multiply and fill the earth and rule it. Govern it. Take dominion over it. In others words, use your God-given power to exert control. If we would have done that with God, doing it God’s way, we wouldn’t need a book like this. However, the fall of human beings away from God’s way of doing things introduced brokenness, pain, abuse, suffering and sinfulness into the world. This fall has created many scenarios where human beings abuse their power as they try to exert their power.

As Wilmer makes so abundantly clear through the narratives that he shares throughout the book, the reality of human beings abusing power is all around us. It has been done to us. We have done it to others. I wish this abuse of power were just limited to people without any relationship to God but this book is not written for people who don’t know God. It is addressing those of us who profess a relationship to God. And if we are honest, we know we need help.

And that is what this book is trying to do. Wilmer invites us into a journey. A journey of discovery. A journey to both the high places in our lives and the valleys. And the journey has a destination. It points us to Jesus. Jesus lived his life in a way that models for all of us a way to live using the power God has given us in a way that God intended. It is what Wilmer calls the downward ascent. It is an invitation to embrace with authentic humility the way of powerlessness and live in the posture of fully embracing our weakness.

Wilmer, by carefully weaving narratives together from some people we might know and others we don’t know, leads us into a confrontation with ourselves. Some of us will easily identify with a story in this book and it will help us see our own story better. Some of what we read will seem like foreign concepts or experiences to us but regardless of how we relate to one of the stories, all of the narratives will help us know the human condition better.

Why is this book important? I think there are a number of reasons. First of all, this book describes a process, a journey that is a major part of God’s agenda in the world. I firmly believe that we are heading into a season ahead of us where the requirements on leaders and how we do leadership are changing. Jesus, through his life, his death on the cross, and his resurrection is bringing us back to the Father. But more importantly, he is bringing us back to the way we were designed to live. He is helping us establish an authentic, life-giving relationship with God. He is helping us establish an authentic, life-giving way of relationship with other human beings. And he is helping us establish a life-giving authentic relationship to creation as God designed it to be. The abuse of power in human relationships as Wilmer shares so clearly has been at the heart of humanity’s brokenness and at the heart of evil and darkness in the world. Jesus is working to heal this one person at a time.

A second reason why this book is important is because it invites us into a discovery process of what has been happening in our own journey. It forces us to take a good long look within ourselves. It helps us to confront our own desires for power and control. It helps us identify experiences with other people where we were either the victims of an abuse of power or the perpetrator of an abuse of power. Only by honestly evaluating what happened to us can we get unstuck and move toward healing and wholeness.

A third reason why this book is important is that we become aware of the places in us where we are vulnerable to brokenness and abuse and we become aware of the ways that we abuse power and try to exert control in the wrong way. It is hard to be honest with ourselves at times. But worth the effort. Wilmer’s reflection questions at the end of each chapter help us truly see what is going on in our own story. If we engage in honest reflection, we will see clearly what is going on and what God is putting his finger on deep inside us.

A fourth reason this book is so important is that we can see from the stories of others that it is worth the struggle to embrace the downward ascent of powerlessness as the extreme expression of true power. Using God’s power in this way truly frees us and sets us free to serve, love and be a blessing to others. We join Jesus in the work of reconciliation and restoration in his kingdom. We will begin to truly understand what Paul was talking about when he wrote about strength displayed in weakness. What the world calls powerlessness actually turns out to be incredibly powerful. What a journey!

While the beginning of the journey through this book may be difficult, like learning a new language, the effort to dive in, interact with and wrestle with if necessary all the ideas this book is confronting us with . . . is worth the effort. I thought maybe I should issue something of a warning in this foreword like enter at your own risk.

But I think the real danger lies in not entering into the journey. My father has been issuing a challenge/warning for decades. Few leaders finish well. This comes out of a lifetime of study of the biblical leaders. What is clear from their stories is this: it is not easy to finish a lifetime journey with God in a good way. And one of the most common issues that blocks or limits leaders from finishing well is how they use the power God has given them, in their families, in their personal relationships, in their leadership activities, with the resources at their disposal and within themselves. So jump in . . . explore, reflect, wrestle with and embrace the journey. Thank you, Wilmer, for being our guide.

Richard W. Clinton

Acknowledgments

This book is the result of learning how our life stories are adorned by joy and marked by sorrow. This learning has renewed my heart and has given a deep sense of hope—that the way of powerlessness is God’s amazing idea that disarmed all powers in the world. I am deeply convinced that this is a spirituality yet to be rediscovered and embraced if we, followers of Jesus, are beacons of hope in a broken and violent world.

As I reflect back on this writing journey, it is immensely gratifying to realize that this endeavor had to do a lot with meaningful voices and hearts cheering me along the way.

Thanks, first and foremost, to Jesus Christ, who walked a treacherous path of powerlessness—I never realized how beautiful and powerful it truly was. It has given me new eyes to read and reflect on the Scriptures as a mosaic of our human struggle for power and seeing the triune God rewriting history by his vulnerable engagement with our humanity through his suffering love. Lord, I love you for your vulnerable way, which led you to embrace the cross.

Thanks to many of my students in the Master of Arts in Global Leadership at Fuller Seminary, whose life stories inspired me and helped me discover a counter-narrative of power. Finding strength, hope and perspective in the midst of sorrow rewrote many of their stories of powerlessness as they embraced it and shared it in community with others. Now, they continue to share the good news as they touch the lives of men and women caught in the struggle of living in a power-driven world.

Thanks to