Circle of Hope: A Reckoning With Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold

Author:Eliza Griswold [Griswold, Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology of Religion, Religion, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Christianity, United Church of Christ
ISBN: 9780374601683
Google: HdrREAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0374601682
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2024-08-05T22:00:00+00:00

There were many necessary correctives happening in the world around him, and Jonny was eager to help lead them. What others saw as “cancel culture,” Jonny viewed as essential collective action. “We can expect that our sin will hurt and send people away,” he blogged. “That’s a consequence of our actions, that’s not condemnation or cancellation.”

* * *

Jonny diagnosed the Whites’ struggle to let go of power as “founder’s syndrome,” a problem in business when CEOs fail to adapt to organizational change. This led to abuses of power and laid ruin to companies. Jonny first read about founder’s syndrome in secular organizations, but churches also suffered from it.

In his dissertation for his doctor of ministry degree from Asbury Theological Seminary, Steve Murrell, a church strategist and evangelical missionary to the Philippines, wrote, “Most ministry leaders not only have their identity tied to their ministry, they also have most of their friends connected to their ministry … How can a leader turn over the position to the next generation, yet still identify as a minister of the gospel, stay relationally connected with friends and colleagues, and do something with their time that matters?”

Jonny had observed founder’s syndrome at Circle as early as 2008 in Rod’s desire to control all aspects of the church. “I slowly brought it up with the other pastors, cautioning against it,” Jonny said. But no one had paid much attention to Jonny’s business analogy. “Circle didn’t think that ‘conventional wisdom’ applied to them,” he explained.

Circle of Hope, like most churches, had no human resources department or handbook to follow, but by almost any standard, Ben’s behavior in the spring and summer of 2021—swearing, shouting, hanging up, hurling insults—was not acceptable. When Ben accused Jonny of “brokering power,” Jonny argued that there was nothing wrong with doing so. He felt that his efforts to “amass power” by holding meetings, building consensus, and influencing leaders were means by which people of color fomented necessary change.

“If you want to make a change, you’ve got to collect power,” Jonny said. Later, he reflected, “I think quite honestly I’ve learned to build power as a person of color. But as a white guy, Ben never had to—he always had the political power without realizing.”

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