Can Thinking Small Change the World?...Continued from page 1

He is absolutely correct. The Nazi’s “final solution” did not emerge out of a vacuum nor was it the idea of one madman; it was the belief of many who had slowly come to embrace ideas, which had emerged decades before. In essence, they had already been inculcated with a view of reality that would justify their barbarism. Consistent with Penn’s findings, these monstrous ideas did begin small and they certainly changed the world!

If Penn’s conclusions are correct then perhaps the Church should be encouraged and rethink its approach to society and culture. Apparently, small things do matter. If one percent is all that is needed to “change the world,” that is only 3 million people required to change America. That is less than the total audience for this weekly commentary! What if every reader determined that from this day forward we were going to live completely for Christ, following his example to truly love our neighbors? What if every one of us taught our children and the children of the church to understand all of reality in connection with the revealed Word of God, so that they might form a consciously Christian worldview? What if we then raised these children to fulfill the dominion mandate—pressing these truths about reality into the cultural arenas of philosophy, science, ethics, education and law—shaping the nation’s sexual ethics, society’s estimation of marriage, and defining human dignity?

What if we were simply faithful in the small things beginning with ourselves? Would this change the world? It did beginning in the first century and it has been ever since, as the Church has spread across the globe, being faithful, one by one, to take this new understanding of reality as revealed through the story and person of Jesus.

© 2007 by S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture. The Center for Christ & Culture is dedicated to renewal and discipleship within the Church and works to equip Christians with an intelligent and thoroughly Christian approach to matters of culture in order to recapture and demonstrate the relevance of Christianity to all of life. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, additional resources and other works by S. Michael Craven visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.