Thinking Locally – WORLD MAGAZINE

Another article from our “Magazine Monday” came from World Magazine.  Mindy Belz details a trend that continues toward our roots.

At New Life, our vision is to “Reclaim Family and Empower Households to Change the World“

How does one go about changing the world exactly?  This article is an excellent overview of the need to think locally.  Start with a small group … build momentum and add a larger group … from that group begin to influence and spread until it is reaching the world.

Hey, you know what … that sounds like Jesus’ plan …

Or turn to the New Testament and think of Peter, James, and John—the disciples (part of the 12) arguably closest to Jesus. Working outward, Jesus sent 72 disciples in pairs in Luke 10, and at Pentecost 120 believers gathered in Jerusalem to await the Holy Spirit. “Through these concentric circles of men and women,” writes Crouch, “the kingdom’s distinctive cultural good like parables, deeds of miraculous power, and new ways of organizing everything . . . reshape the cultural horizons.”

Belz refers to a book by Andy Crouch Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling in which he proports that all culture making is local.

“Every cultural good, whether a new word, law, recipe, song or gadget, begins with a small group of people.” He insists: “A small group is enough.” This will be shocking news to those counting friends on Facebook.

Crouch dubs his formula for culture-making “The 3, the 12, and the 120″ suggesting those are the optimal numbers for concentric circles of influence. The most obvious biblical examples are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From them the Judaic culture widens to Jacob’s 12 sons and then to their families, the 120. Think of the world-shaping changes to geography, politics, government, architecture, philosophy, music, literature, and visual arts that flowed from those few.

I had to think of the dreams my own kids have and the dreams/callings that are evident in the kids in your homes as well.  Or what about our own dreams/desires/callings to “Change the World” … what will we do with the “big ideas”?  According to Belz .. begin locally!

So, want to start a school, plant a church, run a soup kitchen, open a bakery, make a movie, change your community’s perception of Christians, treat cancer, protect marriage, petition city council, launch a rock band, create a website, develop land, improve a city? Want to aim wide, invent the next social network, be president, solve gridlock, cure cancer, retrofit the multiplex? The pattern of the 3, the 12, and the 120 is good news to all. Faced with the immensity and impersonal nature of mass culture, we don’t have to retreat, as Crouch says, into “postures ranging from condemnation to consumption.” At the same time, there’s no going it alone. Take two like-minded companions, add a dozen experts and loyalists. Watch what happens

Read the entire article from WORLD MAGAZINE here.