Is changing one man worth the effort?
The story is told of the boy on the sea shore who was throwing fish that was washed to the shore, back to the ocean. As he threw them back into the sea, one by one, a stranger came by and criticized him citing the time it will take to finish. The boy was quick to say that for one, its makes a World of difference for this one, I’m just trying a difference and it’s well worth it. The concept of changing the world circles around changing the prevailing culture. Hunter clearly states that to understand how to change the world, one must understand what is to be changed and it all hinges on how we understand the nature of culture.[1] Hunter goes on to describe culture as the accumulation of values and the choices made by individuals on the basis of of these values and wonders why the American public culture is so profoundly secular in its character yet the greatest number of religious people and the greatest vitality of religious observers tend to be evangelical and orthodox catholic.[2] It is clear that as Christians, we’re by calling obligated to engage the world in pursuit of God’s restorative purposes over all of life which involves changing the world.[3]While we would desire to see the whole world changed, we encounter the challenge that it’s not possible to do it all at once and within a short amount of time. There are many dynamics to consider and Hunter contends that change happens one person at a time through the change of heart and therefore their values by becoming a Christian. It would therefore take the Christian to work hard, to pray and increase their efforts at evangelicalism to bring many to faith and therefore bring the desired change. If this is the case, is it that the Christians in America and other parts of the world are not Christian enough and are not praying and working hard enough to influence the culture, why does the public culture remain so profoundly secular and why is the influence of minority groups like the gay community felt more. Hunter challenges the common view that we can change the world just by the pursuit of evangelism, influencing politics by election Christians and through social action to influence values which he calls idealism [4] as it ignores the institutional nature of culture and the way culture is embedded in the structures of power.
Hunter who is a social theologian invites us to understand that culture is as much an infrastructure as it is ideas and takes shape in institutional form. Culture thus has to be viewed not only as a normative order reflected in well-established symbols but also as the organization of human activity surrounding the production, distribution, manipulation and distribution of these symbols.[5] One has to understand that ideas are good but you also have to understand the nature, workings and power of the institutions in which these ideas are generated and managed. Culture is therefore a thing, manufactured not by individuals but by institutions such as the market, the state, education, the media of mass communications, scientific and technological research, and the family.[6]
If change is to happen we have to rethink power by disentangling the life and identity of the church from the life and identity of the society.[7] Jesus rejected the status and reputation associated with the social power institutions of his day and the privileges that accompany them and were therefore called to do the same.[8] Rather than approaching change from an individual point of view, changing one person at a time, we should also seek to change the institutions if we are to achieve effective change. This seems so much to agree with the seven mountains approach advocated by Bill Bright of Campus Crusade and Loren Cunningham of Youth with a Mission (YWAM). They advocated bringing change to a nation by reaching its seven spheres or mountains that influence culture which they identified as religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business. Change has therefore to be given an institutional approach. In still belief that as Christians we have to practice our spiritual discipline with diligence in order to be effective at reaching both the individual and to effectively influence the institutions.
[1] James Davison Hunter (2010). To Change The World:The Irony, Tragedy, And Possibility Of Christianity In The Modern World. Oxford University Press, New York, 2010. USA.
[2] Ibid….pg 19
[3] Ibid….page 4
[4] Ibid……pg 27
[5] Ibid…..pg 34
[6] Ibid…..pg 34
[7] Ibid…184
[8] Ibid…..189
About the Author
Wallace Kamau
Wallace is a believer in Christ, Married to Mary Kamau (Founder and Executive Director of Missions of Hope International) and father to 3 Wonderful children, Imani Kamau (Graduate student at London School of Economics, UK), Victory Kamau (Undergraduate student at Portland state University, Oregon, USA) and David Kamau ( Grade student at Rosslyn Academy). Founder and Director, Missions of Hope International (www.mohiafrica.org), CPA, BAchelor of Commerce (Accounting) from University of Nairobi, Masters of Arts (Leadership) from Pan African Christian University.10 responses to “Is changing one man worth the effort?”
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Thank you, Wallace. I appreciate your reference to the boy on the sea shore. Hunter gives a broad strategy for “faithful presence” to bring change and your story reminds us that we must have a both/and perspective. We need a broad strategy for adaptive change yet we can never lose sight of the importance of influencing the one with the love of Christ.
Thank you Tammy, we have to be both spontaneous and intentially strategic in maintaining the ‘faithful presence’.
Thank you for your insight Wallace! I have always loved the story of the seashore…though I have always heard it as Starfish 🙂 I wonder whether the whole discussion around strategy actually could benefit from some balancing. The discussion has centred around external impact, but are we not perhaps invited to these faithful moves also as worship? That is I toss the fish back into the sea so that I become more faithful, more connected to Jesus, to claim my identity as ‘a living sacrifice offered to God.’ That whether we impact a single person, or an intire system, my faithful act is meant to be worship in and of itself and the one primarily transformed must first be me. If our actions are worship, then they also become aimed at transforming the spiritual forces at work in our world. Thus if we can do both, we can impact both realms, but if we fail at the earthly level, perhaps we are even more impactful in a spiritual realm as we had to it a huge amount of humility —which persists in disarming the enemy. Do you think it makes sense to examine this from a supernatural level or do you think influence in the natural is consistently linked to influence in the supernatural? Bless you my brother.
Thank you Jenn for bringing this aspect of transforming others as an act of worship which I believe it is. When you act in the natural out of your Faith in God that makes it a spiritual act of Worship and as Hunter calls it, the faithful presence.
Wallace, when you talk about the seven mountains, I think of my co-worker whose wife passed away last year shortly before we came to Hong Kong. She was a manager at our agency as well and a strong Christian. Her funeral was attended by most of the upper management of the agency. It shows she had a profound effect on the agency just being a person of high integrity. Everyone talked about how great her funeral was, and how she touched so many people. Did she change the culture of the agency? Maybe not, but she certainly changed the lives of the people working there every day and maybe that is all we can hope for, to touch the lives within the culture.
It’s very true Mary, we can can touch lives by living our faith everyday in the stations that God has placed us.
Thanks for sharing your blog, Wallace. I loved your ‘kick off story’ about the boy making a difference – one person at a time. I’ve actually used that story in a previous post as well. I appreciated your statement that as Christians, ‘we’re by calling obligated to engage the world in pursuit of God’s restorative purposes over all of life which involves changing the world.’ Anytime a Christian can make a difference in the world through action, not just word, we are serving God’s purpose. This is similar to the Good Samaritan parable in the Bible. Let’s all strive to make that happen!
Thank you Nancy, I agree that we should continue making a difference wherever we are, its well worth it for the glory of God.
Wallace, Thanks so much for a well thought out and presented post. What ideas come up for you in your context, to influence both the corporate institution as well as the individual/family? While I affirm Hunter’s arguments and the challenge of faithful presence for the duration, I am curious about the corporate institution impact. Thanks again for your thoughts and your post.
Thank you Harry, my thoughts take me to the church involment in education, health and other services as a means of outreach. Most of the best schools and hospitals in our context are run by Churches and faith based organizations, a case in point are our schools, health Centre’s and The Microfinance programs where we share the Gospel as we directly meet people’s needs. I believe we are maintain a faithful presence in the vulnerable communities and we have seen countless lives being transformed. Another example is in the media industry where we have several media house that are owned and run by churches and are maintaining their faithful presence in that industry.