Editorial: Small, world-changing faith

In these pages (June 2017 issue of The Christian Chronicle ) you’ll find plenty of reasons to despair.

June 2017  Violence grips the city of Chicago, taking the life of a beloved judge, a song leader in his congregation. In Venezuela, a man-made economic crisis has former professors scavenging for food. Opioid addiction ravages our communities. Police shootings threaten to divide us along racial lines. Studies show our young people giving up on church.

And it’s tornado season.

We report on Christians’ responses to these challenges. But their humble efforts seem so small, so inconsequential to the tide of sorrow that grips this world.

How can we expect to make even the slightest difference?

And yet, we see transformed lives in the midst of the storm. A couple from Venezuela has “renovated” faith thanks to a church in Colombia. In Canada, a tiny congregation is helping heal old wounds caused by mistreatment against the nation’s indigenous people.

At times like this, we remember the words of anthropologist and author Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

That change is possible only through God, who uses our small, seemingly weak efforts to shame the strong, to make a lasting difference — one soul at a time.
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