Think of Reformation on a Local Level and on a Small Scale

by Stuart DiNenno

If you are a Christian man who recognizes the appallingly low state of Christianity in America, or wherever you may be, and you want to help reform the church (something I believe we all should be trying to do), you should understand that you need not think of reformation in grand terms. In fact, you are better off not doing so.

If you imagine reformation as something that happens only on a national or international scale, then you will tend to see it as an impossible task. The scope of such a work is so enormous that it is too much for the individual to grasp, let alone act upon. However, if you consider reformation on a small or local level, perhaps with your existing friends or the people in your neighborhood, then it becomes a much more manageable task, something that you can actually envision yourself accomplishing.

Rather than thinking about how you can change the world, think about trying to turn your neighborhood into a little biblically reformed church, which is the way churches were always meant be anyway. Just a few generations ago, and for every generation prior to that, everyone gathered with the church in his immediate locality, and most people would have been able to walk to their meeting place. This is Christian community, which we have lost and need to restore.

Do not despise the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10). A tiny spring of water flows into other little springs and together they become a stream that pours into other streams until they all unite to become a mighty river. In the same way, reformation can start as a little trickle here and there until it becomes a torrent that overflows everything.

Try to be the source of one little spring in your neighborhood. God may turn it into a flood.